The International Congress on Combustion By-Products and their Health Effects has a long tradition of bringing together scholars and researchers from various disciplines of environmental sciences. By design it provides a unique platform for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience from within the different disciplines of environmental sciences to advance perspective on the most current and relevant issues associated with combustion. One of the most important aspect of the meeting is focus on training of new researchers in the field, which is achieved by interaction-driven conference design between the renown scholars and students and trainees participating in the meeting. Combustion and thermal processes represent significant environmental and health concerns associated with the remediation of Superfund sites, energy production, materials and energy recovery and are of critical importance to the Superfund Research Program. May different thermal processes are still used to mitigate and remediate Superfund sites, which include low temperature thermal desorption/treatment, catalytic oxidation, thermal oxidation and off-site incineration. Accidental fires are still common at some sites. All of these processes lead to emission of toxic air pollutants, and often this is worse with the low temperature desorption/treatment than for on-site incineration. Thermal processes are also used as a way to reduce energy and material costs. Many of the energy recycling processes come at a price of increased emission and pollution. There is a delicate balance between the uses of renewable fuels to decrease carbon footprint and increased emission of other pollutants associated with materials and energy recovery. Increasing regulation on both those aspects are quite often contradicting. The goal of this congress is to provide an international forum to discuss the origins, fate, and health effects of combustion by-products. This meeting is unique in that it brings this multidisciplinary group of individuals together to focus on these problems. It uniquely encourages communication among diverse scientists to ensure better understanding of emerging problems as well as well documented ones, which is critical for advancement of our understanding of this diverse field. Most importantly, the Congress actively nurtures the development of younger researcher and trainees by fostering interactions between them and accomplished researchers in this diverse field. We are requesting financial support to cover partial cost of the conference including travel expenses for invited world-renown scholars and trainees. This funds will also help maintain the overall operation of the Congress within the biennial period with clerical support and website maintenance costs.
The Congress provides a platform for discussion and exchange of scientific ideas and opinions between the chemists/engineers, biomedical researchers, governmental officials, and stakeholders working on combustion processes and associated environmental and health impacts. These groups of individuals do not normally interact at scientific meetings and yet this interaction is necessary to exchange ideas and advance the field of environmental science. Such discussion is especially important in view of changing composition of thermally treated wastes (such as inclusion of e-wastes) as well as increase use of biofuels. The main theme of the 15th Edition of the Congress is ?Coping with expanding regulations: Health and environmental effects of combustion by-products from newly recognized sources of pollution?
