[Donaldson Tan]

August 26-31, 2007
Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain
http://www.engconfintl.org/7bcabout.html

About This Conference
CRE XI, Green Chemical Reactor Engineering, will showcase the conception, development and implementation of novel, environmentally friendly technologies. Chemical reactor engineers will be pivotal in the discovery and implementation of new environmentally acceptable products and processes, safety strategies and policies, computer modeling for process control and process simulation. It is anticipated that key enablers to meeting these new challenges are going to be:



Catalysis Research Innovations are urgently needed on the design of catalysts promoting new reaction pathways with these discoveries leading to new green chemical processes and products. This research will involve original techniques for catalyst testing and molecular based reaction modeling. Most relevant applications in these areas are novel catalysts for the production of hydrogen, environmentally friendly fuels, synthesis gas, and oxygenates.

Biotechnology: Major progress is expected on biochemical reactor engineering and this as a consequence of recent advances in the area of genetics. These discoveries will have a definite impact on the synthesis and development of new pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, production of new agricultural products, novel bioreactor processes using animal, plant, insect cells, and so on.

Reactor Engineering for the 21st century: Chemical reactors, and more specifically catalytic reactors, offer ample opportunity for new concepts with superior performance. Thus, there is unique prospect for novel multiphase and multifunctional chemical reactors designed on the basis of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and targeted experimentation in mock-ups. This will lead to the synthesis of new materials, better use of natural resources, minimization of non-utilizable by-products, sensors and instrumentation. Excellent examples of these new types of reactors are both the multifunctional membrane reactors and the miniaturized micro reactor units.

Energy Technologies: Many inventions are expected in the area of new fuels that are more in tune with expected strict environmental regulations. New laws will motivate discoveries for the production of fuels from renewable resources such as agricultural waste and biosolids, and for the production of hydrogen for fuels cells. It is envisioned that these advances together with the important expected progress in fuel cell development and manufacturing will move us progressively, in the 21st century, from environmentally friendly carbon-based fuels to hydrogen.

Environmental Research: Mitigation of the effect of chemical process effluents in soil, air and water are at the forefront of society’s concerns. Thus, there is special opportunity for forward-looking innovation that will help minimize the impact of chemical processes. It is thus expected that novel reactors and catalysts, that will use renewable natural resources, such as solar energy, will be key contributors towards the implementation of these new technologies. Excellent examples of these new processes are the photocatalytic based reactors for water decontamination and air purification.

Recycling Processes and Products: Chemical processes and products are being examined in terms of the overall contribution to environmental impact and in terms of the complete cycle of utilization. In this context, waste reduction and reuse of end products, create new opportunity for innovative reactor engineering with these being based on new reaction pathways and original reactors.
 
As we move ahead through the first decade of the 21st Century, it is proposed to organize the CRE XI conference in Bilbao, Spain focusing on "Green Chemical Reactor Engineering". Plenary lectures will specifically reflect these challenges, visions and opportunities in green chemical reactor engineering. At least four plenary lectures of 60 minute duration each will be coordinated as part of the Technical Program, selected to reflect the specific Conference Themes:

Theme I: Green Chemistry and Environmental Reaction Engineering.
Theme II: Fuel cells. Operation and feed pretreatment technologies.
Theme III: Multifunctional-Microstructured Reaction Engineering.
Theme IV: Novel Experimental Reactors and Sensor Technologies.
Theme V: Nanochemical Reaction Engineering. Synthesis of Nanotubes
Theme VI: Molecular Modeling in Chemical Reaction Engineering
Theme VII: Reactor Engineering for Biomass Conversion.

The several plenary lectures planned for "CRE XI: Chemical Reactor Engineering Meeting The Challenges For New Technology" Conference of the ECI will be accompanied by short presentations of a significant number of refereed papers (5-10 min), combined with poster display of these presentations and plenary sessions for poster paper discussion. Papers will be refereed and selected on the basis of extended abstracts (250 words). There will also be workshops and other technical activities that will enhance and enrich the technical program.

Oral and Poster Presentations
The oral presentations will consist of both plenary lectures and short presentations of refereed papers. Each short presentation of refereed papers (5-10 min) will also be combined with a poster display of the presentation, and, in addition, there will be a number of sessions for poster papers only. Papers for plenary lectures, oral/poster combination, and poster-only will all be refereed and selected on the basis of extended abstracts (250 words). There will also be workshops and other technical activities that will enhance and enrich the technical program.

The oral /poster combined sessions will therefore represent a significant part of the conference program, since they offer the unique opportunity for focusing on specific topics of interest and expanding beyond the limitations of the conventional oral presentations by allowing very active participation and interaction among the participating industry, government and university representatives. The format of this conference has been selected based on previous successful experiences with several ECI conferences.

[Donaldson Tan]

I will be there this August.

Who else is coming?