News & Comment

Wastes can be leveraged for decarbonization, provided we know how to think about them, argues Corinne D. Scown.

Crystallization plays a pivotal role in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. This Comment briefly reflects on past achievements and emerging opportunities in industrial crystallization, particularly considering increasing molecular and system complexities.

Electrification endows modern separation processes with the capability to tackle a broader array of challenges using potentially sustainable energy resources.

An appreciation of characteristic timescales can save quite a lot of effort, as Ian Wilson explains.

Junwang Tang and Binhang Yan discuss the role of the Industrial Catalysis Center at Tsinghua University and their perspectives on modern industrial catalysis with Nature Chemical Engineering.

The existential threat posed by the climate crisis calls for urgent solutions to manage hard-to-abate and unavoidable CO₂ emissions. This Comment shows, by example, the key role that scientists can play in launching pioneering pilot projects, leveraging their research, systems understanding and networks, and thus educating the next generation of climate innovators.

Katarina Babić reflects on the need to account for variability in plastic waste feedstocks when designing plastic upcycling and recycling processes.

Generative artificial intelligence will transform the way we design and operate chemical processes, argues Artur M. Schweidtmann.

Biomolecular engineering enriches the toolkit of chemical engineers, enabling them to tackle diverse challenges in biotechnology and medicine; we welcome submissions in this space.

Researchers Katrina Knauer, Taylor Uekert and Alberta Carpenter, each at different stages of their careers, share perspectives on the national laboratory research ecosystem and how it can inspire transformative work in plastics recycling, sustainable manufacturing and beyond.

We explore the challenges and opportunities for electrochemical energy storage technologies that harvest active materials from their surroundings. Progress hinges on advances in chemical engineering science related to membrane design; control of mass transport, reaction kinetics and precipitation at electrified interfaces; and regulation of electrocrystallization of metals through substrate design.

Kai Qiao, a senior engineer at SINOPEC Dalian Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals Co., Ltd, and a visiting professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Dalian University of Technology, talks to Nature Chemical Engineering about his career as a chemical engineer working on biomass-derived chemical production.

Omar Matar explains how changes in surface tension can cause fluid flow, while navigating a sea of related dimensionless numbers.

Systems-level thinking is an important practice, but accounting for system boundary expansion is a complex and timely challenge.

Polyimide-derived carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes mark an important step for various current, key energy-intensive separations. The excellent separation performance combined with economical scalability make CMS membranes ready to enable energy-transition-focused gas separations.

Chemical engineering principles will continue to help scientists design and optimize new medical devices, treatments and modalities. This Comment reflects on historical developments and potential opportunities in medicine for chemical engineering.

Professor Arthi Jayaraman from the University of Delaware talks to Nature Chemical Engineering about her path to becoming a chemical engineer, focus on modeling and simulations, and thoughts on bridging computational and experimental research.