Abstract Researchers and industrial engineers dealing with energy supply and processes, using energy and other resources, have been largely working on devising concepts and methods for improvement of the efficiency at all stages of energy sourcing, conversion and use. An intrinsic part of this effort is also the minimisation of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The 19th Conference on Process Integration for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction – PRES 2016, held in Prague 27–31 August 2016, followed by the selection and evolution of 16 high-quality manuscripts in the current Virtual Special Issue (VSI) of Applied Thermal Engineering, have been fully dedicated to advancing science regarding these issues. This article analyses the overall challenges, and research trends in energy saving and pollution reduction, showing how the papers in the current VSI, while fitting in seamlessly within the overall trends, substantially contribute to the state of the art, considering heat transfer, heat recovery networks, gas turbines, GHG emission minimisation, not the least applying innovative network targeting and design techniques for CO2 utilisation after capture, which provides much more stable storage compared to sequestration.