The 17th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects - Summary
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.
