The cross-fertilization of physico-chemical and mathematical ideas has a long historical tradition. This volume of "Advances in Chemical Engineering" is almost completely dedicated to a conference on Mathematics in Chemical Kinetics and Engineering (MaCKiE-2007), which was held in Houston in February 2007, bringing together about 40 mathematicians, chemists, and chemical engineers from 10 countries to discuss the application and development of mathematical tools in their respective fields.
* Updates and informs the reader on the latest research findings using original reviews
* Written by leading industry experts and scholars
* Reviews and analyzes developments in the field"

This is a comprehensive piece of work providing the reader a powerful resource for the design, development and performance evaluation of photocatalytic reactors. This book will be used as a reference for a graduate course in photocatalysis. It will also be valuable to undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, environmental consultants or advisors, environmental auditors, engineers, technicians, scientists, governmental agencies, and environmental agencies or institutions interested in photocatalysis. This book will be a guide to the understanding of the principles and of the applications of photocatalysis technology. The book is also organized in such a manner that there is always good integration of basic principles, literature review, and applications.

The main focus of this book is on the chemical reaction engineering aspects of the heterogeneous photocatalysis. Special attention is addressed to kinetic modeling, reactor irradiation, and reactor design of photochemical reactors. The book also reports an interesting review of practical applications of pollutant conversion in water and air.

Chemical reactor engineering, as a discipline, has a central role to play in helping with the development of adequate strategies and technologies that can deal effectively with the concerns of today's society, which are increasingly becoming attuned to the environment. The current challenge is how to adapt present processes and products to meet more rigorous environmental standards. Chemical Reactor Technology for Environmentally Safe Reactors and Products addresses these issues in three parts: I -- Fuels of the Future and Changing Fuel Needs; II -- Alternative Sources; III -- Emission Control, Chemical Reactor Safety and Engineering. Attention is also paid, throughout the text, to the fundamental technological aspects of reactor engineering and to possible strategies for bridging knowledge gaps.

Today's frustrations and anxieties resulting from two energy crises in only one decade, show us the problems and fragility of a world built on high energy consumption, accustomed to the use of cheap non-renewable energy and to the acceptance of eXisting imbalances between the resources and demands of countries. Despite all these stressing factors, our world is still hesitatins about the urgency of undertaking new and decisive research that could stabilize our future, Could this trend change in the near future? In our view, two different scenarios are possible. A renewed energy tension could take place with an unpredictable timing mostly related to political and economic factors, This could bring again scientists and technologists to a new state of shock and awaken our talents, A second interesting and beneficial scenario could result from the positive influence of a new generation of researchers that with or without immediate crisis, acting both in industry and academia, will face the challenge of developing technologies and processes to pave the way to a less vulnerable society, Because Chemical Reactor Design and Technology activities are at the heart of these required new technologies the timeliness of the NATO-Advanced Study Institute at the University of Western Ontario, London, was very appropriate.

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a novel technique for water purification. Publications on photocatalysis span a relatively recent period of not more than 25 years. This is a technique that, according to our extensive experience on the development of laboratory scale and pilot plant units, has great promise to eliminate water and air pollutants. Photocatalysis offers much more than competitive techniques where pollutants are transferred from phases; photocatalysis can achieve complete mineralization of pollutants leaving non-toxic species such as CO2 and H2O and can be exploited at close to room temperature and ambient pressure.