by D.A. Reay & A.P. Harvey
While clearing space I came across the first issue of HEXAG News, dated July 1994 (distributed by post, of course). At that time we were funded by the Energy Technology Support Unit (ETSU) on behalf of the Energy Efficiency Office. That organisation was responsible for arguably the best collection of guidance documents and case studies relating to heat exchangers and their energy-saving capabilities ever to appear – some of which are being used as reference material in the OPTITHERM project introduced later in this Issue. Heat exchanger and thermal engineering are alive and in reasonably good health, as can be seen from those in the list of EPSRC projects in heat and mass transfer in later pages.
Returning to the first HEXAG News, a short report was included on the first HEXAG meeting, held at the then new British Gas Research Centre at Loughborough on 18 April 1994, hosted by Fred Starr (who also features below). This followed on from a meeting in Cheshire set up by ETSU (Alan Mercer) which laid the groundwork for the Network. Topics in the first issue also included Dr. David McNeil's work on phase maldistribution in evaporators, Dr. (now Prof.) Bob Critoph's work on solid-gas adsorption and a report on the first meeting of the European Commission Heat Exchanger Action Group. We also included the outcome of a survey of members' interests – perhaps something we should do again, with the convenience of electronic questionnaires that we now have.
- David Reay (HEXAG)
In this, my first attempt at an editorial in the PIN news, I thought I’d shamelessly plug an upcoming conference that David and I are involved in organising (in conjunction with the IChemE). The European Process Intensification Conference (EPIC 3) will run from the 20th to the 23rd June this year in Manchester. The steering committee were pleasantly surprised, at the standard and breadth of the submissions for this conference, and consequently there’s an excellent program, representing research from all over Europe. The conference is divided into 5 themes: Active Enhancement, Structured Technologies, Breaking Barriers, Hybrid Technologies and Batch to Continuous. I think most workers in the area could envisage their work in at least three of these areas! The program will appear soon at: http://www.icheme.org/EPIC2011/, and will be mailed to PIN members directly.
Historically, in the PI field, I feel there’s often been a "disconnect" between the UK and mainland European research communities, This, however, is a UK-based European conference that has successfully attracted delegates from all over Europe, so should be an ideal opportunity for UK academia and industry to develop new links in Europe. I hope to see you there!
- Adam Harvey (PIN)
