KONA Powder and Particle Journal No. 41 (2024) 1–2/https://doi.org/10.14356/kona.2024019

Editorial

Editor’s Preface
Arno Kwade
Chairman of European/African Editorial Board
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

It is a great honour for me to introduce KONA Powder and Particle Journal No. 41 as the recently appointed Chairof the European and African KONA Editorial Board and the successor of Gabrie Meesters, whom I would like tothank for his great commitment to KONA. Since my doctoral thesis on ultrafine wet milling over 40 years ago, I havebeen part of the journey of particle and powder technology. From predominantly basic research on unit operationsof grinding, granulation, classification, and mixing, including powder flow and particle size characterization, theresearch focus has moved first to in-depth research on the behaviour and interaction of individual particles and more
recently to the deep investigation of full process chains and the production of complex particulate products with optimized properties. During this journey, the design of functional particles and complex particle structures has become
increasingly important, with strong interaction with materials science. An expression of this is the development of
nanoparticle technology, especially in the first decade of this century, and the design of complex particle structures forenergy storage, conversion, and generation, especially in recent years. Accordingly, my research has shifted from theproduction of nanoparticles to the processing and design of energy and pharmaceutical materials, always based on a
deep understanding of particle behaviour within individual processes.
I am very happy that in the post-Corona period, we can meet again with our particle technology colleagues andfriends around the world at conferences or KONA board meetings to further our common interests. It was a pleasure
to meet so many colleagues and friends during 2022 at various conferences, especially the World Congress on Particle
Technology in Madrid (Spain) and Chops in Salerno (Italy), although these conferences were still influenced byCorona as quite a few participants were infected at the conferences. In 2023, the European conference highlight was
PARTEC 2023 in Nuremberg (Germany), with the overarching theme “Particle Technology for Sustainable Products”,
addressing the increasing importance of sustainability and circular economy due to climate change. As the PARTEC
2023 Chair, it was an honour and a pleasure for me to welcome over 500 colleagues from 25 countries, who enjoyedmore than 300 plenary, keynote, regular and flash presentations and experienced the diversity of our research field.
Overall, the presentations at PARTEC 2023 show the importance of particle technology across all industries. Today,particle technology plays an important role not only in classical industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical, food, andminerals industries but also in dynamically developing industries of energy transition with products such as batteries,
solar panels, and fuel cells. Moreover, numerical simulation and digitalisation are becoming more and more important. Overall, I see a clear trend that particle technology is becoming increasingly interlinked with other technologies
and communities:
First, the importance of design, synthesis, and processing of particulate energy materials rises significantly due tothe global energy transition towards 100% use of renewable energy resources and minimisation of the CO2 footprint.
Even today, the production, processing, and recycling of active materials for lithium-ion batteries require in-depth
knowledge of particle technology in addition to materials science, electrochemistry, and production engineering.
Particle technology is even more important for solid-state batteries, which are the most promising new generation ofCopyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation. This is an open accessarticle under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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batteries. Here, particulate solid electrolyte particles made of sulphides, halides, or oxides have to be produced andprocessed together with the active material particles and other components in such a way that high ionic conductivityand long cycle life are achieved.
Second, the production of innovative products such as battery cells, solid pharmaceuticals, functional coatings, andadditively manufactured products requires close cooperation between particle technology and production engineering,as well as cooperation with relevant technology areas. A relatively new and emerging field is additive manufacturing,where particles need to be produced, tailored, e.g., with nanoparticle coatings, and recycled. In addition to metaland polymer-based particles, mineral particles for additive manufacturing in construction are also current areas ofresearch.
Third, for the numerical simulation and digitalisation of processes and products using particles, the Particle
Technology Community works with scientists and experts from mathematics, physics and computer science. As aresult, numerical simulation using discrete element methods (DEM) is becoming increasingly powerful and can now
simulate even larger industrial problems. In addition, DEM is increasingly being combined with other simulation
methods such as computational fluid dynamics and population balances. More recently, artificial intelligence methods
have been used to predict process results and product properties based on relatively large datasets.
In addition to inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations, I see increasing international collaboration within ourparticle technology community as an important goal for the future, despite the increasing conflicts between countries
that we see today. In addition to international conferences, the funding of joint research projects with partners fromdifferent countries is an important measure and should be strengthened in the future. There are also internationalorganisations such as the International Fine Particle Research Institute (IFPRI) or more technology-oriented associations such as the Global Comminution Collaborative (GCC), the International Delegation on Filtration (INDEFI)or the Association pour l’Etude de la MicroMécanique des Milieux Granulaires (AEMMG). Such global scientificorganisations not only promote international research cooperation but also an intensive exchange between science andindustry, and a general understanding between nations.
This issue of KONA continues the trend of previous issues towards the publication of more high-quality review
articles alongside forward-looking original articles from many countries. Accordingly, journal metrics such as theimpact factor, which is now above 4, have developed very positively recently. The increased focus on high-quality
review papers is sure to further enhance KONA’s reputation. This issue contains 12 high-quality review papers and5 original papers by 54 authors from 11 countries. Five papers focus on modelling and numerical simulation, 2 onenergy materials, and one on additive manufacturing, the three emerging areas mentioned above. Further 5 papers
focus on fundamental operations, including powder and multiphase flow, and 2 papers each on the characterisationand synthesis of particle systems.
Finally, I would like to thank all the authors and reviewers for their hard work in preparing and optimising thepapers, as well as all those who have contributed to the realisation of this “KONA Powder and Particle Journal” Issue
No. 41.
Arno KWADE
Chairman of European/African Editorial Board
Professor, Technische Universität Braunschweig
October, 2023

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