The 6th International Conference on Environmental Catalysis (ICEC 2010) was held on September 12-15, 2010,in Beijing. The ICEC is a series of conferences that was started in Pisa (1995) and followed up in Miami Beach (1998), Tokyo (2001), Heidelberg (2005) and Belfast (2008). The ICEC 2010 was hosted by Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Prof. Can Li (Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, DICP, CAS) was the chairman and Prof. Hong He (RCEES, CAS) was the co-chairman of the Organizing Committee. The ICEC 2010 was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
At the opening ceremony, three scientists, Prof. Can Li, Prof. Wenping Liang (Deputy Director of Department of Chemical Sciences, NSFC), and Prof. Jiuhui Qu (Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, RCEES, CAS), addressed the welcome speech. Environmental catalysis as an important approach to environmental protection and green chemistry, is emerging as one of the rapidly growing areas in catalysis, and has made significant progress in recent years. NSFC supports basic research and applied basic research, identifies and fosters scientific talents, promotes science and technology, and pushes ahead economic and social development in China. NSFC strengthens the support on environmental catalysis; the related funding increases 20% per year in recent five years.
ICEC 2010 received a total 475 submitted abstracts, which were reviewed by referees worldwide, including the members of International Advisory Board and Organizing Committees of the conference, and finally selected 133 oral presentations (including 16 keynote lectures). The Organizing Committee of ICEC 2010 invited 6 plenary lectures mainly based on the comments from the International Advisory Board members.
398 participants from 26 countries and regions attended the ICEC 2010. Six distinguished scientists from UK, Japan, USA, Italy and China were invited to give the plenary lectures, including “Exploring the validity of mechanistic studies in environmental catalysis”, “Recent topics of automotive exhaust catalyst”, “Challenges and opportunities in catalysis and adsorption for CO2 capture and conversion towards sustainable energy development”, “Environmentally benign chemical production by a solid Brønsted acid”, “Needs and opportunities for catalysts to address the green chemical processes challenges”, and “Photodegradation of dyes on TiO2 under visible irradiation”.The oral presentations were arranged in 8 sessions, according to the scopes of recent trends and challenges in automotive exhaust catalysis, catalysis for clean water and indoor air, catalysis for sustainable and clean energy, catalysis for reducing greenhouse gases, catalytic processes in green chemistry, and so on. In two poster-discussion sessions, 219 posters were displayed and well discussed. Ten best poster presentations were selected by the vote from participants; these best posters are from China, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, respectively.
The conference provided an excellent forum for all the participants to discuss the most recent developments and technological opportunities in this vibrant area of research. The participants highly appreciated the conference.
The International Advisory Board meeting of ICEC 2010 was held on September 13. The board meeting adopted Dr. Descorme's proposal, and decided that 7th International Conference on Environmental Catalysis will be held in Lyons, France, on early September, 2012.
