Research

E&I's research programme covers the following areas and research challenges:

conceptual design of mono- and multi-process systems in a lifespan perspective (minimizing the Total Cost of Ownership)
process integration within and between process plants (industrial waste and waste water management, site-wide process integration, industrial ecology)
management of manufacturing operations, in particular batch process operations (production planning and scheduling, recipe management, and integrative approaches to planning and recipe optimization)
knowledge management in process design and operation.

conceptual design of energy systems and infrastructures (decentralized versus centralized energy supply, integration of distributed power supply units in the national grid);
management of energy systems and infrastructures (capacity allocation between providers, users and infrastructure functions, congestion management, quality of supply management, demand side management);
interactions/interdependencies between physical infrastructure and market structure (as a function of, e.g., spot market volume and interconnector capacity).

co-incineration of industrial wastes in thermal power plants; biogas production; waste and biomass gasification;
waste based synthesis gas utilization in industrial processes;
process integrated applications of energy conversion units in industrial processes (tri-generation plants).

analysis of network development mechanisms, and application of theoretical insights in network evolution to the innovation of energy infrastructures and industrial process networks;
developing methods and tools supporting the design problem formulation and the conceptual design of process and energy systems, networks and infrastructures, that allow for multi-objective optimization according to economic, social and environmental performance criteria, and accommodate multi-actor involvement;
developing methods and tools supporting the development, operation and management of multi-process systems in a multi-actor setting (e.g., eco-industrial parks, electricity and natural gas infrastructures, water supply, waste and waste water infrastructures), including capacity management tools.

E&I section