ABSTRACT
The concept of the non-Euclidian geometry, known as fractal geometry was introduced in the late 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s there was an explosion of scienti”c and engineering research and journal publications involving fractals as the concept of nature inspired geometry was tried in numerous applications. The beauty of the underlying mathematics and the ability to describe complex spatial and temporal structures utilizing the concepts of fractal geometry inspired a generation of researchers seeking applications and uses of fractal geometry. Originally, it was thought to be able to ”ll the need and provide the ability to model complex systems and morphologies and was nearly considered a panacea. Time and maturity of the topic has tempered some of the initial exuberance; however, numerous applications have been found in areas of science, engineering, economics, etc. Because many of the systems important to chemical processing occur at the molecular scale where morphologies are fractal over the length scale range of interest, there have been several important applications of fractal geometry in chemical systems.
