Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering(CJChE),formerly namedSelected Papers of Journal of Chemical Industry&Engineering(China)(1982–1985) andJournal of Chemical Industry and Engineering(China) (1986–1992),was renamed to its current title in 1993.The first International Editorial Advisory Board was also established with Prof.Jiayong Chen,a pioneer in hydrometallurgy,and Prof.Guocong Yu,a famous distillation artist,as the co-editor-inchiefs.

With time flying,CJChE comes to the age of 40 in 2022.The aim of the journal remains to provide an efficient platform for the international exchange of scientific and technical information in the field of chemical engineering.It publishes original research papers on the major advancements and achievements in chemical engineering in China to meet the major needs of the national economy all along,as well as many articles from overseas contributors to document the friendly international exchange.

In the past 40 years,CJChE develops from semi-annual,quarterly to bimonthly,and to date the monthly publication.The number of contributions are increasing year by year and so does the annual total publications.At present,it has become an academic journal with a high volume of information,with more than 1800 manuscripts submitted and 390 articles published annually.Prominent domestic and overseas chemical experts and scholars have read,peer-reviewed and published papers in this journal.Here,on behalf of the editorial board and editorial staff,we sincerely thank the readers,authors and reviewers for their long-term strong support to the journal.

With the joint efforts of friends from academia and industry,the successive editorial board and editorial staff,CJChE has grown into a high-level academic journal with extensive influence.The journal is indexed by SCIE,EI,Scopus,Dimensions,CSCD,etc.,with readers in more than 100 countries and regions.Clarivate Analytics impact factor increased from 0.901 in 2010 to 3.171 in 2020.CJChE has won many awards in the periodical evaluations.It was titled with “China’s Most Internationally Influential Scientific Periodicals” for 10 consecutive years from 2012 to 2021,and selected into the program of “China STEM Journal Excellence Action Plan” in 2019.

Both Profs.Jiayong Chen and Guocong Yu were born in 1922.In 2022,we will organize a special issue to memorize the 100th birth of late Prof.JY Chen’s remarkable contributions to Chinese J.Chem.Eng.This album will be released as the first issue of 2022 in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the fields of hydrometallurgy and chemical engineering.This special issue includes 14 review articles and 33 featured research papers.The majority of the 47-invited articles in this special issue are from Professor Chen’s students,collaborators,colleagues,and friends.These articles present to some extent the wide research interests of Prof.Chen,and current worldwide research frontiers and developments in the field of chemcial engineering.We are very grateful to the guest editors,authors and reviewers for their great contributions to this special issue.We are going to celebrate the 100th birthday of Prof.GC Yu by another special issue later in 2022 with sincere and happy gratitude.

No forget of the original mind,no fear on the road to the future.Chemical engineering is a mainstay discipline and pillar industry of the national economy.Along with the vigorous development tide of chemical science and technology,we are willing to work together with experts from all over the world to make more achievement of the academic advancement of chemical engineering and interdisciplinary technologies,and let CJChE become a flagship journal in the field of chemical industry and engineering of China with extensive influence in the world.