Events

We will discuss how systems engineering can facilitate the development of novel strategies to produce renewable fuels and chemicals. Importantly, he will show how ‘systems thinking’ (i.e., thinking about the entire system rather than its components) can be used to identify technological and economic drivers, and, ultimately, guide future research efforts.

After an overview of the methods used for system-wide studies, we discuss the synthesis and analysis of two broad classes of strategies: (1) biomass-to-fuels/chemicals systems and (2) systems that employ solar energy for power and fuels generation. Finally, we discuss how the synthesis of integrated renewable energy systems 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.  

Christos Maravelias is the Chair of the Department 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 and co-authored more than 200 journal articles. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the David Smith and Outstanding Young Researcher awards from the CAST Division of AIChE, the Sustainable Engineering Forum research Award from AIChE, and the Production and Operations Management Society Applied Research Challenge Award.

*Refreshments will be provided