PROCESS MODELLING AND DEBOTTLENECKING STUDY OF A VACCINE PRODUCTION

ABSTRACT: The main objective of this research work was to model and optimise the production of a locally-developed Infectious Coryza (IC) vaccine. The simulation work was performed using a commercially available batch process simulator SuperPro Designer v5.5. Six debottlenecking schemes were analysed using throughput analysis and cost to benefit ratio (CBR) when the annual production was set to increase by 100%. Based on the economic analysis, the selected debottlenecking scheme has an annual predicted revenue of USD 240 million, with a gross margin of 9.13% and a return on investment (ROI) of 46.12%. In addition, the payback period of the selected scheme is estimated to be within three years.  ABSTRAK: Objektif utama dalam penyelidikan ini adalah untuk memodelkan dan mengoptimumkan hasil pembuatan vaksin tempatan Coryza berjangkit. Kerja simulasi ini dijalankan menggunakan alat simulasi Super Pro Designer v5.5. Sebanyak enam (6) skema khusus diujikaji menggunakan analisis pemprosesan dan kos kepada nisbah faedah (CBR) apabila pembuatan tahunan meningkat kepada 100%. Berdasarkan analisis ekonomi yang telah dilakukan, sesuatu skema khusus yang dipilih mempunyai keuntungan sebanyak USD 240 juta dengan margin kasar 9.13% dan pulangan atas pelaburan (ROI) sebanyak 46.12%. Selain itu juga, tempoh pembayaran balik bagi skema yang dipilih dianggarkan dalam tempoh tiga(3) tahun. KEYWORDS: process simulation; modelling; debottlenecking; optimisatio

Pinch Analysis for Sustainable Energy Planning Using Diverse Quality Measures

© 2013 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.. This chapter presents the generalised Pinch principles for energy planning involving the optimal matching of sources and sinks (or demands) using diverse measures of energy quality such as Carbon Footprint, Agricultural-Land Footprint, Water Footprint, emergy and inoperability. These indices provide numerical measures of the quality of energy streams allocated between sources and sinks under different contexts. Nevertheless, there are common principles that apply to all such systems, which allow the use of a two-phase insight-based Pinch Analysis approach comprising targeting (benchmarking with first principle), followed by the determination of the optimal energy allocation network. Five different examples are solved here to illustrate the application of such Energy Planning Composite Curves (EPCC)

A review on process integration techniques for carbon emissions and environmental footprint problems

© 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers Sustainability has become a major focus for industrial sectors and government agencies in the global community. In particular, climate change is now seen as the most critical environmental problem of the world. Various techniques have thus been developed in the past decades to guide planners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at various scales, ranging from plant-level combustion emissions to regional or national carbon footprints. Process integration techniques that were previously developed for energy, mass and property integration have now been extended to various emission and environmentally-constrained problems, taking into account footprint metrics that measure environmental impacts other than global warming. This paper discusses the historical evolution of the recently developed process integration techniques for various emission- and footprint-related problems, along with their contributions and limitations. Some recent applications for specific countries are also reviewed

Graphical pinch analysis for planning biochar-based carbon management networks

Biochar is a potentially scalable negative emission technology (NET). The negative net flow of carbon is achieved sequentially via photosynthesis which fixes atmospheric carbon into biomass, followed by thermochemical processing of biomass into biochar which converts the bulk of the fixed carbon into stable or recalcitrant form, and finally by the application of the resulting biochar to soil. In addition, this process can result in additional carbon offsets through favorable modification of soil by reducing fertilizer requirement, as well as other secondary benefits. On the other hand, biochar is typically contaminated with traces of organic (e.g., dioxins) and inorganic impurities (e.g., salts) that are detrimental to soil quality. The presence of such impurities and the capacity of the receiving soil to tolerate their presence put an upper limit on the amount of biochar that can be added without causing adverse environmental effects. Thus, scaling up biochar-based systems requires the planning of a carbon management network (CMN) consisting of biochar sources (i.e., production facilities) and biochar sinks (i.e., receiving tracts of land). In general, such CMNs need to be operated so as to maximize system-wide carbon sequestration without exceeding the tolerance limits of the biochar sinks. This paper proposes a graphical pinch analysis approach to planning such biochar-based CMNs. The applicability of the methodology is illustrated using a hypothetical case study. © 2018, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd

Students’ perception of non-placement work-integrated learning in chemical engineering: Work-related skills towards the post-pandemic future

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a pedagogical activity designed to enhance the integration of theoretical knowledge and practical skills in an authentic context. WIL is typically accomplished through work placement, but a non-placement WIL is potentially promising. In this study, a non-placement WIL programme was incorporated into chemical engineering final year projects. The students worked on industrial problems without a work placement. The purpose of the study was to investigate work-related skills learned in a non-placement WIL programme. A qualitative dominant mixed-methods research approach was adopted. Data was collected using a quantitative questionnaire (n = 69) and a qualitative interview (n = 15). Quantitative findings revealed no significant difference between students working on non-placement WIL and academic projects. However, qualitative findings revealed seven insightful work-related skills in the non-placement WIL: (1) professional relationship with industrial experts and academic supervisors, (2) virtual communication and collaboration, (3) technology skills in the latest industrial software and tools, (4) motivation to undertake novel and challenging industrial problems, (5) creative and innovative strategies, (6) application of higher order thinking skills to model authentic problems, (7) inductive and deductive reasoning. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how engineers work. Today, it is a necessity to embrace creative problem-solving skills and adopt various types of modern technologies to work effectively and remotely

A reduced order model for triethylene glycol natural gas dehydration system

In natural gas processing plants, glycol dehydration is commonly used to remove water from the gas streams, to avoid pipeline blockage and equipment breakdown due to hydrates formation. This paper proposed a reduced order model developed based on integrated simulation-optimization approach for the glycol dehydration system, with the aim to minimize its operating cost while satisfying pipeline quality specifications. Steady-state process simulation software was used to identify important operating parameters for the glycol dehydration process; these include reboiler temperature and flow ratio of the regeneration column, and solvent flowrate. The identified parameters are built into a non-linear programming model, which was developed as a reduced order model for ease of implementation in the plant. The studied parameters are reboiler duties, hot oil, condenser, and pump, as well as TEG make-up flow rate and CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions. The Pareto Front is developed to identify the minimum operating cost at different levels of water dew point specification. The work has resulted in the annual savings of more than 34.6%

Targeting for carbon sequestration retrofit planning in the power generation sector for multi-period problems

Carbon constrained energy planning (CCEP) is useful to ensure that the CO2 emissions limit for a region is met through deployment of low-carbon technologies. The increased demand in energy consumption due to economic growth requires additional energy supply and generation which would subsequently increase the carbon emissions. Nevertheless, most countries are now committed to reduce carbon emission to achieve long term sustainability goals. However, the development of alternative energy sources or carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives for power plants entails major capital investments. This paper demonstrates how these issues may be handled using CCEP with insight- and optimisation-based targeting techniques for multi-period scenarios. Both approaches were developed recently for CCEP problems, but previous techniques were limited to single-period planning. The extensions to multi-period scenarios are demonstrated in this work with hypothetical illustrative examples, as well as a Malaysian case study. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Graphical approach to minimum flowrate targeting for partitioning water pretreatment units

Pretreatment is often necessary when the fresh water available to industrial plants is impure, and when some processes are particularly sensitive to contaminants. Partitioning processes such as membrane separation units are often used for such applications. However, the use of pretreatment units adds to capital and operating costs for a water system. Hence, it is of interest to develop design procedures to minimize the cost for such system. This work presents a graphical pinch analysis approach for targeting minimum flowrate of partitioning water pretreatment systems in single component problem. The approach determines how product and reject streams from the treatment unit can be allocated, along with bypassed freshwater, to satisfy multiple process sinks with their respective flowrate and purity requirements. Hypothetical case studies are presented to illustrate the approach, and generalized design principles based on pinch analysis heuristics are drawn from the examples. © 2009 The Institution of Chemical Engineers