Prof. Antonis Kokossis
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Title: An integrated approach for the development of renewable supply chains and industrial symbiosis networks
Abstract
The design of renewable supply chains from pilots and installed facilities bears tremendous social and economic benefits. By 2020, Bloomberg predicts that, only in Europe, there would be around 1,000 of such new units bringing €32.3 trillion revenues and 1 million new jobs. Process systems engineering has a pivotal and critical role in the development of bio-renewable supply chains. The general view is increasingly supported by results and analysis that prove the significance of systems engineering in future developments. The designs are required to match maximum efficiencies in the use of materials/energy and to assess uncertainties in processing and economic parameters that may affect the selected designs and the level of integration. The presentation explains a systems framework tested on real-life applications. The work combines methods in process synthesis and integration, optimization and process modelling. At a conceptual level, process synthesis determines process and products to use, enabling a systematic screening with a simultaneous approach and the systematic use of optimization. Process integration, integrates for maximum efficiency in raw materials and energy, as well as for the maximum performance against environmental targets. Process flowsheeting validates with process simulation and enables improvements with parametric optimization. The coordinated use of the systems methods constitutes a significant advancement in the state of the art, currently relying on case-by-case analysis (flowsheeting) or the experimentation with commercial simulators.
Applications include a range of real-life applications featuring the processing of organic substrates, algo-refineries and waste processing refineries. Applications involve chemistry paths with 70-odd chemicals that include basic intermediates (sugars, lignin, ethylene, oils), bulk chemicals (ethanol, butanol, propanol, isopropanol), bio-based polymers (PVC, resins, polyamides, PEIF, polyacrylates, PUs), and a wide range of chemicals (xylitol, xylonic acid, itaconic acid, sorbitol, isosorbide, hydrogel etc). Preliminary results are often impressive. Other than systematically screening and scoping integrated paths for the plant, the analysis reduces energy by 70% and the water use by 50-60%. Research is strongly coordinated with LCA. Results demonstrate that, unless fully integrated, biorefineries remain unsustainable. Instead, fully integrated biorefineries stand as viable and operational options, offering a strong promise to the development of sustainable industries in the future. The methodology is particularly tested in the context of Industrial Symbiosis where the systems methods are deployed to explore links (mass and energy exchanges) between industries and resources available at urban sites. Results and applications in that context will be presented from recent work to evaluate the renewable energy potential at four different EU ports.
Biography
Dr. Kokossis, FIChemE, FIEE, FRSA, and FIET, is Professor of Process Systems Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from NTUA and a PhD from Princeton University. He returned to his alma mater in 2009 following an overseas academic career for 22 years in UK (Manchester, Surrey). He holds expertise in process systems design and process integration, recently with a strong emphasis on renewable energy systems, polygeneration, and the design of biorefineries and industrial symbiosis networks. His research has addressed the design of multiphase reactors, complex separation and reactive-separation systems, energy and power networks, and environmental problems across a wide spectrum of applications (water reuse, recycle, and regeneration systems, wastewater management, gasification, waste to energy projects). He has established collaboration with several industrial companies (UOP, ICI, Bayer, Mitsubishi, Exxon, Eastman, MW Kellogg, BP Oil, Unilever, Chimar, BPF, CIMV, DSM, Arkema, Granherne, Linnhoff-March) and graduated 23 PhD and 38 MSc students. He holds 142 communications in International conferences, 129 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and 70 invited lectures in conferences universities, and multinational companies. He is National Representative of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Greek Secretary for Research and Technology in Climate Change (GSRT), and the Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Group of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE).