Dear Colleague,
 
It gives me great pleasure to send you this, the second 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:

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

Thoughts from the Vice-President ...

 
Dear Colleagues,

The New Year brings with it many changes. Not least for me personally, in that I write for the first time in my new role as the EFCE's Scientific Vice-President. Having been elected twelve months ago, I have had plenty of time to get a flavour of the work awaiting me - and I can only say there are exciting, perhaps turbulent, times ahead.

I come to this position via participation in the EFCE working party on Mechanics of Particulate Solids, first as a delegate, and then for the last six years as its chairman. The role of the working parties and sections are central to the future success of EFCE. They must be nurtured, supported and encouraged, because if we cannot generate professional value through their activities, then I believe that EFCE will have failed its purpose.

Some of you may have noticed that last year EFCE started work on developing a new strategic plan for its activities. We are currently carrying out a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis on our organisation. Assisted by Dr. Meier from the Frankfurt General Secretariat, I contacted all working party chairmen seeking their views on the current state of EFCE - and perhaps more importantly, their hopes and expectations for the future . I am pleased that so many of them found the time to answer our questions. We received quite a number of very enlightening replies with opinions ranging from "EFCE is a total disaster!" to "Maybe EFCE needs some improvements, but let's keep going as we are".
One commonly stated strength - and also a weakness - of the EFCE was the almost completely voluntary nature of the work nowadays. Our survey revealed that the traditional arrangement where EFCE delegates are funded through their National Member Societies has almost completely broken down - "Have you asked your National Society for travel reimbursements lately?"

Another frequently quoted weakness is the very slow pace of the EFCE. Even routine Working Party matters such as the nomination of delegates can take several months, sometimes years, to complete. This is a severe limitation for the EFCE especially when it comes to addressing new trends and issues. I believe we need to address this, or else the EFCE will be left with "traditional issues" as the millennium proceeds. Of course, the new "megatrends" are not the only thing worth pursuing, and we have seen an interesting swing back in the scientific community from focusing almost entirely on the new and emerging, politically very fashionable fields to a new appreciation of the unit operations. It's still too early to tell whether this trend will reach the funding bodies, but surely the EFCE, its working parties and sections, can contribute to this process?

Many chairmen, particularly from smaller member countries, highlighted a potential new role for the EFCE. The Chemical Engineering profession needs a strong local European voice in Brussels as well as in the member states. In some countries, prominent national societies do an excellent job, but at a European level the voice of the profession is simply not being heard. And perhaps surprisingly, in some parts of Europe the American Institute of Chemical Engineers is the main international professional body that chemical engineers relate to. Without doubt the EFCE can do a better job at representing the views of the profession in Brussels and on a European level. I feel that there is a real opportunity here for the EFCE to add value for the profession.

Chemical Engineering - and EFCE - finds itself in very interesting times. We are experiencing a rapid re-evaluation of the social value of a clean environment and the role of the process industries and professions in making it happen. Whether chemistry and chemical engineering are perceived as part of the problem or as part of the solution will determine the direction taken by chemical engineering - scientifically and geographically. Once again, I feel we have a further opportunity for the EFCE to seize the initiative.

Looking at our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the EFCE, we are painfully aware of the challenges that lie ahead. The Executive Board will review our findings at its next meeting in Italy in March. I anticipate that a plan of action will emerge and this will be shared with you in our next e-newsletter.

However, I am sure that we will meet the challenges together and I conclude by saying that it is a privilege to become Scientific Vice-President at a time when our collective efforts can make a real difference.

Dr. Hermann J. Feise
EFCE Scientific Vice-President

Who's Who

EFCE Presidency and Vice-Presidency
At its last meeting in September 2007 in Copenhagen, the EFCE General Assembly unanimously confirmed Prof. Jiri Drahos and Prof. John Garside in their positions of EFCE President and Executive Vice-President, respectively, for a second term of office from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009.
On 1 January 2008, Dr. Hermann J. Feise, BASF SE, Germany, succeeded Prof. Ryszard Pohorecki in the position of Scientific Vice-President of the Federation.

New Executive Board members
The General Assembly elected the Executive Board members for the next three-year term of office from 1 January 2008. They are as follows: Dr. Wridzer Bakker,The Netherlands, Prof. Vladimir Bales, Slovak Republic, Prof. Jiri Drahos, Czech Republic, Prof. Miguel A. Galan, Spain, Prof. Rafiqul Gani, Denmark, Prof. John Garside, United Kingdom, Prof. Bozenna Kawalec-Pietrenko, Poland, Prof. Zeljko Knez, Slovenia, Dr. Ching Pong Mak, Switzerland, Prof. Sauro Pierucci, Italy, Dr. Jochen Rudolph, Germany, Prof. Dimitrios Tassios, Greece.

Change of Chairmanship of EFCE Working Parties and Sections
In September 2007, Prof. Sebastiao Feyo de Azevedo, University of Porto, Portugal, succeeded Dr. Martin Molzahn, in the position of chair of the Working Party on Education for a period of three years.
Prof. José Coca, University of Oviedo, Spain, was elected the new chairman of the Section on Separation Technology from 1 January 2008. He succeeded Prof. Ryszard Pohorecki, the first chairman of the Section, who held this position for six years.

EFCE Award

EFCE Excellence Award in Industrial Crystallization - Call for nominations
The Federation is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the first Excellence Award in Industrial Crystallization. It aims at recognising PhD Theses or publications of young researchers which demonstrate the most outstanding contribution to crystallization in the process industries. This prestigious award comprises a cash award of 1500 Euros and a travel grant to attend the 17th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization (ISIC 17), in Maastricht, NL, from 14 to 17 September 2008. The award winner will be honoured during a special plenary session of ISIC 17 and given the opportunity to present his work at the conference. Nominations may be submitted by PhD supervisors at a PhD-awarding institution in an EFCE member country, or members of a national or regional member association of EFCE. The nominated PhD thesis or publication must have been published during the three calendar years preceding the closing date for nominations. The deadline for submission of nominations is 30 April 2008.( more ... )

Events

ESCAPE-18
18th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, Lyon, France, 2 - 4 June 2008 (EFCE Event No. 667)
The main theme for ESCAPE-18 is CAPE for the Users! CAPE systems are to be put in the hands of end users who need functionality and assistance beyond the core scientific and technological capacities of the systems. User-friendliness, online or web-based advice, decision support, knowledge management and organisational issues are important points that must be taken into account when deploying a CAPE system. These issues will be addressed in a special track and industrial case studies illustrating CAPE methods and tools are encouraged. The Awards programme at ESCAPE-18 includes a Lifetime Achievement Award (see item "Science and Technology") and an EFCE Excellence Award. For further details please visit the Symposium website at http://www.escape18.org

CHISA 2008
18th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 - 28 August 2008, (EFCE Event No. 672)
CHISA 2008 covers a range of important topics and will offer many real interdisciplinary links. In addition to the general topics and a number of specialised symposia, the PRES 2008 conference, the 8th European Symposium on Electrochemical Engineering and the exhibition MARCHES will be held in conjunction with CHISA.
The Second Circular with the preliminary programme and registration form for participation will be available in March 2008. More information is available at the Congress website http://www.chisa.cz/2008

ISIC 17
17th International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 14 - 18 September 2008 (EFCE Event No. 665)
Since 50 years ISIC providing a forum for presentations and debate on the latest advances in theory and practice of industrial crystallization. To address new challenges like crystallization of large organic molecules, production of pure crystals from complex mixtures and manufacturing of crystalline nano-particles deep understanding of fundamental aspects of crystal growth must be coupled with innovative engineering solutions. Hence ISIC 17 is incorporating the 8th Crystal Growth of Organic Materials workshop.
An EFCE Excellence Award for the best PhD thesis in industrial crystallization will be presented for the first time (see item "EFCE Awards") as well as book-prizes for the best lecture and the best poster presented by PhD-students. For further details please visit the Symposium website at http://www.ti.kviv.be/conf/isic17

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, Biotechnology, and Curriculum
The Call for Papers will open March 1, 2008, and will close December 1, 2008.
More information can be obtained from the Congress website at http://www.wcce8.org

Science and Technology

CAPE Working Party News
The EFCE Working Party for Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) supports and promotes CAPE research by providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of new ideas and developments, preparing state-of-the-art reviews of CAPE methods and tools, and inspiring new projects to meet emerging opportunities.
After six years of very successful chairmanship Professor Rafiqul Gani of Technical University of Denmark (chairman) and Professor David Bogle, University College London (vice-chairman), reached the end of their term. At the conference ESCAPE-17 in Bucharest, Romania, May 27-30, 2007, Professor Andrzej Kraslawski of Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, was elected as the new chairman and Professor Georges Heyen, University of Liège, Belgium, as the new vice-chairman of the Working Party.
Currently the CAPE Working Party consists of 43 delegates from 23 countries and 8 invited members.
The CAPE Working Party co-organises the well-known yearly events where the latest developments within CAPE and CAPE-related fields are presented - the European Symposium of Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE) and young researchers conference CAPE-Forum. The ESCAPE series conferences are the major events in the field of CAPE usually attracting around 250 to 350 participants from more than 40 countries. The CAPE Forum events have usually around 50 participants from more than 10 countries. The next conference, ESCAPE-18 will take place in Lyon, France, June 1-4, 2008, http://www.escape18.org/. The hosts for ESCAPE-19 (2009) will be Krakow, Poland. The CAPE Forum in 2008 is organised February 7-8, in Thessaloniki, Greece http://cape.cperi.certh.gr/index.html.
The CAPE Working Party is organising the common workshops and courses with various Committees (e.g. European Committee for Computers in Chemical Engineering Education EURECHA) and other EFCE WPs. For example, the course "Modelling and Simulation in Process Intensification" will be held together with the Working Party on Process Intensification in Lappeenranta, Finland, June 9-11, 2008.
The CAPE Working Party is involved in selection and evaluation of candidates for EFCE Excellence Award in Recognition of Outstanding PhD Thesis on CAPE. The award is given once every two years. The winner of this year edition of the Award will be announced at the ESCAPE-18 conference in Lyon.
CAPE WP is also organising a process of nomination for CAPE Long Term Achievement Award. This award is given once every four years in recognition for the outstanding contributions to CAPE. The results will be announced at the ESCAPE-18 conference. The deadline for submission of the candidates is 31 March 2008. Please address all the inquires as well as submit the nomination documents to Professor Andrzej Kraslawski ().

Third CPD&D Symposium during ECCE-6
The EFCE Section on Chemical Product Design and Engineering organised its third European Symposium in parallel to the 6th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (ECCE-6, Copenhagen 16-20 September 2007). The meeting combined topics on both product design and product-focused process design and development activities with a total number of 27 oral presentations (including 2 keynotes) and 26 posters. The presentations and posters clearly highlighted the breadth of the CPD&E discipline covering new bio-based and synthetic materials, new formulation approaches and new product manufacturing technologies. Educational aspects of CPD&E were covered in 4 separate oral presentations as part of the ECCE-6 education theme. The total number of contributions and the attendance during this symposium compared to the previous events in Granada (Spain, 2003) and Groningen (Netherlands, 2004) clearly indicated the growing interest in the discipline.
In this respect it is worthwhile to mention that members of the Section participate in the realisation of two forthcoming product-engineering meetings in Springfield, (Massachusetts, 22-25 June 2008, USA) and Montreal (the 4th EFCE CPD&E Symposium in parallel to the next World Chemical Engineering Congress, August 2009, Canada). In between these meetings, a separate workshop on educational aspects will be organized in parallel to the next CHISA meeting (Prague, 25-29 August 2008, Czech Republic).

News from the Member Societies / related organisations

EPSC News
Prompted by the Baker Panel report into the major explosion at BP Texas City, The European Process Safety Centre (EPSC) convened a group of its members in January 2007 to share opinion on the impact of Mergers & Acquisitions on the management of process safety. Although not in itself specifically related to safety there is an over riding sense that a badly handled acquisition can increase the odds of a major accident happening. It is generally acknowledged that whilst fast changing enterprises are disposed to facing the future they would also be wise to face up to the "unfinished business" related to the integration of previously acquired organisations or so called "heritage companies" - a term which has now found currency in industry since the Baker Panel report and in a sense and for the first time legitimises a corporate assessment of past purchases.
EPSC members agreed that the influence of process safety during the due diligence process is modest although some members believe that they have identified deal breakers in such audits. However process safety considerations must play a part in the price paid for an acquisition and should also feature prominently in the post acquisition integration of the combined business. As a consequence the budget to harmonise safety standards across the business must be known as soon as possible in order to allow for effective planning and implementation. One of the often voiced frustrations is that an acquired site or facility may not feature in the long term plans of the combined business. These non strategic assets or "orphan" sites are in effect isolated from significant investment whilst a decision is awaited on their future. Clearly the longer the wait for a decision to be reached, the greater the uncertainty, and rarely is this an ideal work environment in which to operate, especially for a high hazards site.
As far as the integration of strategic assets into the business, the EPSC group felt that a maximum of three years to achieve a reasonable level of harmonisation across the business was sensible. In other words the impact of an acquisition on the management of major accident hazards should be much reduced after three years with the correct level of planning & resource.

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.