The 2018 International Conference on the “Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering” (CESE-2018) was held
between 4 – 8 November 2018 at Hotel Sukosol, Bangkok. The CESE-2018 conference was chaired by Prof. Chart Chiemchaisri, Kasetsart University, Thailand and co-chaired by Prof. C. Visvanathan, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, Prof. Piet Lens, National University of Ireland, Ireland, and Dr. Eldon Raj Rene, IHE-Delft, The Netherlands. The CESE series is chaired by Prof. Veeriah Jegatheesan, RMIT University, Australia. A total of around 300 participants representing different countries attended the conference. The conference revolved around the topics of application of membrane technology and nano technology, pollution prevention and treatment in air, water and wastewater, resource recovery, renewable energy, sustainability and climate change adaptation, and soil sustainability. Asian Institute of Technology was associated with the organisation of this conference.
The conference began on 5th November 2018 with welcome speech by Prof. Chart, Prof. Visu and Prof. Jega. The keynote presentations were delivered by experts in environmental science and engineering in the forenoon session. Prof. Chongrak Polprasert, Emeritus Professor, AIT presented on ‘Emerging environmental issues for AEC countries with emphasis on hazardous chemicals and pharmaceutical products’. Prof. Shabbir Gheewala, (alumnus of EEM) King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thailand enlightened the audience with his presentation on ‘Sustainable food-feed-fuel production via biorefineries’. Poster and oral presentations were held in the afternoon session. Prof. Visu presented on ‘Performance evaluation of a thermophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (TAnMBR) for palm oil wastewater treatment’.
Presentations of students and scientists were conducted on 6th November 2018. The senior researchers showcased their research work on 7th November 2018. A scientific paper writing workshop was held to train the young researchers. On the final day of the conference, the participants had a field visit to Lam Pak Bia Royal Initiative Project. Inspired by the IoT based pilot scale anaerobic digestion at AIT presented in the conference, a group of researchers from China will visit AIT on 9th November 2018 and visit our laboratory and research facilities at EEM.
