Recent developments in applied thermal engineering: Process integration, heat exchangers, enhanced heat transfer, solar thermal energy, combustion and high temperature processes and thermal process modelling

Energy supply and its efficient use are key to ensuring energy security and the health of the economies. The engineering of thermal and related processes for supply, recovery and use of heat and power plays an important role in achieving this. In this context, energy recovery and minimising energy waste are the cornerstones for achieving the broader objectives, especially accounting for the overwhelming share of energy losses in the chain from sourcing, through conversion steps and final use, that could reach over 60%. This article presents a review of the main lessons recently learned in the area of more efficient energy use and energy saving. It provides the readers with ideas and methods that can be incorporated into real world solutions and can serve as the foundations for future research. Many of these results are based on the outcomes and follow up articles resulting from the 18th conference “Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction – PRES’15” that was held in Kuching – the state of Sarawak – Malaysia. This can serve as a platform for discussing further ideas and devising solutions for cleaner energy supply and use. The wide topical coverage and the high quality of the contributions are expected to provide incentives and directions for future collaborative research of the PRES family – including process level emission minimisation, self-sufficient regions, and industrial symbiosis for optimising usage of waste heat and waste material flows.