SPIL’26 Conference Synopsis
The 10th Jubilee Sustainable Process Innovation and Modelling Conference (SPIL’26) was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, at Rosslyn Central Park Hotel Sofia. The conference was held jointly with the 3rd International Conference on Cleaner Energy and Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Circular Economy (CLE-SCE 2026).
On the 10th of May, the 10th SPIL’26 in cooperation with scientists from around the world assembled to contribute to the global scientific community’s efforts toward sustainability. The conference was organised by the Institute of Chemical Engineering of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of the PRISE Foundation (Veszprém, Hungary). Тhe event brought together young scientists, professionals, and academics from around the world.
The Book of Abstracts from SPIL’26 is freely available at the Zenodo repository. It is available from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20546601.
The founder of PRISE Foundation – Professor Ferenc Friedler, and Professor Petar Varbanov – chairman of the Board of Trustees, would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to the conference organising committee led by Assoc. Professors Elisaveta Kirilova, Rayka Vladova and Sin Yong Teng, as well as to Assistant Professor Dr. Apostol Apostolov, for the excellent organisation and care for the conference participants.
The conference infrastructure has been provided and executed flawlessly by Mr. Anton Angelov from CMC Bulgaria Ltd. The contribution of CMC Bulgaria to the conference success is sincerely appreciated.
SPIL’26 is the 10th conference in the series established by Prof. J. J. Klemeš. It has been under the supervision of the PRISE Foundation since 2025. The sister conference, CLES-CE 2026, was founded by Prof. Petar Varbanov and Dr. Rayka Vladova in 2022. SPIL’26 was the first time when the conference came to Bulgaria.
The conference featured:
- Plenary lectures by global experts and young scientists
- Technical sessions across multiple themes
- The PRISE P-graph Workshop
- A gala dinner and networking events
- Cultural tour at the National History Museum in Boyana, Sofia
The participants in the SPIL’26 conference will be considered for the associated special issues. The round of the special issue invitations will commence in late October 2026, after the conclusion of the allied PRES’26 conference (Rhodes, Greece, https://pres26.ysquared.eu/). Conference SPIL is dedicated to collaboration with leading scientific journals – such as ENERGY (Elsevier), Thermal Science and Engineering Progress (Elsevier), Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (Springer), Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability (Springer), and Discover Sustainability (Springer). Selected contributions may be invited also to Archives of Thermodynamics (Polish Academy of Sciences) and Bulgarian Chemical Communications (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). Following are the highlights of the SPIL’26 conference.
Day 1 Opening Ceremony
Date: 10 May 2026, Sunday
Venue: Event welcome address
Petar Sabev Varbanov – PRISE, Sin Yong Teng – Maastricht University, Elisaveta Kirilova – IChE, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
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Day 2 Highlights
Date: 11 May 2026, Monday
Venue: Technical Sessions and Presentations
09:00-10:00, Session 1: Key Technologies; Chair: Apostol Apostolov, IChE, BAS, BG
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10:30-11:30, Plenary Session PL-01; Chair: Petar Sabev Varbanov, PRISE, HU
Professor Zdravko Kravanja from the University of Maribor in Slovenia delivered the lecture “Systematic Framework for the Circular Synthesis of Sustainable Systems”
11:30-12:30, Session 2: Cleaner Technologies and Production; Chair: Bohong Wang, Zhejiang Ocean University, CN
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12:30-12:45 Conference Photo Session
14:00-15:00, Session 3: Process Modelling and Optimisation; Chair: Sin Yong Teng, Maastricht University, NL
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15:30-17:30, Session 4: Society, Policies, and Sustainability; Chair: Petar Sabev Varbanov, PRISE, HU
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S04P05Scr02 Column 02
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19:00-23:00, Gala Dinner
Day 3 Highlights
Date: 12 May 2026, Tuesday
Venue: Technical Sessions and Presentations
09:00-10:00, Session 5: Cleaner Technologies and Production; Chair: Maliheh Razavi, University of Maastricht, NL
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10:30-11:30, Plenary Session PL-02; Chair: Elisaveta Kirilova – IChE, BAS, BG
Professor Jordan Hristov, University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia, Bulgaria delivered the second plenary lecture “Non-Linear and Non-Local Diffusion Models”
11:30-12:30, 13:30-15:00, Workshop Session: Process Network Synthesis and Optimisation: P-graph
Hon Loong Lam, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Selangor, Malaysia
Lecture 1: P-graph for Sustainable Process Networks
Jean Pimentel, Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary;
Sin Yong Teng, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Lecture 2 Advanced Methods and Applications
Closing
Cultural Tour
Date: 12 May 2026
After closing the conference the participants visited the National History Museum in Boyana.
Informal Discussions
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Online Conference
