Chemical Reaction Engineering

Abstract

Dear Reader, It was a great pleasure to host the European Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ESCRE 2015) in Fürstenfeldbruck from the 27th to the 30th of October 2015. The conference was held under the auspices of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) and the Working Party on Chemical Reaction Engineering of EFCE. Almost six decades ago, in 1957, the first European Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ESCRE) was held in Amsterdam. After four symposia, the conference series turned into the International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ISCRE), held biannually from the early 70s on, alternating between Europe and America. Since 2002, ISCRE conferences are also held in Asia, last time in Bangkok in 2014. So, every six years, Europe will be hosting an ISCRE event; the next one in 2018 will take place in Florence. As venue the Fürstenfeld Abbey (in German: Kloster Fürstenfeld), which is a former Cistercian Monastery in Fürstenfeldbruck, 25 kilometers north-west of Munich, was chosen. The history of the monastery goes back to 1258 when it was officially founded. In 1263, it was moved to the present site near the town of Bruck (the former name of Fürstenfeldbruck). The abbey was one of the household monasteries of the Wittelsbachs. Particularly, the Abbey Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is said to be a masterpiece of the late Baroque in southern Germany. As umbrella for the conference the title “Chemical Reaction Engineering – Providing Tomorrow´s Solutions” was chosen. The unique venue served as home for more than 360 attendants from academia and industry all over the world for four days. We listened to inspiring and fascinating talks and learnt about new developments in various fields ranging from fundamental aspects to industrial applications. We gathered together at the posters and discussed research in detail. Traditionally, catalysis and reactor engineering play a dominant role, however, the field of polymer reaction engineering attracted a large number of contributions. A special focus was set also on energy-related topics such as the utilization of carbon dioxide and biomass conversion as well as photo- and electrochemical reaction engineering. This special issue contains a variety of papers based on prominent talks presented at ESCRE 2015. On behalf of the EFCE Working Party on Chemical Reaction Engineering and the organizing committee of ESCRE 2015, we would like to thank DECHEMA for the organization, the sponsors and exhibitors for their generous support, and all scientists, in particular the young ones and those coming from far away, for attending the symposium and spending their time with us. Last but not least, everybody should also remember Bavaria – the taste and feeling of its culture and tradition, in particular, when you attended the Bavarian Evening. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai-Olaf Hinrichsen Chairman of ESCRE 2015 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Elias Klemm Co-Chairman of ESCRE 2015