Optimal planning and campaign scheduling of biopharmaceutical processes using a continuous-time formulation

This work addresses the optimal planning and campaign scheduling of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes, considering multiple operational characteristics, such as the campaign schedule of batch and/or continuous process steps, multiple intermediate deliveries, sequence dependent changeovers operations, product storage restricted to shelf-life limitations, and the track-control of the production/campaign lots due to regulatory policies. A new mixed integer linear programing (MILP) model, based on a Resource Task Network (RTN) continuous time single-grid formulation, is developed to comprise the integration of all these features. The performance of the model features is discussed with the resolution of a set of industrial problems with different data sets and process layouts, demonstrating the wide application of the proposed formulation. It is also performed a comparison with a related literature model, showing the advantages of the continuous-time approach and the generality of our model for the optimal production management of biopharmaceutical processes.     

Measures to reduce chlorine in deposits: Application in a large-scale circulating fluidised bed boiler firing biomass

Combustion of biomass with a high content of alkali (mainly potassium, K) and chlorine (Cl) can result in operational problems including deposit formation and superheater corrosion. Among the measures applied to decrease such problems are co-combustion and the use of additives. The positive effects of these measures are to a large extent either sulphation of the alkali chlorides (KCl) to less corrosive alkali sulphates or capture of alkali from KCl during release of HCl. A test campaign was carried out in a large-scale circulating fluidised boiler fired with biomass where the measures applied were sulphation by ammonium sulphate and co-combustion with peat. Their performance was evaluated by means of several advanced measurement tools including: IACM (on-line measurements of gaseous KCl); a low-pressure impactor (size distribution and chemical composition of extracted fly ash particles) and deposit measurements (chemical composition in collected deposits). The overall performance was better for ammonium sulphate, which significantly lowered KCl in the flue gas. Meanwhile no chlorine was found in the deposits. Only a minor reduction of gaseous KCl was obtained during co-combustion with peat although the chlorine content in the deposits was greatly reduced. These findings were supported by the results from the impactor measurements.     

A CP formulation for scheduling multiproduct multistage batch plants

The short-term scheduling of multiproduct multistage batch plants is tackled in this paper by means of a constraint programming (CP) methodology. This approach, consisting of both a model and a search strategy, easily handles different features found in industrial environments: finite unit ready times, dissimilar parallel equipment at each stage, sequence-dependent changeovers, topology constraints, forbidden job-equipment assignments, order release times, as well as renewable resources limitations. It can also address various interstage storage and operational policies: UIS, NIS/ZW, NIS/UW, and mixed ones. Besides, it introduces two simple and efficient search methodologies based on domain knowledge, whose great impact on the computational performance is shown. The approach was extensively tested by means of several examples having various difficulty degrees. It rendered good computational results for a variety of interstage storage policies and objective functions. Moreover, this work shows that the default depth-first search strategy does not perform well for scheduling problems.     

A synchronous cellular automaton model of mass transport in porous media

In this work we present a fully synchronous coarse grained cellular automaton model for large-scale simulations at molecular level. The model is based on Margolus partitioning scheme, which was generalized as to describe quantitatively diffusion, adsorption and directed flow in porous media. Our aim is to create conceptually simple and computationally efficient framework to model the mass transport in porous materials with large representative volume. This work focuses on the fundamental aspects of the generalized Margolus cellular automaton. We exemplify the model by solving several diffusion problems, studying the monolayer adsorption, chromatography on disordered porous structures and chemical transformation in a system with phase separation. The results indicate that the model reflects the essential features of these phenomena. Absence of round-off errors, fully synchronous way of implementation, autonomous physically meaningful time scale and ease-to-handle boundary conditions make this model a promising framework for study various transport phenomena in porous structures.     

动态因子分析模型及其在过程监控中的应用

在复杂工业系统的监控中,因子分析（FA）方法不需要专业的机理知识,应用系统日常运行数据建立模型,充分考虑了模型误差的普遍意义,具有较大的推广价值。针对实际过程的动态特性,基于自回归（AR）方式扩展过程变量数据矩阵,本文提出一种动态因子分析（DFA）的数据建模方法,充分提取了变量的自相关信息和互相关信息。另一方面,将DFA引入过程监控中,构建统计量作为监控指标,分别衡量变量的特征信息和误差信息,从而实现对动态过程运行状况的监控与评估。在Tennessee-Eastman（TE）过程中的应用研究,反映了这种方法的优越性。     

Greedy algorithm for scheduling batch plants with sequence‐dependent changeovers

This article presents a new algorithm for scheduling multistage batch plants with a large number of orders and sequence‐dependent changeovers. Such problems are either intractable when solved with full‐space approaches or poor solutions result. We use decomposition on the entire set of orders and derive the complete schedule in several iterations, by inserting a couple of orders at a time. The key idea is to allow for partial rescheduling without altering the main decisions in terms of unit assignments and sequencing (linked to the binary variables) so that the combinatorial complexity is kept at a manageable level. The algorithm has been implemented for three alternative continuous‐time mixed integer linear programing models and tested through the solution of 10 example problems for different decomposition settings. The results show that an industrial‐size scheduling problem with 50 orders, 17 units distributed over six stages can effectively be solved in roughly 6 min of computational time. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011     

一种改进的顺序型多目的间歇工厂生产调度的MILP模型

分析了顺序型多目的工厂间歇生产的特点,建立了一种新的混合整数线性规划（MILP）模型.该模型以操作活动序列作为建模的依据,将整个间歇生产过程分解成若干个子系统.在对各子系统建模的基础上,实现了顺序型多目的工厂间歇调度的全局性优化.并通过算例验证了该模型求解结果的正确性和可行性.然后将新模型运用到更大规模的调度问题上,均求解出了有效的调度方案.     

Schwimmende Produktionsanlagen für die Rohstoffgewinnung im Meer

Floating production plants. The growing trend towards production of raw materials such as oil, gas, and hard minerals from offshore deposits has led to the development of floating platforms for deep water applications. Process engineering aspects of producing oil and gas offshore and on floating platforms are discussed. While process engineering problems can be solved comparatively easily by methods adapted to the offshore environment, structural and operational problems of deep water platforms require more large-scale development and particularly expensive technical experience.     

Development of a reactive puff model for simultaneous consideration of plume dispersion and plume chemistry

To comprehensively assess and understand the environmental impacts of air pollutants emitted from large-scale point sources, the complex, non-linear photochemistry inside the plumes should be considered together with atmospheric turbulent dispersion of the air pollutants. For this purpose, a reactive puff model that can consider both atmospheric turbulent dispersion and photochemical reactions was developed in this study. The model’s performance was evaluated by comparing the model-predicted concentrations with the ship-plume chemical concentrations measured from the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation (ITCT) 2K2 field campaign. This comparison study confirmed the ability of the developed reactive puff model to capture the major characteristics of both plume dispersion and photochemical reactions. Based on these findings, the reactive puff model was applied to a Korean power plant (Hadong) as a case study. This article is dedicated to Professor Chang Kyun Choi for celebrating his retirement from the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University.     

Decision support for integrated refinery supply chains: Part 1. Dynamic simulation

Supply chain studies are increasingly given top priority in enterprise-wide management. Present-day supply chains involve numerous, heterogeneous, geographically distributed entities with varying dynamics, uncertainties, and complexity. The performance of a supply chain relies on the quality of a multitude of design and operational decisions made by the various entities. In this two-part paper, we demonstrate that a dynamic model of an integrated supply chain can serve as a valuable quantitative tool that aids in such decision-making. In this Part 1, we present a dynamic model of an integrated refinery supply chain. The model explicitly considers the various supply chain activities such as crude oil supply and transportation, along with intra-refinery supply chain activities such as procurement planning, scheduling, and operations management. Discrete supply chain activities are integrated along with continuous production through bridging procurement, production, and demand management activities. Stochastic variations in transportation, yields, prices, and operational problems are considered in the proposed model. The economics of the refinery supply chain includes consideration of different crude slates, product prices, operation costs, transportation, etc. The proposed model has been implemented as a dynamic simulator, called Integrated Refinery In-Silico (IRIS). IRIS allows the user the flexibility to modify not only parameters, but also replace different policies and decision-making algorithms in a plug-and-play manner. It thus allows the user to simulate and analyze different policies, configurations, uncertainties, etc., through an easy-to-use graphical interface. The capabilities of IRIS for strategic and tactical decision support are illustrated using several case studies.     

膜法碳捕集技术——研究现状及展望

碳捕集是实现CO₂减排的重要技术手段之一。在众多碳捕集技术中,膜分离技术具有操作简单、能耗低、环境污染小等优势,吸引了广泛关注。完整的膜法捕集CO₂技术研究链条包括膜材料开发、分离膜规模化制备、膜组件研制和膜分离工艺及装置的设计建造。本文针对膜法碳捕集技术链的四个环节,总结对比了国内外技术水平和研究进展,分析了碳捕集膜从实验室研究到工业放大的瓶颈问题,并对本文作者课题组在各个技术环节所积累的研究成果进行了综述。在此基础上,对进一步提高膜法碳捕集技术水平的研究方向进行了展望。     

全流程卷式反渗透海水淡化系统操作优化

在对反渗透海水淡化系统流程和实际应用分析的基础上,提出了一种旨在降低总体操作费用的全流程反渗透海水淡化系统优化方法。首先根据系统变参数特点并充分利用蓄水池的缓冲能力,建立了反渗透过程机理模型、蓄水池动态过程模型以及变参数方程模型,实现了整个流程的方程描述。然后根据工艺流程和操作过程费用组成情况建立了总的操作费用模型,得到了全流程单位产水费用指标。在此基础上建立了以总体操作费用最低为目标、以开放方程描述的各模型方程为约束、以设备和产品质量限制为边界的优化命题,采用联立求解技术将该微分代数方程组成的优化（DAOP）问题转化为NLP问题后进行求解。最后对某海水淡化系统进行了实例研究。优化求解结果不仅表明本优化方法可以大幅降低实际操作费用,而且通过求解还可得到各种变参数条件下最优操作费用组成,以及实现费用最低的最优操作压力和流量变化曲线。本研究对优化海水淡化系统操作、降低总体操作费用具有重要意义。     

Simulation of continuous counter-current leaching of garad pods

A multiple-batch extraction technique, usually applied in liquid-liquid extraction, has been employed successfully to simulate continuous counter-current leaching of tannins from garad pods. The work shows that the overall leachability using the best continuous systems could be as high as that of the batch system.     

Extending the resource task network for industrial applications

The discrete time resource-task network (RTN) model is a generalized mixed-integer linear programming model used in scheduling optimization problems. This paper presents several extensions to the RTN that have been used at The Dow Chemical Company. One RTN extension allows for more realistic demand fulfillment: customer orders can be filled in their entirety at a distinct time point, rather than over several time periods. Modifications are proposed that allow tasks to interact not just with resources, but also with the bounds on those resources, which allows for an efficient method of modeling storage. The concept of multiple extents is introduced to extend the functionality of a single task and thereby reduce the overall size of the model and improve computation time. An alternative formulation of the RTN is also introduced in spatial rather than temporal coordinates, which allows applicability to a different class of problems such as payload optimization.     

Interior-point decomposition approaches for parallel solution of large-scale nonlinear parameter estimation problems

Multi-scenario optimization is a convenient way to formulate and solve multi-set parameter estimation problems that arise from errors-in-variables-measured (EVM) formulations. These large-scale problems lead to nonlinear programs (NLPs) with specialized structure that can be exploited by the NLP solver in order to obtained more efficient solutions. Here we adapt the IPOPT barrier nonlinear programming algorithm to provide efficient parallel solution of multi-scenario problems. The recently developed object oriented framework, IPOPT 3.2, has been specifically designed to allow specialized linear algebra in order to exploit problem specific structure. This study discusses high-level design principles of IPOPT 3.2 and develops a parallel Schur complement decomposition approach for large-scale multi-scenario optimization problems. A large-scale case study example for the identification of an industrial low-density polyethylene (LDPE) reactor model is presented. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through the solution of parameter estimation problems with over 4100 ordinary differential equations, 16,000 algebraic equations and 2100 degrees of freedom in a distributed cluster.     

Studies of polymeric systems for damping of vibrations in the sonic range

Closed-cell foams based on rigid polyurethanes blended with more viscoelastic polymers possess good vibration-damping properties. The damping characteristics of the various polymers differ, indicating that the chemical nature has an influence on the acoustical performance of the blend. Damping is also temperature dependent. By selection of polymers, foam effective for damping at various service temperatures and over various frequency ranges can be made. The damping characteristics of polymers can be changed by adding fillers. Such methods may be employed to achieve a broader damping peak at the desired service temperature. The damping of vibration of an aluminum strip could be increased by one to two orders of magnitude between 20°C to 60°C when the strip was coated with the experimental materials in comparison with commercial open-cell, elastic foams of comparable density. A dynamic resilience of only 9% was achieved.     

低品位能源化学储热材料研究进展

化学储热利用可逆化学变化中的吸、放热进行储能和释能，较之显/潜热储热，其能量密度呈数量级上升且可长期稳定储存热能。本文以低品位能源利用为前提，将化学储热分为化学吸附储热与化学反应储热两大类，对目前广泛研究、前景较大的化学储热材料进行了相应原理、特点、现存问题及其应用发展趋势的分析讨论与总结；经过对不同纯材料的分析对比，发现水合盐可以作为一类较理想的化学储热材料，但也存在易潮解等缺点，而复合材料的形成可为弥补各种纯材料的弊端提供了有效的解决路径；与此同时，目前仍缺乏可在反应器中良好运行的化学储热材料。最后对化学储热，尤其是储热材料的选择方面指出未来需要解决的问题及其进一步的研究方向。     

配煤对煤灰熔融性及黏温特性的影响

宁东地区煤种灰熔融温度和灰黏度均较低,是影响宁东煤化工基地大型气流床气化技术长周期稳定运行的关键因素,用X射线衍射分析(XRD)、Factsage软件、灰熔融温度测定仪和高温黏度测定仪探讨煤灰高温灰化过程中的矿物演变,研究配煤对宁东煤矿区配煤灰熔融特性及黏温特性的影响规律。结果表明,配煤比例与灰熔融特性、灰黏温特性均呈非线性关系。石槽村样煤(SM)与麦垛山煤样(MK)质量比为2∶8时,配煤的灰熔融温度为1 300℃,灰黏度5 Pa·s,基本满足德士古气化炉用煤的煤质要求,该配煤比例下高温灰的矿物组成主要是石英。可见通过配煤可以有效改善煤灰熔融及黏温特性。