| Process Systems Design |
|
| To construct a sustainable society, it is necessary to consider about energy
and environments. From these aspects, we have been developing new processes
and systems for industries and communities. |
| In fact, the industrial sectors consume a plenty of energy; e.g. about
45% of energy is consumed in Japan. At the same time, the energy consumption
of commercial and residential sectors are increasing rapidly. To develop
further energy saving processes, it must introduce energy circulation in
these processes and minimization of process exergy (energy quality) loss
during operation. Theoretical and experimental investigations to design
such processes are performed in our laboratory. |
|
◎ Separation processes (Gas separation, Drying, Distillation etc.) |
|
◎ Reactor design (Fluidized bed etc.) |
|
◎ Thermal processes (Boiler, Heat exchanger etc.) |
|
◎ Power generation (Energy harvesting etc.) |
    |
|
|
| Process Control and Instrumentation |
|
| Although we can operate a new system in experiments, it is often cannot
get the same performance in actual scale systems as experimental setup.
Moreover, we must consider the regulations and environmental impacts. Thus,
it can be said that operations of processes and systems are very important.
|
| To consider the operation, we must identify which valuables can be measured,
manipulated and controlled, and then acquire the dynamics and relationships
among these valuables. |
| In our group, suitable control systems for newly developed processes and sensing technologies to measure environmental information are developing using simulations and experiments. |
|
◎ Design of energy harvesting wireless sensors |
|
◎ Controller design (Model predictive control, IMC etc.) |
|
|
| Optimization and Data Analysis |
|
| By analyzing data, correlation among valuables can be derived, although
it cannot be directly acquired by experiments. To use this correlation,
we can obtain optimal values of parameters. In this research, we are evaluating
the effects and impacts to the society when we install new developed processes,
systems or materials. In addition, mechanism in the black boxes such as
reactors are estimating from the correlation. |
|
◎ Systems optimization such as hydrogen, biomass, CO2 utilization |
|
◎ Cost and energy minimization, environmental impacts |
|
◎ Evaluation of process performance from actual data |
 |
