A reception with light refreshments will be held in the B10 lobby before each seminar from 1-1:30 p.m.

Systems Engineering for Renewable Energy System Design and Operation

After a brief overview of the different classes of problems addressed in the three main subareas of process systems engineering, the first part of the talk presents methods for “operational” planning of process and energy systems, with special emphasis placed on real-time optimization of large-scale systems. The second part of the talk discusses how systems engineering can facilitate the development of novel strategies to produce renewable fuels and chemicals and, importantly, how “systems thinking” can be used to identify technological and economic drivers, and, ultimately, guide future research efforts. We also discuss how the synthesis of systems based on renewable power leads, naturally, to new types of problems for which traditional approaches are insufficient; and outline progress towards the development of novel methods to address these challenges. Finally, we briefly discuss the computational challenges associated with the design and operation of new energy and chemical production systems, and discuss recent advances, including approaches that use AI techniques.