Christos Maravelias

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 methods to address these challenges.

Finally, we briefly discuss the computational challenges associated with the operation and design of new energy and chemical production systems, and discuss recent advances, including approaches that use AI techniques.

Christos Maravelias is the Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and the Anderson Family Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. His research interests lie in the general area of process and energy systems engineering and optimization.

Specifically, he is studying production planning and scheduling, supply chain optimization, and energy systems synthesis and analysis with emphasis on renewable energy technologies. He has authored a research monograph on Chemical Production Scheduling.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award and the Sustainable Engineering Forum Research Award from AIChE, the Production and Operations Management Society Applied Research Challenge Award, and the Horizon Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

• Time: 11 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall