Creativity in process integration research, 2022 best paper, and an Elegy

College

Gokongwei College of Engineering

Department/Unit

Chemical Engineering

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability

Volume

7

First Page

1

Last Page

2

Publication Date

2-2023

Abstract

El-Halwagi and Manousiouthakis (1989) revolutionized process integration by demonstrating that the toolbox previously developed for enhancing industrial energy efficiency can be extended to a new array of applications by directly using the analogy between heat transfer and mass transfer. Subsequent developments over the next three decades led to the diversification of this subject area to address various emerging challenges (Klemeš et al. 2018). The question is how innovation in process integration can be sustained in the face of the well-documented global decline in revolutionary scientific work (Park et al. 2023). Aspiring researchers in this field can draw inspiration from Claude Shannon’s thoughts on human creativity (Shannon 1952). Other than the obvious prerequisites of intelligence, knowledge in the field, and passion for work, Shannon offers additional key problem-solving strategies for unlocking creativity:

  • Problem simplification

  • Problem restatement

  • Problem generalization

  • Problem structural analysis

  • Problem inversion 

Previous generations of process integration researchers have likely used some of these strategies in conceiving their most significant contributions. Developing proficiency in using these mental tricks can help immunize any researcher from the global contagion of scientific mediocrity reported by Park et al. (2023). It is conceivable that such immunity can bridge the gap to a future where scientific progress is augmented (or even automated) by artificial intelligence, but that remains a subject for a forthcoming editorial of Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability (PIOS).

In recent years, the world has seen two promising technological trends in the fight against climate change. Increased use of renewable energy (RE) raised hopes of a global transition towards the widespread generation of carbon–neutral electricity. At the same time, there is now a realistic prospect of electric vehicles (EVs) making internal combustion engine vehicles obsolete in the coming decades. Legislation has already emerged in some countries in support of such a transition. Coupled with the high level of RE penetration in the grid, EVs may play a key component in the decarbonization of the transport sector. However, RE and EV technologies are heavily reliant on non-renewable mineral resources. The massive global scale-up of their use can strain the supply of these minerals. Uneven geographic distribution of these resources may even cause future geopolitical crises, in the same way that petroleum has over the past half-century. Part of the solution will lie in using circular economy principles to optimize the recovery and recycling of these critical elements from waste. This year’s best paper award goes to Simsek et al. (2022), who report the development of an optimization model to facilitate the recycling of rare elements in electronic waste products. We have selected their work out of the 75 papers published in this journal in 2022, as a prime example of how computing techniques can be developed to address contemporary environmental issues. Congratulations to the authors for their excellent contribution to PIOS.

Finally, we are saddened to announce that the renowned process integration guru, Prof. Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, passed away in January of this year following a bout of illness. Prof. Klemeš was one of the editors-in-chief of the Journal of Cleaner Production and the editor of the Handbook of Process Integration, whose second edition was published recently (Klemeš 2022). He was the founder of the highly successful PRES (Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction) conferences, and was a key node in a global network of process integration researchers working jointly to save the planet. He leaves behind a substantial scientific footprint that emphasizes the link between process integration and sustainability. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

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Disciplines

Chemical Engineering

Keywords

Systems integration; Robust optimization

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