Focus Attention on Structure, Interface and Multi-scale Issues to Open up New Mileage of Chemical Engineering
聚焦结构、界面与多尺度问题,开辟化学工程的新里程

Since 1990s along with the fast development of the computer technology and measurement instruments, the research of chemical engineering has been pushed progressively from the level of judgment by empirical regulations to the level of quantitative analysis by computer simulations. The research range of chemical engineering is extended to cover from observation and prediction of the micro-scale structure and interface to the system integration of the macro-scale equipment and plant. The principles and knowledge of chemical engineering are applied to from chemical engineering to process engineering for chemical conversion and physical transform such as in metallurgy, materials, energy source, environment, bioengineering. The scientists and engineers in chemical engineering profession are seeking the third mileage of the chemical engineering after the first mileage, unit operations, and the second mileage, transport process and chemical reaction engineering. The methodology of averaging, which is popularly used in chemical engineering, but neglects the influences of the heterogeneous multi-scale structure and interface, is the main reason of the large prediction error and the overwhelming difficulty in effective design and operation of chemical equipment. We should focus our attention on the structure, interface, and multi-scale issues, study the quantitative prediction theory and optimum control method for the multi-scale structure and interface, and establish the modeling for predicting the relationships among the multi-scale structure and interface, momentum transfer, heat transfer, mass transfer and chemical reaction. These efforts, combined with advanced calculating methods, computational fluid dynamics and computer simulation, may well solve the difficult problems in optimum control and scale-up of chemical processes and equipment, and catalyze the birth of the new mileage of chemical engineering.