(7ae) Streamlining Chemical Process Design with Process Systems Engineering Methods

As a relatively young area focused on the understanding and development of systematic procedures for the design and operation of chemical process systems, process systems engineering (PSE) has the potential to improve the decision making processes for the chemical supply chain. This poster discusses my research vision for application of PSE methods in three paradigms.

Renewable Chemicals and Fuels

Biorefinery process development relies on PSE methods to identify primary technology drivers, prioritize research directions, and mitigate technical risk for scale-up. The objective is to synthesis detailed reaction, separation and utility systems; develop process simulation models based on experimental results; perform technoeconomic and life cycle analyses; and ultimately, suggest future research directions. We recently developed patent-pending catalytic process for production of high-value commodity chemicals (α,ω-diols, 1,5-pentanediol (1,5-PDO) and 1,6-hexanediol (1,6-HDO)) from wood and crop waste instead of petroleum feedstocks. We use process modeling, synthesis, analysis to assess economic feasibility as well as prioritize research directions based on our experimental results. We have shown that the renewable plastic precursors, serving as high value co-products of the integrated biorefinery, could lower the cost of ethanol by more than two dollars per gallon. Future work includes performing process optimization to maximize economic potential of integrated process. I envision novel generalized design methods for integrated biorefinery, where the ambiguity of prioritizing different technologies, products, and sustainability metrics is addressed.

Catalytic Natural Gas Conversion

The conversion of natural gas into chemicals and synthetic fuels could significantly upgrades the economic value of the natural gas resource and increase energy security by providing access to the fungible petrochemicals market. Yet, the direct catalytic conversion of methane to desired products such as olefins and higher hydrocarbons, remains a great challenge for the catalysis community, while it is potentially simpler in technology and more economical. We have utilized process modeling to assess the economic feasibility of a generic direct nonoxidative methane conversion strategy. We have developed a simple, flexible approach that allows for the systematic evaluation of various technology alternatives and for the identification of the key technology gaps that must be overcome in order to commercialize this technology. The results of our analysis demonstrate that an economically feasible direct methane conversion process is contingent upon fundamental research advances in the area of catalytic conversion. This generalized approach could be further extended to consider more conversion strategies and ultimately transformed to an accessible user-friendly platform for the catalyst community to assess their technologies. I hope that this study would help accelerate the realization of the methane conversion technologies on industrial scales.

Work and Heat Exchanger Network (WHEN)

We have applied advanced modeling and optimization techniques for energy recovery. Energy recovery via process integration is a long established practice in the chemical industry and scopes exist for improving the overall energy system design performance. Our work identifies several critical synthesis issues of direct practical relevance to process integration problems. Specific focus is given to non-isothermal mixing, variable stream conditions, novel superstructures and mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) models, and efficient solution methods for simultaneous work and heat exchanger network synthesis (WHENS). While current WHENs works mostly use heuristics and simplification based approaches, our work identifies, formulates and solves several important optimization issues and demonstrates significant improvement in overall cost and solution performance, which provides potentially applications for the design of a chemical process using superstructure optimization. Future research goals focus on synthesis of flexible and operable WHENs under periodical changes in the environment of a plant. Long-term goals focus on improving solution efficiency and quality for this non-convex MINLP problems, and ultimately developing global optimization algorithms.

Teaching Interests:

I am qualified to teach most of chemical engineering core courses, and especially interested in teaching process modeling, synthesis, and design. I had extensive teaching experience as an Instructor at Aspen and a TA at National University of Singapore. I prepared teaching materials, and gave lectures and tutorials. I also look forward to developing new courses related to process simulation and biorefinery.

References

Huang, K., Miller, J.B., Huber, G.W., Dumesic, J.A., Maravelias, C.T., 2017. A Generalized Approach for Evaluation of Direct Nonoxidative Methane Conversion Strategies. In Preparation.

Huang, K., Won, W., Barnett, K.J., Brentzel, Z.J., David Martin Alonso, Huber, G.W., Dumesic, J.A., Maravelias, C.T., 2017. Improving Economics of Lignocellulosic Biofuels: An Integrated Strategy for Coproducing 1,5-Pentanediol and Bioethanol. Under Review.

Huang, K., Brentzel, Z.J., Barnett, K.J., Huber, G.W., Dumesic, J.A., Maravelias, C.T., 2017. Conversion of Furfural to 1,5-Pentanediol: Process Synthesis and Analysis. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 5, 4699-4706.

Huang, K., Karimi, I.A., 2016. Work-Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis (WHENS). Energy 113, 1006-1017.

Huang, K., Karimi, I.A., 2014. Efficient Algorithm for Simultaneous Synthesis of Heat Exchanger Networks. Chemical Engineering Science 105, 53–68.

Huang, K., Karimi, I.A., 2013. Simultaneous Synthesis Approaches for Cost-Effective Heat Exchanger Networks. Chemical Engineering Science 98, 231–245.

Huang, K., Almutairi, E., Karimi, I.A., 2012. Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis Using a Stagewise Superstructure with Non-Isothermal Mixing. Chemical Engineering Science 73, 30–43.

He, J., Huang K., et al., 2017. New Catalytic Strategies for Alpha-Omega Diol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass. Faraday Discussion.

Brentzel, Z.J., Barnett, K.J., Huang, K., Maravelias, C.T., Huber, G.W., Dumesic, J.A., 2017. Chemicals from Biomass: Combining Ring-Opening Tautomerization and Hydrogenation Reactions to Produce 1,5-Pentanediol from Furfural. ChemSusChem 10, 1351-1355.

He, J., Liu, M., Huang, K., Walker, T.W., Maravelias, C.T., Dumesic, J.A., Huber, G.W., 2017. Production of Levoglucosenone and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from Cellulose in Polar Aprotic Solvent-Water Mixtures. Green Chemistry.

Kong, L., Avadiappan, V., Huang, K., Maravelias, C.T., 2017. Simultaneous Chemical Process Synthesis and Heat Integration with Unclassified Hot/Cold Process Streams. Computers & Chemical Engineering 101, 210-225.