Abstract: Traditional R&D modes in chemical and process engineering, featuring longer period and higher risks and cost, have become a bottleneck for the fast development of chemical and process industries. Breaking the bottleneck should be based on the mesoscience and virtual process engineering (VPE). Firstly, the scientific challenge roots in the multiscale and multilevel structures in which the mesoscales, as the key, are far from being well understood. Understanding the mesoscale complexity plays an important role in the study of structure-function relationships of materials, mixing and transfer in reactors as well as the system integration. Only by coupling the flow, mass and heat transfer as well as reactions on the mesoscales, could the multiscale structure in multiphase reactors be accurately predicted. On the other hand, the mesoscience-based VPE may become a new R&D mode in the near future, greatly shortening the time period and generating high-value and fine products. VPE bridges the gap between the mesoscience and the R&D of new technology and processes, assembling various tools, packages, knowledge database, each of which is of a certain function, and hence materializing the mesoscience and its application in R&D and upgrading the R&D capability. Traditional theories and supercomputing is inadequate to sustain the VPE. The mesoscience, however, offers an unprecedented opportunity for VPE. Involving interdisciplinary research, VPE is not only the task of computational scientist, but the mission of experimentalists, engineers and practitioners in chemical and process industries. It may also be integrated with cloud computation, enabling the advent of big data era in chemical engineering.

Key words: mesoscience, virtual process engineering, multiscale, mesoscale, multiphase reactor, big data, cloud computation

摘要： 传统的过程工程研发具有周期长、风险大、费用高等特点，制约了过程工业的快速发展。解决这一问题应从介尺度科学和虚拟过程工程两方面入手。首先，这一问题的科学根源在于化学和过程工程中的多尺度和多层次结构；而介尺度作为其中的难点和瓶颈，目前的认识还比较有限。认识和理解介尺度复杂性对研究材料的构效关系、反应器混合与传递、系统集成等具有重要意义。只有实现了流动、传递和反应在介尺度的耦合，才能够准确理解、预测和调控多相反应器中的多尺度结构。另一方面，基于介尺度科学的虚拟过程工程将成为一种全新的过程研发模式，不仅可以大幅度缩短过程放大周期，也使产品精细化成为可能。虚拟过程工程是连接介尺度科学与新技术新工艺开发的桥梁，它是一种实体化、功能化的开发和分析工具及知识库，将实验室成果快速应用于过程开发，将大幅提升我国过程工业对核心技术的研发能力。传统的理论和超级计算尚不足以支撑虚拟过程工程，而介尺度科学则为虚拟过程工程带来前所未有的发展机遇。虚拟过程工程涉及多学科交叉，不仅是模拟计算人员的任务，也是实验室和过程研发人员共同的责任；它甚至在未来可以与云计算相结合，使过程工程进入大数据时代。

关键词: 介尺度科学, 虚拟过程工程, 多尺度, 介尺度, 多相反应器, 大数据, 云计算