Process Engineering: Process Design, Control, and Optimization

Dear Colleagues,

Process engineering stands as a cornerstone of modern industry, driving innovation and efficiency across a vast spectrum of sectors, from the chemical and petrochemical to pharmaceutical, food, and environmental industries. The continuous evolution of global challenges, including resource scarcity, environmental sustainability, and the demand for higher product quality and lower operational costs, places ever-increasing emphasis on advanced methodologies in process design, control, and optimization. These three pillars are intrinsically linked, forming a synergistic framework essential in developing, operating, and improving industrial processes. Effective process design lays the foundation for sustainable and economically viable operations, integrating fundamental principles with cutting-edge technological advancements. Consequently, robust process control strategies are crucial for maintaining desired operating conditions, ensuring safety, quality, and stability in dynamic environments. Finally, process optimization provides the tools to maximize performance, minimize resource consumption, and enhance profitability throughout the entire life cycle of a process.

This Special Issue, titled “Process Engineering: Process Design, Control, and Optimization” seeks high-quality works focusing on novel theoretical developments, computational methods, and practical applications in these critical areas. We invite contributions that advance the state of the art in designing new processes, enhancing the operability and safety of existing ones, and optimizing their performance under various constraints. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advanced process synthesis and design methodologies for novel and sustainable processes;
• Development and application of process modeling and simulation tools (e.g., steady state, dynamic, multi-scale) for chemical, biochemical, and physical processes;
• Innovative control strategies for complex process systems, including model predictive control, adaptive control, and robust control;
• Data-driven approaches for process monitoring, fault detection, and diagnosis;
• Optimization techniques for process operations, scheduling, and planning (e.g., mixed-integer programming, global optimization, heuristic methods);
• Integration of process design, control, and optimization for enhanced process performance and safety;
• Application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning in process engineering for design, control, and optimization;
• Techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and sustainability assessment of process systems;
• Process intensification and modular design for improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact;
• Optimization of supply chains and value chains in chemical and process industries.

Prof. Dr. Salvador Tututi-Avila
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• process design
• process control
• process optimization
• modeling and simulation
• process systems engineering
• sustainable processes
• chemical engineering
• industrial processes
• advanced control
• artificial intelligence