Centre for Technology Transfer in the Process Industries, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

Energy Saving in Separation Processes for Bioresources Valorization

Separation processes for bioresources valorization have some specific features:
– Some valuable compounds are in high dilution (as the products from fermentation)
– Valuable compounds are very sensitive at atmospheric conditions (air sensitive, normal temperature sensitive as lycopene, carotenoids, etc.)
– Valuable compounds have low volatility and thermal sensitivity, consequently need quite low temperatures for separation processes (glycerides, unsaturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids methyl/ethyl esters, etc.)
As a consequence, this keynote lecture addresses special techniques as very high vacuum distillation or supercritical fluids extraction, underlying energy saving aspects related to each technique. In our centre two specialised laboratories are created: Laboratory for Innovative Products and Processes (here there are two laboratory pilot plants: very high vacuum distillation plant DSL-5 and respectively molecular distillation plant KDL-5 both from UIC) and Laboratory for Engineering of Supercritical Fluids Extraction Processes (including a solid SCF extraction unit and a column for fluid – SCF extraction).High vacuum and molecular distillation are techniques aimed to protect thermos-labile materials. However as the separation factors are not too high, the separation scheme involves repetition of these processes. This presentation evaluates the energy saving effect for different separation schemes for unsaturated fatty acids methyl esters. Supercritical fluid extraction is a separation technique aimed to separate active and sensitive compounds from both solid matrixes and fluids. As pressure is very high (150-400 bar) and reasonable temperatures (50-70 °C) the energy saving is an important issue to operate properly the extraction. After separation of CO2 the extracts are quite pure. The laboratory pilot plant existing in the Laboratory for Engineering of Supercritical Fluids Extraction Processes is designed for SCCO2 flowrates until 25 kg/h and pressure 550 bar. In this lecture an illustration for energy aspects related to extraction of carotenoids from some bioresources (tomatoes peels and marigold flowers) is presented.

CV: Professor Valentin PLESU is the director of the Centre for Technology Transfer in the Process Industries, research and consulting unit with more than 20 years activity in University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest. He has more than 40 years of academic in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering – Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Science, University POLITEHICA of Bucharest. He developed, as principal investigator, over 200 research and consulting projects funded by companies and by the budget of national and international funding bodies. The main research topics addressed during the years are: the separation processes, analysis of process plants, improvement of oil processing plants, modeling and simulation of bioresources separation (high-vacuum separation and supercritical fluid extraction), modeling and simulation of chemical processes. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles in international journals with high impact. He has also authored or co-authored more than 190 papers in various symposia and conferences, in some cases by direct invitation. He is funding member of Romanian Society of Chemical Engineering (RSCE), and representative of RSCE in the Computer Aided Process Engineering Working Party (CAPE-WP) of European Federation of Chemical Engineers. He received in 2007 ”Emilian A. Bratu” award from Romanian Chemical Society.

Department of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

Multi-Scale Process for Adsorption in Porous Media

The multiscale heat and mass transfer process in porous media is a widespread phenomenon that exists pervasively in multiscale gas adsorption for shale gas matrix and adsorbent bed. In this keynote lecture, a modified lattice Boltzmann model is developed on the pore-scale to accurately predict the effective diffusivity of heterogeneous shale matrix, where the multicomponent and irregular morphological features are fully considered. The effects of shale porosity, average gain diameter, orangic matrix volume fraction and diffusivity, and irregular structures on the matrix diffusion ability are investigated. A modified empirical formula is proposed to effectively capture the heterogeneous shale matrix diffusion ability. The gas adsorption and separation on porous surface of the absorbent at different scales are solved by a multiscale method that couples LBM with grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC). In interfacial boundary, saturation adsorption capacities are obtained by GCMC method to replace empirical values. Langmuir–Freundlich model and linear fitting formula are used to calculate the saturation adsorption capacities in Langmuir adsorption kinetics model and the adsorption heat in heat transfer in LBM model at mesoscopic level. Then, the mass transfer process of CO₂/CH₄ mixture gases in Cu-BTC membranes is investigated by the above multi-scale method. The proposed coupled method can be helpful in the design of efficient membranes.

CV: Professor Qu is a full professor in the School of Energy & Power Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He obtained his PhD degree in engineering thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2005. He worked as a visiting scholar at Advanced Heat Transfer, LLC USA and Pennsylvania State University in 2006 and 2013. His main research interests include thermal management of energy system, phase change heat transfer, transport phenomena in porous media, mass transfer for CO₂ absorption. He has published 130 SCI indexed papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been serving as the editorial board member for several journals. Prof. Qu has been awarded Second Class National Award for the State Scientific and Technological Progress (Rank 2) and Second Class National Award for Technological Invention (Rank 3). He is a recipient of Young Scholars of the Yangtze River, National Young Top-notch Talent Support Program, China National Funds for Excellent Young Scientists, Young Scholar Fund from Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation of China and the Ministry of education program for New Century Excellent Talents.

Southern University of Science and Technology

Plastics and Microplastics in the Environment

Abstract coming soon…

CV: Dr Lan Song is a lecturer at Southern University of Science and Technology. She is formerly a publisher at Elsevier, the Netherlands. With a background in Econanotoxicology, she worked as the Managing Editor for several environmental Science and Health journals. Currently, she is the publisher for twelve international scientific journals in environmental science and technology. Her main responsibility is to closely monitor the journal performance, identify potential editorial candidates, and proactively communicate with researchers to address the needs as authors, reviewers and readers.

School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Potentials and Opportunities of Bioenergy Production from Subtropical Biomass in Taiwan

Promoting biofuel to replace fossil fuels and alternative utilization schemes to replace conventional measures of biomass have been considered a priority to mitigate CO₂ emissions. Due to favorable climate and soil fertilities, the potential and opportunities for bioenergy supply in a place like Taiwan are estimated. Rich subtropical biodiversity in Taiwan presents abundant options of feedstock for bioenergy production. Examples of potential bioethanol production from Taiwanese chenopods, bamboos, napier grass, hardwood resources are analyzed. Opportunities of bioenergy production from biomass recovered from phytoremediation from heavy metal contaminated sites are also investigated. Finally, potential of bioenergy production from biomass wastes of rice paddies and forest sectors in Taiwan are also estimated. Results from the above studies could be employed to estimate the biomass and bioenergy production potentials of developing countries locating in subtropical regions around the world.

CV: Chun-Han Ko is a professor from School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University (NTU). He has joint NTU since 2001. He got his Ph.D. of Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA in 1999. His M.S. degree is of Paper Science and Engineering, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York (SUNY), USA in 1993. He served in Department of Water Quality Protection of Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in 2000-2001. He had served as Chair of School of Forestry and Resource Conservation of NTU in 2016-2018. He had also served as a member of several committees of Taiwan EPA. Dr. Ko’s interdisciplinary background facilitates his cross-field and integrated approach for research problems he faced. His current research interests are sustainable biomass conversion processes and development of novel biomaterial utilization schemes. He authored and co-authored over 70 peer reviewed, international scientific journal papers. Dr. Ko is also an avid participator of SDEWES and other international academic conferences.

Distinguished Professor, Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Implementation of Green Chemistry Principles for Chemical Industries towards Sustainable Development Goals: The Use of Renewable Resources

Sustainable development goals (SDGs), the collection of 17 goals proposed by the United Nations in 2015, aimed to improve the world by tackling social, environmental and economic sustainability. Among SDGs, clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and climate action (SDG 13) are related to the outcomes of impure water, clean energy, toxic chemicals, and climate change. Water scarcity affects more than 40 % of people around the world, and one in every four people would be negatively impacted by water scarcity in the future. In particular, contamination by toxic chemicals and global warming are the major contributors to global water pollution and scarcity, respectively. Therefore, green chemicals in accordance with green chemistry principles (GCP) is one of the business opportunities proposed by Business & Sustainable Development Commission in their flagship report “Better Business, Better World”. GCP are comprehensively developed and utilized in industrial management, governmental policy, educational practice and technological development around the world. To implement GCP practices into chemical industries, we proposed new categories of GCP including (1) pollution and accident prevention, (2) safety and accident assurance, and (3) energy and resource sustainability. The integration of GCP and chemical industry can be achieved by cleaner production, the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services. This could increase the overall efficiency of energy and resources, while reducing risks to humans and the environment. We also illustrate several portfolio options of technologies for establishing waste-to-energy and –resource supply chains, such as biomass wastes utilization, towards circular economy system. Lastly, we provide several perspectives and prospects, including (1) developing green technologies for cleaner production, (2) establishing sustainable material management system, (3) building smart circular economy park, (4) promoting green economy business models, and (5) implementing multi-scale system analysis towards green engineering and sustainable technology.
Keywords: Circular economy; Toxic chemicals; Cleaner production; Prevention-assurance-sustainability; Business models.

CV: Dr Chiang began engaging in teaching and research activities in National Taiwan University since he obtained PhD degree from the Department of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, USA in 1982. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor of Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, a Director of Carbon Cycle Research Center of National Taiwan University, a BCCE of American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), a Fellow of Water Environment Federation (WEF), and a Diplomat of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He has been actively involved the international and national academic associations served as the Board of Director (1987-2007), Executive Committee (2001), Academic Committee (2008-present), WEF; Chairman, IAWQ Specialized Conference (2001); President, Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering (2004-2006); and AIChE Local Chapter (2009-present).
Dr Chiang is known for his work in physicochemical treatment such as carbon adsorption, membrane and ozonation processes. In addition, he was also devoted to the research projects in the area of carbon capture technology, integrated watershed management, and sustainability for energy and industrial development. He has received numerous awards for research achievements, including Outstanding Research Award, National Science Council (1988-1999), Distinguished Chinese Institute of Engineer Research Award (1993), Outstanding Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering Research Award (1993, 1995), Best Paper Award, Environmental and Water Resource Institute, ASCE (2005), and Best Paper Award, Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering (2011, 2014). Dr Chiang has published more than 200 paper papers in the above area since 1990.

Program Chair and Professor, Holder of the Qatar Shell Professorship and Executive Director of Graduate Studies, Texas A&M University, Qatar

Development of Integrated Resource Utilization Strategies under Emissions Constraints

The demand for the conversion of feedstock into value-added chemicals and fuels through different routes is expected to increase with world population and improving standards of living. At the same time, there is a need to meet emerging requirements for emissions reduction and to achieve better circularity of conversion strategies. Ambitious CO₂ emission reduction targets to avoid dangerous climate change effects and thereby enhance sustainability is a prominent example of the former. In the oil and gas sector in particular, utilizing natural gas under stringent emissions constraints will require a wide variety of existing and emerging technology options to be considered in determining optimal strategies for utilization. Hence, the development of an integrated approach to systematically screen through the many possible strategic options – across multiple feedstock, many conversion routes, products, intermediates, and emissions – is important for the identification of improved utilization strategies for the future.

The lecture will present an overview of research into the development of a systematic, optimization-based approach for the systematic screening of optimal resource utilization options considering multiple feedstock, conversion processes, product choices, intermediates and emissions, including but not limited to natural gas, different energy sources, value added products, as well as waste such as carbon dioxide. The approach follows a novel problem representation and results in a structural resource management network optimization problem. The work focusses on processing clusters and the proposed method will optimize raw material usage, energy requirements, and power requirements across industrial parks to identify those strategies, which maximizing profitability while meeting emissions constraints. The solution of the optimization model identifies efficient routes to utilize resources in the processing cluster under constraints on allowable emissions, resource availability whilst maximizing economic potential. After explaining the developed approach, a case study will be presented to show how the method can help determine strategic resource utilization choices in complex systems where multiple feed stocks, intermediates and products are simultaneously considered.

CV: He currently leads research into innovating desalination process designs with a focus on membrane-based systems, the optimal use of renewable forms of energy in desalination, desalination infrastructure planning, the efficient use of energy in industrial zones, the synthesis of novel materials for power generation from alternative energy sources, and the development of tools to minimize environmental impacts from industrial activities.

Director of the Centre for Process Integration, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, the University of Manchester, United Kingdom

The Role of Process Integration in Rethinking Future Industrial Energy Systems

Solving the energy trilemma of the low-carbon, affordable and secure supply of energy will require a complete rethinking of future energy systems. Maximising the sustainable provision of energy requires that energy systems should strive to satisfy human needs in an economically viable, environmentally benign and socially acceptable way. Given the major uncertainties facing future energy systems, there is a need to establish flexible solutions to allow for the local supply and demand of energy, future changes in supply and demand, and technology developments.

The energy intensive process industries account for around 70% of total industrial energy consumption and 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the chemical and petrochemical industries use 10% of global energy consumption and generate 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. In the energy intensive process industries as a whole, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are currently mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels to produce process heat and power. There is also currently gross inefficiency in the way this energy is used, with around 40% wasted as low-temperature heat (<150° C), mainly to cooling towers, air cooling and furnace stack losses.

Primary energy in the energy intensive process industries is currently overwhelmingly dominated by the use of fossil fuels, mainly natural gas and oil, but also coal in some countries. If these industries are to be transformed from huge energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters, a switch to renewables and waste-to-energy systems is required. However, the energy intensive process industries also have some special energy requirements that bring additional difficulties for such a switch. Firstly, the heating requirement is often far higher than the power demand. Secondly, heat is often required at very high temperatures. This means that in the future if there is a wholesale switch to renewable power, then the use of renewable power has limited potential to substitute fossil fuels directly, because of the large heat demand currently satisfied by steam heating and the high-temperature heat demand currently satisfied by firing fossil fuels in fired heaters. Thus, an appropriate mix of different renewables would be required to satisfy differing heat and power demands. Heat can in principle be provided by biomass, biogas or waste-to-energy for high-temperature process heating and the generation of steam and power at least to some extent by wind and solar photovoltaics. However, because of the intermittency of supply of renewable power, some storage will most likely be required. Such storage is also beneficial for smoothing variations in demand and to compensate for variable power tariffs. In addition to storing electricity, storage can be used for heating or cooling. Currently, energy storage within the energy intensive process industries is hardly practised at all.

To solve this problem requires rethinking the way in which industrial energy is supplied, combining the most appropriate sources of energy, including renewables, waste-to-energy systems, the symbiotic exploitation of waste heat and energy storage to match local power-to-heat ratio demand and heating requirements both in terms of duty and temperature in a more efficient and environmentally sustainable way than current approaches. Process integration methods have a long established track record in reducing energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. This presentation will address how process integration methods can be used to apply a holistic and life cycle approach for the conceptual design of integrated industrial energy systems. This necessitates utilising a range of energy sources, allowing for the variability of supply and demand, and including life cycle considerations.

CV: Professor Robin Smith is Director of the Centre for Process Integration in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science of the University of Manchester. He co-founded Process Integration Limited and Process Asset Integration Management Limited (ProAim), both spin-out companies from the University. He has extensive industrial experience with Rohm & Haas in process investigation, production and process design, and with ICI in process modelling and process integration. He has acted extensively as a consultant to industry in process integration projects. He has published widely in the field of process integration and is the author of “Chemical Process Design and Integration”, published by Wiley. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in the UK and a Chartered Engineer. In 1992 he was awarded the Hanson Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers for his work on waste minimisation. In 2018 he was awarded the Sargent Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in recognition of over 35 years leadership and pioneering research leading to the conceptual development of advanced process integration principles and methodologies.

SPIL Conference President and Head of SPIL, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic

It will be our pleasure to welcome you to the beautiful city of Brno, the capital of historical country Moravia, for the 3^rd Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory – SPIL Scientific Conference: Energy, Water, Emission, & Waste in Industry and Cities.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of EU project “Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory – SPIL” funded as project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000456, by Czech Republic Operational Programme Research and Development, Education, Priority 1: Strengthening capacity for quality research, in enabling the SPIL Scientific Conference platform.

Designed as an intensive two-day event, SPIL Conference aims to stimulate novel ideas and foster new collaborations for a sustainable future. We have the privilege to interact with international scientific leaders in Process Integration and Sustainability research including Editors-in-Chief from leading international journals.

The success of the SPIL network is enhanced through collaboration agreements with the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (MY), the University of Manchester (UK), University of Maribor (SI), Hebei University of Technology (CN), Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem (HU), Fudan University (CN), University of Waikato (NZ), Xi’an Jiaotong University (CN), De La Salle University (PH), National Technical University Kharkiv (UA), and more soon to be announced.

We hope you will join us in Brno in November!