Process Systems Engineering for Sustainable Energy and Chemicals

Dear Colleagues,

The chemical industry and energy sector are under real pressure to cut emissions and move away from fossil fuels. Process Systems Engineering (PSE) gives us the tools to model, simulate, and optimize processes so that sustainability goals can actually be met in practice, not just on paper.

This Topic is about applying PSE methods to real problems in energy and chemicals. Works on process design, systems analysis, and optimization that can help scale up new technologies, bring renewables into chemical production, and make better use of waste and by-products are welcome.

The following areas can be investigated:

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)

- Process design and scale-up for CO₂ capture

- CO₂ conversion to fuels and chemicals

- Supply chain and infrastructure planning

- Social LCA, LCA and techno-economic analysis

Sustainable energy and power-to-X

- Integrating renewables into chemical processes

- Power-to-gas, power-to-liquid, power-to-chemicals

- Energy storage and grid-scale optimization

- Energy system optimization

- Social LCA, LCA and techno-economic analysis

Circular economy and waste

- Chemical recycling of plastics and industrial waste

- Waste-to-energy and waste-to-chemicals

- Industrial symbiosis and by-product use

- Water and solvent recovery

- Sustainable production supply chains

- Social LCA and LCA and techno-economic analysis

Green hydrogen and alternative feedstocks

- Electrolyzer design and optimization

- Hydrogen transport, storage, and network design

- Biomass and bio-waste conversion

- E-fuels and synthetic fuels

- Social LCA, LCA and techno-economic analysis

Systems analysis and decision support

- Multi-objective optimization

- Handling uncertainty and robust design

- Digital twins and real-time optimization

- Machine learning for PSE problems

- Data-driven process monitoring and control

- Social LCA, LCA and techno-economic analysis

Dr. Grazia Leonzio
Dr. Sara Giarola
Topic Editors