The objective of my research programme is to develop fundamental theory and optimization based methodologies and computational tools that enable process engineers to analyze, design and evaluate process manufacturing systems which are economically attractive, energy efficient and environmentally benign, while at the same time exhibit good performance characteristics like flexibility, controllability, robustness, reliability and safety. Our research involves three main strands:
Process synthesis and the environment: Here we are concerned with the development of process integration and pollution prevention strategies for the design and operation of plant-wide sustainable processes. Novel process synthesis modelling concepts are explored together with life-cycle and environmental impact assessment aspects, leading to new designs which feature step-change improvements in energy efficiency, waste minimization and process sustainability.
Integration of operability objectives in process design and operation: Our work here has centered on the development and implementation of novel analytical tools to simultaneously assess process flexibility, controllability, robustness, reliability and availability of complex process manufacturing systems and the systematic incorporation of these tools at the design and operational level.
Process optimization under uncertainty - theory, algorithms and applications: Here we develop the fundamental underlying mathematical theory, numerical algorithms and efficient computational tools for the solution of multi-parametric and stochastic mixed integer optimization problems, which arise in the context of the work described in the other two research strands.
