Themes & Topics

CHOPS 2027 welcomes original contributions across the full spectrum of particulate systems, granular materials, and process innovation. The conference explores granular behavior from fundamental science to full-scale engineering applications across diverse sectors.

Main Topics

  • 1. Sustainability of particulate processes (waste and recycling, low-carbon processes, process intensification, circular economy)
  • 2. Bulk solids transportation and logistics (bulk terminal and plant design, system-level design) 
  • 3. Conveying and storage of bulk solids (pneumatic conveying, mechanical conveying, silo & hopper design)
  • 4. Processes with extreme environments and resources (deep sea, extreme temperatures, outer-space/low-gravityapplications)
  • 5. Powder processing (compaction and tabletting, drying, coating, additive manufacturing) 
  • 6. Food production and processing (mixing, drying, packaging)
  • 7. Energy applications (battery and energy storage, thermochemical and reactive granular systems, energy management, energy carriers, particles for catalysis, particles for CO2 capture)
  • 8. Multiphase flow & fluidisation (fundamentals, heat/mass transfer, dense suspension, chemical looping, reactors, fluids with bubbles and particles)
  • 9. Metallurgical processes with granular materials (interactions in metallurgical reactors, additive manufacturing)
  • 10. Granular flow in natural environments (natural hazards, avalanching, erosion and sediment transport)
  • 11. Particle and particulate systems characterisation (invasive and non-invasive measurement techniques, fundamentals and standards, particle morphology and properties, nanoparticles and aerosols, sampling, CPT / intruders)
  • 12. Digitalisation of powder & bulk material handling plants and components (IoT, sensor-based monitoring, process control, digital twins, AI technologies)
  • 13. Fundamentals – from particle contact to bulk behaviour (dense suspension, rheology, geomechanical processes, granular physics) 
  • 14. Processes with evolving particle sizes (granulation, sintering, comminution, milling, grinding)
  • 15. Emerging applications - beyond conventional use of particles (particle-based metastructures, granular grippers)
  • 16. Education (how to educate future-proof academics and engineers)

Challenges

In addition to topic areas, each submission should identify a core challenge it addresses:

  • Segregation & mixing
  • Separation & sorting
  • Wear, attrition & dust
  • Coating & reacting
  • Flow & storage
  • Production & logistics 
  • Sensing & automation
  • Scale-up

Techniques

Submitters may indicate the methods used in their work: 

  1. Experiment
  2. Theory
  3. Simulation
  4. Design
  5. AI


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