The October issue of CJCE features new additions to several ongoing special series: Conversations in Chemical Engineering, Experimental Methods in Chemical Engineering, and Process Safety special series.

This month’s Editor’s Choice is an open access article that is a part of the recent Process Safety Special Series: “Protecting oil storage tanks against floods: Natech risk assessment with imprecise probabilities” by Alireza Dehghanisanij, Nima Khakzad, Ernesto Salzano, and Paul Amyotte. In the study reported in this article, “evidence theory, as an effective technique for dealing with imprecise probabilities, and Bayesian network, as an effective tool for reasoning under uncertainty, are combined to develop a methodology for risk analysis of Natechs based on imprecise probabilities with no attempt to increase the precision of the input data but the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of the outcomes.”

The second issue highlight is another special series article, this time from the Experimental Methods in Chemical Engineering Special Series: “Experimental methods in chemical engineering: Monte Carlo” by  Ergys Pahija, Soonho Hwangbo, Thomas Saulnier-Bellemare, and Gregory S. Patience. This open access mini review provides an excellent overview of Monte Carlo (MC) methods, its history, theory, and applications, and looks specifically at two applications within chemical engineering: emissions and energy forecasting.

The third issue highlight from the October issue is a new open access addition to the Pathways to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions Special Series: “Data-driven battery capacity estimation using support vector regression and model bagging under fast-charging conditions” by Yixiu Wang, Qiyue Luo, Liang Cao, Arpan Seth, Jianfeng Liu, Bhushan Gopaluni, and Yankai Cao. This study aims to “develop a more versatile machine learning model (i.e., support vector regression [SVR]) capable of estimating battery capacity under fast-charging conditions, with broader applicability across various work conditions.” Using genetic algorithm and cross-validation techniques, “feature extraction hyperparameters and SVR hyperparameters” are “optimized” and the model is “validated on a cycling dataset of lithium-ion batteries under different two-stage fast-charging conditions.”

In the final featured article of this issue, another from the Process Safety Special Series, “Decoupling pyrolysis and combustion of organic powders to determine the laminar flame speed”, authors Matteo Pietraccini, Audrey Santandrea, Pierre-Alexandre Glaude, Anthony Dufour, and Olivier Dufaud examine “three complementary experimental setups to measure the laminar flame speed of organic dust (here, cellulose): a modified Hartmann tube, a 20 L sphere, and a micro-fluidized bed (MFB) burner.” As a result, the “discrepancy between the laminar flame speed determined in the sphere or in the tube and that obtained in the MFB highlights the significant influence of particle heating and pyrolysis during a dust explosion.” Be sure to explore this article this month while it is free-to-read.

CJCE’s latest virtual issue is live and free-to-read as well: The Global Scope of Process Safety Research. This virtual issue comprises articles published in 2023 and 2024 from CJCE’s recent Process Safety Special Series focused on global research aiming to make chemical process industries safer for workers and the public. Be sure to access this issue and explore exiting recent research from around the world in the process safety field.