PROCESS DESIGN AND  PLANT OPERATION RESEARCH      

             Dr. Miguel Bagajewicz

 

DATA RECONCILIATION

  • The theory of gross error equivalency was proposed.

  • Many gross error detection methods were evaluated and one was developed. A program (Precise) was also developed.

  • Dynamic Data reconciliation was studied.

  • Applications to data reconciliation in pipeline systems was performed.




Detailed Information

 

OPTIMAL SENSOR LOCATION

  • A book was written on the subject. Robust (capable of filtering gross errors) and reliable sensor networks were studied.

  • Sensor networks for precision and fault detection were studied.

  • Unconstrained economic optimization methods are being developed . A value of information theory is used.

  • The belief is that redundant sesnor networks are key for the upcoming era of "Smart Plants"

Detailed Information

 

  HEAT INTEGRATION

  • Work was performed on heat integration between plants in the total site.

  • We studied the allocation of heat pumps in the total site.

  • An MILP procedure to design and upgrade heat exchanger networks was developed.



Detailed Information

 

CRUDE FRACTIONATION

  • A new design procedure for crude fractionation was developed.

  • Several existing designs (pre-flash, pre-fractionation, etc) were studied.

  • A patent was developed to increase distillates yield and reduce energy consumption.

  • Several alternative designs for crude fractionation are being studied.

Detailed Information

 

  WATER MANAGEMENT

  • A methodology to design and retrofit water management systems in process plants was developed.

  • Zero-liquid discharge cycles were studied.


Detailed Information

 

FINANCIAL RISK ANALYSIS

  • A method to manage risk in design was developed.

  • The method was applied to investment planning, heat integration planning, water management planning and is currently being applied to refinery operations problems.

Detailed Information

 

  PRODUCT DESIGN

  • A new methodology todesign products have been proposed.

  • The method includes quantiative asessment of the reaction of consumers to the quality of products and proce. This guides the design.


Detailed Information

 

REFINERY PLANNING

  • We are work on models for refinery production, oil procuring anmd product distribution planning under uncertainty.

  • We also started to develop optimization algorithms for the design of pipeline networks.

Detailed Information