Evaluating Risks and Managing Uncertainties in Process Systems Engineering
Vasiliki Kazantzi, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences (Technological Educational Institute) of Thessaly in Greece, will present a seminar on Thursday, April 6, 2017 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room of the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building. The topic will be “Evaluating Risks and Managing Uncertainties in Process Systems Engineering.”
Abstract
A major issue in process systems engineering is managing uncertainties that can introduce major risks for the chemical industry. This seminar presents insightful methodologies for evaluating risks and capturing uncertainties in process systems aiming at optimizing process performance. A variety of problems, in which irreducible uncertainties are present, will be discussed and addressed through the developed methodologies.
First, the problem of designing and scheduling biodiesel plants that can supplement the production of typical oil refineries through the blending of biodiesel and petrodiesel products will be considered. A property-integration framework for multi-period scheduling of biofuels production was developed to determine the optimal feedstock utilization and blending of diesel and biodiesel while considering variability in feedstock supply (seasonality, availability) and cost uncertainty.
Taking into account the uncertainties related to raw material cost fluctuations, biomass seasonality and the dynamics of biomass demand, a multi-criteria decision-making approach for adequately assessing imprecise biomass supplier profiles has also been suggested based on a combined Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS) method and multi-period optimization framework.
The issue of managing uncertain industrial flares during abnormal process operations will be next examined. In this work, an integrated optimization framework with a Monte Carlo simulation approach was proposed to optimally utilize industrial flares in energy alternative systems (such as a COGEN system in this case) and explore the importance of the uncertainty effects in process performance during abnormal situation management. An ethylene production case study is presented to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach and highlight trade-offs between different performance objectives (economic, energy-related and environmental).
Biography
Dr. Kazantzi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences (Technological Educational Institute) of Thessaly in Greece. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University. She has a Master of Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, both in chemical engineering.
Dr. Kazantzi worked on several projects in the USA and in Greece sponsored by federal and state agencies. She has served as the Executive Director of the Technology Park of Thessaly, S.A. in Greece and the scientific supervisor of the Biofuels Technology Platform initiative in Thessaly, Greece. She is also a visiting Professor at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Her research interests lie in the broader area of Process Systems and Supply Chain Management with a particular interest in Sustainable Operations, Process Safety, and Risk Assessment.
She was awarded a number of fellowships and assistantships included the Best Paper Award by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in the 2005 Annual Meeting.
She is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the Greek Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).