Exploring the potential landscape of chemical engineering science

Authors: Claire S Adjiman, Panagiota Angeli, André Bardow, Stacey F Bent, Nigel Brandon, Katie Galloway, Raymond J Gorte, Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez, Claudia Gutiérrez-Antonio, Marta C Hatzell, Michael C Jewett, Marlene Kanga, Michael Köpke, Markus Kraft*, Ung Lee, Yayuan Liu, Guanghui Ma, Ewa Marek, Massimo Morbidelli, Eranda Nikolla, Maria Papathanasiou, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park, Ingo Pinnau, Shi-Zhang Qiao, Vivek V Ranade, Luis Ricardez-Sandoval, Sindia M Rivera-Jiménez, Kirti Chandra Sahu, Berend Smit, Randall Q Snurr, Cíntia Soares, Kevin Solomon, Kazuhiro Takanabe, Xiaonan Wang, Fei Wei, Matthias Wesseling, Kathryn Whitehead, John M Woodley, Zaiku Xie, and Yushan Yan

Reference: Nature Chemical Engineering 2, 19-25, (2025)

Abstract

Modern chemical engineering is undergoing a marked phase transition. The field has built and dramatically expanded upon its roots in industrial process engineering over the past several decades; the pace of this transformation continues to grow in response to both scientific advances and time-sensitive societal and environmental challenges. This critical point provides an opportune moment to consider where the field and practice of chemical engineering may be heading, and what new science may again transform the field over the coming years. In this Feature, we sample this potential scientific landscape by asking 40 members of the community to share their perspectives on the most exciting opportunities that lie ahead for their respective topics. While our sample size is finite, this collective viewpoint captures a broad and diverse snapshot of the contemporary driving forces in chemical engineering practice.


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