Preface to the Special Issue

Abstract

Following the successful achievement of previous nine conferences, the 10th Asian Conference on Fluidized-Bed and Three-Phase Reactors (ASCON-2006) was held in Busan, Korea, during November 26–29, 2006, in order to exchange and share current research ideas, information and experiences on the Fluidized-Bed and Three-Phase Reactors. Needless to say, the conference (ASCON) has grown up in a sense of the high quality of papers presented and the active participation of the top scientists and engineers from neighboring Asian countries.

In the mean time, publication of the papers in the regular international journal has been discussed in the committee of international coordinators of the conference, in order to expand the scientific dialogues and concepts that had been spawned in the fields of topical relevance during the conference.

The encouragements of President Kunio Yoshida (Niigata Sangyo University), Emeritus Professor Wei-Ming Lu (National Taiwan University), Professor Sang Done Kim (Conference Chairman, KAIST), President Shigeo Uchida (Polytechnic College of Hamamatsu) and Professor Lii-Ping Leu (National Taiwan University) had been the basis idea for the preparation of special issue for the latest conference (ASCON-2006). This special issue is the first outcome in the series of Asian Conference on Fluidized-Bed and Three-Phase Reactors having appeared as a special issue in one of the international leading journal, Journal of Chemical Engineering, Japan (JCEJ). During the selection of the journal, the devotions of President S. Uchida (Polytechnic College of Hamamatsu), Professor A. Tsutsumi (The University of Tokyo) and Professor T. Kojima (Seikei University) had been valuable actions.

All the submitted manuscripts for publication in the special issue were reviewed following the standard procedure for papers submitted to the regular issues of the journal. Finally, 34 papers were accepted for publication in the special issue, covering wide range of research areas from fundamental aspects to the practical applications in the fields of fluidized beds and three-phase reactors.

We have to extend our sincere appreciation to more than 90 professionals in Japan, Korea and Taiwan for their valuable help for peer reviewing the submitted manuscripts. In addition, our deep appreciation has to be expressed to Professor Naoto Ohmura, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical Engineering, Japan, for his valuable support and to Ms. Yamashita in the editorial office of the journal for her persistent devotion to the preparation of this special issue.