CJCE’s August Issue features the Process Design in Chemical Engineering CFD Symposium Special Issue Section organized by guest editors José Roberto Nunhez, Harry Van den Akker, and Vivek Vinayak Ranade from State University of Campinas, Brazil, and University of Limerick, Ireland. This special issue section comprises selected papers presented at the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Symposium “Process Design in Chemical Engineering” as part of the 11th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (WCCE11) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 4–8 June 2023. The guest editors hope this special issue section will help “stimulate further work on CFD”. Be sure to check it out!
This month’s Editor’s Choice article is an open access review article that is a part of the ongoing Conversations in Chemical Engineering Special Series: “Chiral nematic cellulose nanocrystal composites: An organized review” by Kevin J. De France of Queen’s University. In this article, the author introduces “the basics of liquid crystals and self-assembly” and “discusses the main approaches used in order to form CNC-based composite films: co-assembly, templating, and post-processing, and highlights exceptional examples in each case.”
The second issue highlight is another special series article, this time from CJCE’s Process Safety Special Series: “A graph-based optimization methodology for identifying firefighting strategies aimed at domino effects” by Nima Khakzad, Ernesto Salzano, and Paul Amyotte. This article addresses firefighting strategies at process plants, namely when firefighting resources are not sufficient, there is a need for firefighters to “decide which burning units to suppress first and which exposed units to cool first to minimize the risks.” In this study, “after modelling fire spread in a tank terminal as a directed graph, closeness centrality—a graph centrality metric—is used to identify the critical units from the viewpoint of their contribution to potential domino effects”. In addition, “Knowing the critical units and considering available firefighting resources for suppression and cooling of these units, mathematical programming is applied for optimal allocation of firefighting resources.”
The third issue highlight from the August issue is another open access article: “Performance evaluation of biodegradable polymer PHBV and PBAT blends with adjustable melt flow behaviour, heat deflection temperature, and morphological transition.” In this article, authors Peter Zytner, Akhilesh Kumar Pal, Amar K. Mohanty, and Manjusri Misra from University of Guelph discuss melt blending and within the study used “additives (peroxides and epoxy-based chain extender) to compatibilize the biodegradable polymers poly(hydroxy-3-butyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) in a 60:40 blending ratio.” The results of the study have implications for finding alternatives to single-use plastics.
In the final featured article of this issue, a review article titled “An overview of metals extraction and recovery from industrial wastewater sludge”, authors M. Al-Mutair, Rajeev Kumar, Bandar A. Al-Mur, Olfat A. Mohamed, and M. A. Barakat examine “the technologies currently applied for extracting and recovering heavy metals from industrial wastewater sludge.” Within the article, “The technologies have been explained, and the merits and demerits of methods, as reported in past investigations, have been highlighted.” According to the authors, this review “may be considered a valuable source of information for environmentally friendly and cost-effective methods for metal recovery from industrial wastewater sludge.” Be sure to explore this article while it is free-to-read for a limited time!
Have you accessed CJCE’s latest virtual issue yet? If not, be sure to do so soon while it is free-to-read until August 23rd! In this virtual issue, Resonating Research: Editors’ Picks, several CJCE Associate Editors have selected top articles published in CJCE in 2023/2024. These articles have been selected for presenting innovative research addressing critical issues and solutions for current challenges; for communicating novel approaches and applications of principles and methods; and for comprising research that is versatile and has broad applications.
A number of comprehensive review articles have also been selected as they will serve as valuable reference guides or databases for early career and established chemical engineers alike.
Explore this virtual issue to gain insight into the latest research that CJCE Associate Editors believe will have a resonating effect on the chemical engineering field. Look out for another upcoming virtual issue with selections from more of CJCE’s Associate Editors.