Besuch von der Lehigh University

Dipl.-Ing. Daniel Kohlmann (l.) und Prof. El-Aasser (r.) während der Laborbesuche.

06. 05. – Am 6. Mai 2013 besuchte der Vice-President der Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania und Professor of Chemical Engineering Mohamed S. El-Aasser die TU Dortmund und die Fakultät BCI. Ziel seines Besuches war vor allem der weitere Ausbau des seit vielen Jahren bestehenden Studierendenaustauschs und der wissenschaftlichen Kooperation zwischen den Fakultäten. Der Studierendenaustausch mit der Lehigh University wurde bereits 1998 vertraglich vereinbart. Das International Summer Program der TU Dortmund wurde 2002 von Prof. Christos Georgakis und Prof. Sebastian Engell von der Fakultät BCI entwickelt, um amerikanischen Studierenden eine Möglichkeit für einen kurzen Studienaufenthalt in Deutschland zu bieten und damit einen ausgeglichenen Studierendenaustausch zu realisieren. Seit dem Start des ISP im Jahre 2003 sind jedes Jahr Studierende der Lehigh University im Sommer in Dortmund gewesen, um am ISP teilzunehmen, und Studierende der TU Dortmund haben ein Semester lang an der Lehigh University studiert. Prof. El-Aasser führte Gespräche mit Vertreterinnen des International Office, mit den Organisatoren des ISP in der Fakultät BCI, Heiko Brandt, Daniel Haßkerl und Sergio Lucia und mit dem Prorektor für Forschung, Prof. Górak, und dem Dekan der Fakultät BCI, Prof. Engell. Außerdem erhielt er durch Vorträge und Laborbesuche Einblick in die Forschungsarbeiten des Lehrstuhls DYN zur Modellierung und Steuerung von Polymerisationsprozessen – Prof. El-Aasser ist ein weltweit führender Experte auf dem Gebiet der Emulsionspolymerisation – und besuchte die Technika des Lehrstuhls FVT.

Promition Chaujun Xu

Chaujun Xu (2. v. l.) nach der erfolgreichen mündlichen Prüfung mit seinem Prüfer  Prof. Dr. S. Engell (l.) und der Delegation des ABB Corporate Research Centers Deutschland (r.).

Chaujun Xu hat am 25.01.2013 seine Promotion zum Dr.-Ing. erfolgreich abgeschlossen. Das Thema seiner Dissertation war Coordination and Decomposition of Large-Scale Planning and Scheduling Problems with Application to Steel Production. Neben den Prüfern nahm eine Delegation des ABB Corporate Research Centers Deutschland, Iiro Harjunkoski, Senior Prinzipal Scientist, und Hubert Hadera, Researcher, an der Prüfung teil.

19. Professor Roger Sargent Lecture

Am 06. Dezember 2012 hält Prof. Dr. Engell am Imperial College, London, die neunzehnte Professor Roger W.H. Sargent Lecture. Diese Veranstaltung findet alljährlich im Centre for Process Systems Engineering in London zu Ehren des Pioniers auf diesem Gebiet, Prof. Roger Sargent, statt. Das Thema des Vortrags ist „Optimization under lack of knowledge – the key to operational excellence”. Weitergehende Informationen über den Inhalt und das Rahmenprogramm erhalten Sie in der  Informationsbroschüre.

DYN auf der PAAT 2012

Vom 19.11. bis 20.11.2012 nahmen Prof. Engell, Stephan Fischer, Thilo Goerke, Jochen Steimel und Christian Schoppmeyer am "Jahrestreffen der Fachgemeinschaft Prozess-, Apparate- und Anlagentechnik" (PAAT) im Kongresszentrum Westfalenhallen in Dortmund teil.

Die Mitarbeiter präsentierten dort folgende Beiträge:

• Systematische Spezifikation einer Steuerung für einen "Delayed coking Drum"-Prozess (Stephan Fischer, Herbert Teixeira, Sebastian Engell)
• Übertragung von Semibatch-Prozessen in kontinuierliche Anlagen (Thilo Goerke, Sebastian Engell)
• FSOpt - Ein Computerwerkzeug für die Modellierung und Optimierung von Fließbildsuperstrukturen unter Unsicherheiten (Jochen Steimel, Sebastian Engell)
• Optimiertes Scheduling der Transportroboter in einem Hochregallager für Polymere (Christian Schoppmeyer, Subanatarajan Subbiah, Sebastian Engell)

Promotion Le Chi Pham

Le Chi Pham (3. f. l.) after his PhD defense with his examiners Prof. Agar (l.), Prof. de Prada (2. f. l.), Prof. Engell (3. f. r.), Prof. Wichmann (2. f. r.), and Prof. Gorak (l.).

Le Chi Pham has successfully finished his PhD graduation on November the 5th, 2012. The topic of his dissertation is A Systematic Control Structure Selection for Economic Performance with Static and Dynamic Disturbances.

Promotion von Sabine Piana

Sabine Piana (middle) after her PhD defense with her examiners Prof. Schembecker (l.), Prof. Engell (2. f. l.), Prof. Kockmann (2. f. r.), and Prof. Agar (l.).

Sabine Piana has successfully finished her PhD graduation on September the 24th, 2012. The topic of her dissertation is Evolutionary Optimization of the Operation of Pipeless Plants with Variable Transfer Times.

Invited talk of Prof. Dr. Ekaterina Kostina

Prof. Dr. Ekaterina Kostina, from the University of Marburg, held the Lecture “Parameter Estimation and Optimum Experimental Design” on September 27th, 2012. Prof. Kostina’s research is oriented to the development of numerical methods for the solution of both mixed-integer and non-smooth large scale optimization problems, as well as to their application in the fields of Parameter Estimation and Optimal Experimental Design of nonlinear dynamical systems. The Lecture focused on theoretical optimization aspects and state-of-the-art methods (such as multiple shooting and collocation-based techniques) for the formulation and solution of the Parameter Estimation problem. The application of the aforementioned theory for both standard and Robust Optimal Experimental Design was also considered. The practical relevance of the topics presented on the Lecture was demonstrated by means of real-world examples from the fields of Chemical and Aerospace Engineering.

 

Photo: Prof. Engell discussing with Prof. Kostina

 

SABIC polyolefine GmbH VISIT

On August, 31^st, 2012, members of the DYN group and students of the lecture Logistics of Chemical Production Processes visited the SABIC Polyolefine GmbH in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven for an excursion.

The excursion program started with a bus tour across the plant site of SABIC and Ruhr Öl GmbH. After a guided tour through the high-rise warehouse and other parts of the logistics department, the excursion ended with a discussion about the future of plastics production and a presentation of the company SABIC.

 

On the picture: Mrs. Stamm, Hr. Hornung, Logistics & Services SABIC with students of the  Logistics of Chemical Production Processes course and members of the Process Dynamics and Operations group.

 

DYN at EURO XXV

Mr. Subanatarajan Subbiah, research assistant at the DYN group, took part in the 25th European Conference on Operational research (EUROXXV), held from July, 8th-11th, 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Pioneers in the field of Operations Research discussed aboutrecent developments in OR under 153 various streams. More than 2000 talks were held in the meet. Under the stream on "Emerging Aspects of Production Planning in Continuous Process Industries: Theory, Optimization, and Practice” Mr. Subbiah presented the current research results on “Production Scheduling in Batch Process Industries Using Timed Automata Models” (S. Subbiah, C. Schoppmeyer, S. Engell).

For more information, please follow link to the conference website: http://www.euro-2012.lt/welcome

 

DYN at the NMPC 2012

Prof. Engell and Sergio Lucia took part in the “IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC 2012)” from the 23rd of August until the 27thof August in Noordwijkerhout (The Netherlands) together with world-renowned experts on the field.

The following contribution was presented:

• Multi-stage and two-stage robust nonlinear model predictive control (Lucia, Engell).

DYN at the ADCHEM 2012

Tiago Finkler and Sergio Lucia, junior researchers at the Process Dynamics and Operations Group, took part in the International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes (ADCHEM) between the 10th of July and the 13th of July in Singapore, where internationally recognized experts discussed the advances and challenges of the field of process control.

There, the DYN Group contributed with four oral presentations:

• Realization of Online Optimizing Control in an Industrial Polymerization Reactor (Finkler, Kawohl, Piechottka, Engell)
• Scheme for Time-optimal Operation of Semi-batch Emulsion Polymerization Reactors (Pelz, Brandt, Finkler, Engell)
• A new Robust NMPC Scheme and its Application to a Semi-batch Reactor Example (Lucia, Finkler, Basak, Engell)
• An investigation of Economics-Driven NMPC-Formulations for a Continuous Catalytic Distillation System (Idris, Engell)

DYN at the PSE 2012 Symposium

Stephan Fischer and Christian Schoppmeyer, junior researchers at the Process Dynamics and Operations Group, presented their newest research results at the 11th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering (PSE’12), which took place from the 15th of July to the 19th of July in Singapur.  The theme of the triannual international symposium was: "Process Systems Engineering and Decision Support for the Flat World".

The following four topics were presented:

• Systematic Specification of a Logic Controller for Delayed Coking Drum (Fischer, Teixeira, Engell)
• Intergrated Model-based Support for the Design of Complex Controlled System (Hüfner, Fischer, Sonntag, Engell)
• Systematic Formalization of Control Requirements using Hierarchical Cause-Effect Charts (Fischer, Sonntag, Engell)
• Modeling and Solving Batch Scheduling Problems with Various Storage Policies and Operational Policies using Timed Automata (Schoppmeyer, Subbiah, Engell)

Final meeting of the EU-project CAEC

On August 21st 2012 the final meeting of the EU-project CAEC took place in Kaiserslautern. Beside the DYN chair and the Laboratoy of Fluid Seperations, seven more european institutions from science and industry were involved. In this project a process for the continuous chromatographic separation using annular electro-chromatography was realized for the first time world wide. The Process was equipped with an optimizing controller designed by Malte Behrens. The controller is based on a two dimensional nonlinear model. That is new in the filed of model based controll of chromatographic separations.

Exchange student from Princeton University

From June to Juli the exchange student Neesha Pinnaduwage from Princeton University visited the Process Dynamics and Operations Group under the exchange programme of the Ruhr fellowship (UAMR). During her stay with the Group Neesha participated in the development of a pipeless plant under the guidance of Mr. Martin Huefner. She used a Design of Experiments (DoE) approach to developed a theoretical formular for the hardening time of the individual crayon layers of the Pipeless Plant products, which depends on different parameters, thereby determing the optimal productions receipe for the plant. Neesha is the third exchange student from Princeton to participate in the development of the Group’s Pipeless plant.

DESTECS Summer School

From 9th July to 13th July 2012 Mr. Martin Huefner participated in the DESTECS Summer School on the subject of “Collaborative Modelling and Co-simulation for Embedded Systems Design” at Twente University. Apart from specialized lectures and discussions a model of a line-measuring robot was developed, arranged, simulated and optimized, as a group project using the DESTECS toolset.

Process Dynamics and Operations Group at ACHEMA

The 30th ACHEMA was held this year from 18th – 22nd June in Frankfurt am Main. According to DECHEMA more than 3.700 exhibitors provided information and exhibits about technical standards and tends, covering an area of 136.400 m². With a total number of 167.000 participants the Fair was considered to be very well attended. Of course The Process Dynamics and Operations Group participated in the fair as well and presented its Pipeless Plant, the tangible result of the MULTIFORM Projektes Project. The project’s aim was the development of tool support for the model-based design of complex control systems. Within this framework the design of a fully automated production of colored, multi layered crayon cylinders in a Pipeless Plant was chosen as a sample process. The central part of the Pipeless Plant is the optimal scheduling on wich the plant’s recipe opertaion is based.

Thus the Pipless Plant, substantially developed and built by Martin Hüfner, Christian Schoppmeyer, Stephan Fischer, Daniel Helibig and many others, embodies the current state of the Process Dynamics and Operations Group’s research. For further information and impressions about Plant and Fair please visit our facebook page.