Elaboración de una unidad didáctica de primaria para alumnos con deficiencia auditiva

La unidad didáctica “el aparato digestivo” se ha elaborado con el objetivo de facilitarle a los alumnos sordos el acceso a los contenidos curriculares, adaptando los textos de sus libros y acompañándolos de apoyos visuales y auditivos. Incluye un documento en formato word y una presentación en power point. Como apoyos visuales hemos incluido dibujos e ilustraciones relacionados con los principales contenidos del tema, fotografías de los signos de la lengua de signos referidas al vocabulario básico y los videos con interpretaciones simultáneas a la lengua de signos de los textos escritos. Como apoyo auditivo hemos incluido grabaciones en audio de los textos para ser escuchadas de manera independiente o simultánea al signado de los textos

Global sensitivity analysis in life-cycle assessment of early-stage technology using detailed process simulation: application to dialkylimidazolium ionic liquid production.

The ability to assess the environmental performance of early-stage technologies at production scale is critical for sustainable process development. This paper presents a systematic methodology for uncertainty quantification in life-cycle assessment (LCA) of such technologies using global sensitivity analysis (GSA) coupled with a detailed process simulator and LCA database. This methodology accounts for uncertainty in both the background and foreground life-cycle inventories, and is enabled by lumping multiple background flows, either downstream or upstream of the foreground processes, in order to reduce the number of factors in the sensitivity analysis. A case study comparing the life-cycle impacts of two dialkylimidazolium ionic liquids is conducted to illustrate the methodology. Failure to account for the foreground process uncertainty alongside the background uncertainty is shown to underestimate the predicted variance of the end-point environmental impacts by a factor of two. Variance-based GSA furthermore reveals that only few foreground and background uncertain parameters contribute significantly to the total variance in the end-point environmental impacts. As well as emphasizing the need to account for foreground uncertainties in LCA of early-stage technologies, these results illustrate how GSA can empower more reliable decision-making in LCA

Hybrid simulation-optimization based approach for the optimal design of single-product biotechnological processes

In this work, we present a systematic method for the optimal development of bioprocesses that relies on the combined use of simulation packages and optimization tools. One of the main advantages of our method is that it allows for the simultaneous optimization of all the individual components of a bioprocess, including the main upstream and downstream units. The design task is mathematically formulated as a mixed-integer dynamic optimization (MIDO) problem, which is solved by a decomposition method that iterates between primal and master sub-problems. The primal dynamic optimization problem optimizes the operating conditions, bioreactor kinetics and equipment sizes, whereas the master levels entails the solution of a tailored mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that decides on the values of the integer variables (i.e., number of equipments in parallel and topological decisions). The dynamic optimization primal sub-problems are solved via a sequential approach that integrates the process simulator SuperPro Designer® with an external NLP solver implemented in Matlab®. The capabilities of the proposed methodology are illustrated through its application to a typical fermentation process and to the production of the amino acid L-lysine.Support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (projects DPI2008-04099 and CTQ2009-14420-C02) and the Spanish Ministry of External Affairs (projects A/023551/09, A/031707/10 and HS2007-0006)

Multi-objective optimization of environmentally conscious chemical supply chains under demand uncertainty

In this work, we analyze the effect of demand uncertainty on the multi-objective optimization of chemical supply chains (SC) considering simultaneously their economic and environmental performance. To this end, we present a stochastic multi-scenario mixed-integer linear program (MILP) with the unique feature of incorporating explicitly the demand uncertainty using scenarios with given probability of occurrence. The environmental performance is quantified following life cycle assessment (LCA) principles, which are represented in the model formulation through standard algebraic equations. The capabilities of our approach are illustrated through a case study. We show that the stochastic solution improves the economic performance of the SC in comparison with the deterministic one at any level of the environmental impact.The authors wish to acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (ENE2011-28269-C03-03, ENE2011-22722, DPI2012-37154-C02-02, CTQ2009-14420-C02, CTQ2012-37039-C02) and Programa DRAC de la Xarxa Vives d’Universitats

Role of life-cycle externalities in the valuation of protic ionic liquids – a case study in biomass pretreatment solvents

Ionic liquids have found their way into many applications where they show a high potential to replace traditional chemicals. But there are concerns over their ecological impacts (toxicity and biodegradability) and high cost, which have limited their use so far. The outcome of existing techno-economic and life-cycle assessments comparing ionic liquids with existing solvents has proven hard to interpret due to the many metrics used and trade-offs between them. For the first time, this paper couples the concept of monetization with detailed process simulation and life-cycle assessment to estimate the true cost of ionic liquids. A comparative case study on four solvents used in lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment is conducted: triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate [TEA][HSO4], 1-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate [HMIM][HSO4], acetone from fossil sources, and glycerol from renewable sources. The results show that the total monetized cost of production accounting for externalities can be more than double the direct costs estimated using conventional economic assessment methods. The ionic liquid [TEA][HSO4] is found to have the lowest total cost, while the renewable solvent glycerol presents the highest total cost. We expect this methodology to provide a starting point for future research and development in sustainable ionic liquid