Dear Colleague,
 
It gives me great pleasure to send you this issue of the EFCE e-newsletter on recent activities within the Federation. I do hope that the information will be of interest to you. If there are any topics that you would like to see covered in future issues please get in touch.

Yours sincerely

John Garside
EFCE Executive Vice-President
 

        In this issue:

• A word from the Executive Vice-President
• Who's Who
• EFCE Awards
• Events
• Science and Technology
• News from the Member Societies/related organisations
• Contacts/Imprint

A word from the Executive Vice-President

 
Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to this edition of the EFCE e-newsletter! As Executive Vice-President one of my re-sponsibilities concerns the finances of the Federation and it may be helpful to explain a little about these in this issue.
The income to the Federation arises from two main sources. First, all member societies of the Federation pay an annual fee which is related to their size. This strand brings in about 20,000 Euros per annum and provides a steady source of income. The second main source of income arises from the levy on delegates to all EFCE approved conferences and events, this being 10 Euros per head. This income source is very variable, depending as it does on the number of, and the attendance at, such conferences. As a result the total annual income to the Federation has varied rather widely and has been between 26,500 Euros and 43,100 Euros over the last 5 years.
Federation expenses cover items such as the cost of the newsletter, the Mobility and Excellence Awards for students, grants to the European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE), and Presidential travel and other expenses. Generally annual income has exceeded expenditure (always a healthy situation!) and as a result the Federation has now accumulated reserves of about 140,000 Euros.
The Executive Board has recently taken the view that reserves of this magnitude are unnecessary, maintaining a reserve amounting to about two year's expenditure being a prudent policy.
The Executive therefore agreed on a series of expenditure proposals with the objective of helping to increase the visibility and value of the EFCE to the chemical engineering community and to the general public, to help in improving communication within the EFCE, and to assist the Working Parties and Sections in developing and achieving the EFCE objectives. These initiatives include:

• Continuation of Student Mobility Awards, 3 being awarded every 2 years having the value of 2000 Euros, 1500 Euros and 1000 Euros plus up to 500 Euros travel expenses.
• An expanded range of Excellence Awards with the opportunity for every Working Party to award one such award at its regular international conference. The conditions for these awards should be broadly comparable for all Working Parties and their value should be standardised at 1500 Euros plus up to 500 Euros travel grant.
• A grant of 6000 Euros to each ECCE to support attendance of participants from EFCE member countries, allocation to be at the discretion of the congress organisers.
• A grant of 300 Euros per annum to each Working Party to contribute to the support of travel costs of Working Party delegates.
• The inclusion of vacant academic positions on the EFCE website.
• Establishment of an EFCE e-newsletter (this present issue being the third).

It was agreed that up to 20,000 Euros per annum be spent on the above activities, this amount to be derived from the annual EFCE budget and from the reserves that have been accumulated over the previous several years.
It is good to know that the Crystallization WP has recently selected their first Excellence Award winner, the Loss Prevention WP will soon award their first winner, while the CAPE WP is already making their third award. I hope that many more awards will follow.
Any further thoughts that you might have on these initiative, or others that you can suggest, would be welcome.

Professor John Garside
EFCE Scientific Vice-President

Who's Who

New Executive Board member

Dr. Andreas Knell, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland, replaced Dr. Ching Pong Mak as industrial member of the Executive Board, until the next formal election of the Executive Board.

Change of Chairmanship of EFCE Working Parties and Sections

During their last business meeting, the Working Party on Drying elected Prof. Patrick Perré, LERMAB-ENGREF, Nancy, France, to succeed Prof. Evangelos Tsotsas in the position of Chairman of the Working Party.

EFCE Award

Excellence Award in Crystallization 2008
EFCE has great pleasure in announcing, that Dr. Pedro Miguel da Silva Martins, University of Porto, Portugal, is the winner of the first EFCE Excellence Award in Crystallization. The award, which recognises his outstanding PhD thesis on "Modelling Crystal Growth from Pure and Impure Solutions - A Case Study on Sucrose" , will be presented to the prize winner during the 17th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization (ISIC 17) to be held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, from 14 to 18 September 2008. (more ... )
 
Carl Wagner Medal of Excellence in Electrochemical Engineering 2008
The Federation wishes to announce that Dr. Alexandros Katsaounis, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, and Prof. Christina Roth, TU Darmstadt, Germany, are this years two winners of the Carl Wagner Medal of the Excellence in Electrochemical Engineering awarded by the EFCE Working Party on Electrochemical Engineering. The award will be presented by the chairman of the Working Party, Prof. Symeon Bebelis, during the opening ceremony of the 8th European Symposium on Electrochemical Engineering (A Special Event of the CHISA Congress) on Monday, 25 August 2008.
 

Events

The following EFCE committee and Working Party/Section business meetings will be held in conjunction with CHISA 2008:
Sunday, 24 August: EFCE WP on Multiphase Fluid Flow (13:00 - 17:00 h)
Monday, 25 August: EFCE Executive Board meeting (13:30 - 18:00 h); EFCE Section on Membrane Engineering (14:00 - 18:00 h)
Tuesday, 26 August: EFCE Task Group on Public Relations (9:00 - 12:00 h); EFCE WP on Mixing (14:00-18:00 h); EFCE Section on Product Design and Engineering (14:00 - 18:00 h); EFCE WP on Electrochemical Engineering (18:00 - 20:00 h)
Wednesday, 27 August: EFCE WP on Process Intensification (9:00 - 12:30 h)
Thursday, 28 August: EFCE WP on Comminution and Classification (8:30 - 11:30 h); EFCE WP Drying (14:00 - 16:00 h)

ISIC 17
17th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 14 - 18 September 2008 (EFCE Event No. 665)
ISIC providing a forum for presentations and debate on the latest advances in theory and practice of industrial crystallization. Hence, ISIC 17 is incorporating the 8th Crystal Growth of Organic Materials workshop. For further details and registration please visit the Symposium website at http://www.ti.kviv.be/conf/isic17

CHEMREACTOR-18
XVIII International Conference on Chemical Reactors "CHEMREACTOR-18", Oracle Conference Centre of the New Dolmen Hotel, Malta, 29 September - 3 October 2008 (EFCE Event No. 673)
The four-day scientific programme will comprise the following topics: Kinetics of catalytic reactions, physico-chemical and mathematical fundamentals of the processes in chemical reactors, catalytic processes development and reactors design: modelling, optimisation, new catalyst application, catalytic technologies in fuel and energy production, and catalytic processing of renewable sources: fuel, energy, chemicals. Further details and the registration form are available at the conference website http://www-sbras.nsc.ru/ws/CR-18/index.en.html

Gas Processing Symposium
1st Gas Processing Symposium, Doha, Quatar, 10 - 12 January 2009 (EFCE Event No. 674)
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is now an important addition to the world's energy supply, and is becoming an increasingly critical factor impacting both economy and environment. The first annual symposium aims at bringing together key academic and industrial players to address the various challenges related to LNG. Further topics covered by the conference are gas processing applications and novel contributions to design, operation, process safety, environmental sustainability, education, and gas processing tools. For further details and registration please visit the conference website at http://www.gpa-gcc-chapter.org/PDF/AnnualGas-call.pdf

European Conference on Mixing
13th European Conference on Mixing, King's College London, UK, 14 - 17 April 2009 (EFCE Event No. 675)
The conference aims to provide a forum for both the formal presentation of the latest fluid mixing research findings, as well as for informal discussions between participants and contact between university- and industry-based researchers to stimulate debate and encourage incorporation of the latest research findings and methodology in mixing practice. Further details and the registration form are available at the conference website http://www.europeanmixing13.org

GDP-EPIC 2009
2nd International Congress on Green Process Engineering (GPE 2009) and 2nd European Process Intensification Conference Venice, Italy, 14 -17 June 2009 (EPIC 2009) (EFCE Event No. 678)
With the first edition of the EPIC 2007 (European Process Intensification Conference), the EFCE Working Party on Process Intensification (PI) has launched a new series of biannual European conferences focused on Process Intensification (PI). PI is a new approach to process and plant design that greatly contributes to increase the economic and environmental sustainability through resources minimization (energy and feedstock), improved environmental and safety performance. EPIC 2009 focuses primarily on illustrating and discussing how the interactions among phenomena, equipments, and operations can contribute to enhance the processing performance efficiency. EPIC 2009 will be jointly organized with GPE 2009 because the two conference objectives integrate themselves. While GPE mainly focuses on the processes and technologies that provide the tools for "green chemistry", EPIC tackles the methodologies and technologies that result in improved sustainability, efficiency and environmental performance.
The Call for Papers is now open. Deadline for submission of abstracts is 10 September 2008 . Please visit the congress website at http://www.GPE-EPIC2009.org
 
WCCE8
8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 23 - 27 August 2009
Congress overall theme: "Challenges for a Changing World."
The major themes are: Energy, Green Processing, New Materials and Processes, Biotechnology, Contemporary Topics in Chemical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering and Society. Examples of industrially-oriented program topics that will be of special interest to engineers working in industry include: Financing Industrial Research and Development, Process Intensification for Sustainable Manufacturing, XTL (X to Liquid), and Process Safety and Loss Management.
The Call for Papers opened on June 16, 2008 and will close November 30, 2008.
Abstracts can be sent through Hermes Conference Centre via the WCCE8 web site. Details are available at http://www.wcce8.org/call_for_papers_instructions.html.
View the full technical and industrial programs at http://www.wcce8.org or sign-up to recei ve more information on the congress at http://www.wcce8.org/onlineform.html
 

Science and Technology

Academic appointments on the EFCE website
It has been agreed to offer the opportunity of advertising academic positions on the EFCE website. Permanent or fixed-term teaching or research posts can be listed.
Copy for insertion can be sent to Ines Honndorf at DECHEMA () at any time. Ensure that a closing date for applications is included together with a link to the appropriate university web address that contains full details of the position.

News from the Member Societies / related organisations

 
EPSC News
EPSC is to hold an international conference on "Learning from Accident" on the 9/10 October 2008 in Antwerp, Belgium. Speakers include representatives from the Dutch Safety Board, Chemical Safety Board in the US as well as Andrew Hopkins, the EPSC Award 2008 winner. For the detailed programme and registration please click here http://www.epsc.org/data/files/Learning%20from%20Accidents/Programme.pdf

Contact

Editor: Christine Legrand, e-mail:

The statements and opinions expressed in the e-newsletter are those of the contributors and EFCE assumes no responsibility for them.