On March 24th, the 12th World Congress of Chemical Engineering and the 21st Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering Congress (WCCE 12 & APCChE 2025) was held at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. The Secretary-General of the Congress, President of the Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering (APCChE), and Vice Executive President and Secretary-General of The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (CIESC), Fang Xiangchen, announced that this global top-tier academic and industrial event, themed "Paradigm Shifting in Chemical Engineering for Global Challenges," will be held from July 14th to 18th, 2025, at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. 

Secretary-General Fang Xiangchen stated that, since the 20th century, the chemical engineering industry has developed vigorously and rapidly with continuous innovation and breakthroughs in technological process. The chemical engineering industry is currently entering a new "transformation" period, with the need of embracing and creating new paradigm shifts, as well as stimulating "new quality productive forces" and new growth points. In recent years, China's chemical industry has experienced remarkable development, capturing global attention and recognition. For the first time, WCCE and APCChE Congress are jointly being held in China. This collaboration will profoundly foster the exchange and integration among the academic, technological, and industrial fields in the world chemical engineering. Furthermore, it will drive China's chemical industry to lead industrial upgrading through new quality productive forces and to promote industrial transformation through green chemical engineering. 

Collaborating three major events to build an innovation matrix for global chemical engineering

WCCE is a long-standing and academically-leading international congress in the field of the world chemical engineering. Held every four years, the Congress rotates among Europe, America, and Asia. So far, eleven congresses have been successfully held, enjoying a high reputation as the "Olympics of Chemical Engineering." This year coincides with the convening of the biennial APCChE Congress, and the "21st APCChE Congress" will be held concurrently at the same location, under the auspices of the World Chemical Engineering Council (WCEC) and the Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering (APCChE). It marks a second time since 2013 that these two major events are being held concurrently at the same location.

The Congress will last for five days, which consists of six major components, including the opening and closing ceremonies, two high-level plenaries, 34 parallel sessions, an international innovation exhibition, over ten supporting activities such as UN SDGs Youth Event, and academic tours. Keeping the pace of science and technology development, the Congress will bring together top scientists and leading figures from IUR (Industry-University-Research) areas worldwide. It aims to attract more than 5,000 guests from over 50 countries and regions with over 30 innovative themes across four main topics and more than 600 thought-provoking cutting-edge presentations. As a result, this event will build an important stage for global academic exchange and IUR integration, sharing cutting-edge technologies and innovative achievements, thereby jointly promoting the prosperity and development of global chemical engineering field.

Additionally, to showcase the green and sustainable development, and cutting-edge innovations in global chemical engineering technology and industry, the "International Chemical Engineering Innovation Expo 2025" will be held concurrently. IChEIE 2025 will offer a rich series of supporting activities including "one exhibition, three meetings and six activities," promoting in-depth exchanges and integration of innovations in the international chemical engineering, stimulating and exploring new investment and development opportunities.

Focusing on paradigm shifts to reshape the future of the industry

The Congress brings together frontier technological topics and gathers top international experts to delve deeply into global governance issues such as climate change, energy revolution, poverty alleviation, and quality of life. Meanwhile, it extensively exchanges frontier topics such as technological innovation, talent education, and emerging industries within the international chemical engineering. The Academic Advisory Committee consists of 138 top experts and scholars from over 40 countries and regions, along with 107 leading experts forming the Academic Committee, and leaderships from over 50 parallel sessions organizers. These committees strive to create a high-end platform for academic exchange, IUR integration, and innovative achievements showcase.

The main venue of the Congress will closely focus on the theme of "Paradigm Shifting in Chemical Engineering for Global Challenges" and officially invite distinguished guests, including Nobel Laureates in chemistry, renowned scholars from world-class universities, senior executives from global chemical engineering multinationals, and leaders of international chemical organizations. These esteemed guests will deliver insightful presentations on cutting-edge topics, including molecular machines, nanomaterials, organocatalysis, AI transformations, clean fuels, green and sustainable development, hydrogen energy revolution, new energy sources and electronic chemicals, and the synthesis of next generation materials. Exploring the potential opportunities for a new round of "transformation" in the chemical industry, trigger the realization possibilities of new energy, new materials, life sciences, high-end and intelligent technologies that will shape the future, and cultivate a new generation of innovative scientific and technological talents and industrial talents.

The Congress will address the disruptive challenges facing the development of the chemical engineering, revolving around four challenging topics: "Education and Training," "Fundamental Industry Reinfrastructure," "Strategic and Emerging Industries," and "Future Chemical Engineering and Smart Innovation." It will be chaired by 104 experts and scholars worldwide, through 34 sub venue sessions and over 600 cutting-edge presentations, along with a variety of exhibition forms, to deeply analyze how new quality productive forces empower the iteration of traditional chemical engineering, and to comprehensively depict the “new landscape” of future development of chemical engineering across fields such as green catalysis, process industry, process safety, biomanufacturing, emerging energy, smart manufacturing, advanced materials, low-carbon technologies, artificial intelligence, green development, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship.

Promoting global integration in the chemical engineering to accelerate the construction of a community with a shared future

Secretary-General Fang Xiangchen stated that China's chemical engineering is leveraging new quality productive forces as an engine to help the rapid development of strategic emerging industries, capturing global attention and recognition. This year's event is not merely a platform for technological display, but a declaration of global collaborative innovation.

As the host country, China will also comprehensively showcase its achievements in chemical industry development to the world and gather global wisdom. The IChEIE 2025 will be held concurrently, spanning an exhibition space of 11,000 square meters, with "one exhibition, three meetings and six activities" in various forms, to open up new pathways for development and investment on the global stage for the industry. During the Congress, a rich series of supporting activities will be held, including leaderships navigation tour at the exhibition opening ceremony, bulk purchasing project selection meeting, supply and demand meeting, new product and technology launching; science seminars and new book releases, annual demand release of the chemical industry, signing of purchasing agreements, student competitions, summer science study for teenagers and chemistry experiment activities, comprehensively showcasing the cutting-edge innovations and development achievements in global education, technology, and industry. The event hopes to promote in-depth exchange and integration within the international chemical engineering community, and foster the construction of a global chemical engineering community with a shared future through openness, integration, and cooperation.