http://hdl.handle.net/2117/3144 2013-05-20T09:35:18Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/15442 Title: Ontological framework for the enterprise from a process perspective. Operational, tactical and strategic integration for improved decision-making Authors: Muñoz Mata, Edrisi; Capón García, Elisabet; Lainez Aguirre, José Miguel; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: Enterprises are highly complex systems in which one or more organizations share a definite mission, goals and objectives to offer a productor service. Thus, enterprises comprise several functions which interact with each other, such as production, marketing, sales, human resources or logistics. As a result, decision-makingin the enterprise becomes a highly challenging task, and such decision process is usually separated in several levels. Nevertheless, such levels are closely related, since they share data and information. Therefore, effective integration among the different hierarchical levels, by means of tools improving information sharing and communication, may play a crucial role for the enhanced enterprise operation, and consequently for fulfilling the enterprise’s goals. In order to achieve integration among the different decision levels, it is necessary to establish a common modelling framework. In this work, an ontological framework is built as the mechanism for information and knowledge models sharing for multiple applications. The potential of the general semantic framework developed (model maintenance, usability and re-usability) is demonstrated in the enterprise supply chain network design-planning problem case study presented. Further work is under way to unveil the full potential to implement a large-scale semantic web approach to support business processes decisions. 2012-03-01T13:19:36Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/13950 Title: Bio-based sustainable supply chain modelling for rural electrification Authors: Pérez Fortes, María del Mar; Arranz Piera, Pol; Lainez Aguirre, José Miguel; Velo García, Enrique; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: Small scale gasification systems are employed to meet the requirements of distributed energy systems using locally available biomass at or near the point of use, or pre­treated biomass, such as pellets, bought from an established market. Small scale gasification systems can be employed in rural or urban contexts in both, industrialized or developing areas. This paper describes a supply chain management approach generally formulated and concretely applied to a specific case study located in Atebubu district (Ghana), which uses cassava peels as raw material. The problem is defined as a multi­objective mixed integer linear program considering two main criteria, the net present value and the environmental impact through Impact 2002+ indicator. Taking into consideration rural development in a developing country, the energy models should also deal with social criteria. The technology used to satisfy the electricity demand is a biomass gasifier combined with a gas engine. 2011-11-17T09:27:16Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/13949 Title: Small scale bio-chp systems. Pilot plant approach Authors: Escorcia Robles, Bryani; Cuba Arroyo, Carlos; Pérez Fortes, María del Mar; Arranz Piera, Pol; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio; Velo García, Enrique Abstract: Nowadays, renewable energy sources aim at reaching the changes required to address the impact of global warming, alleviate poverty and replace conventional fossil fuel energy sources. Biomass has a promising future as a renewable source of energy that can supply the demand of a modern society in industrialized and developing countries. This work is focused on small scale biomass gasification as the alternative for distributed power generation from different types of biomass sources and it tries to avoid technical, financial and institutional problems in a 15 kg·h-1 pilot plant with downdraft fixed-bed gasifier. At the same time, it pretends to improve the overall energy efficiency of the system under the CHP concept, which it currently is between 15 to 25%. Gas quality represents one of the key parameters for a successful operation of the system and the presence of particles and tars is usually one of the main barriers to overcome. To achieve the removal of these contaminant compounds, an efficient system to clean the producer gas is expected to be applied in the UPC pilot plant. Furthermore, a complex remote real time monitoring and control system is under development which will lead to adequate operation performance. 2011-11-17T09:09:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/13840 Title: Integrating economic targets for simulaltaneous structural and operational decision making in the design of the control recipe Authors: Moreno Benito, Marta; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: The interest in improving plant management is promoted by the benefits of dealing with more complex and versatile systems, which can adapt their production strategy to market fluctuations. In the present work, the capacity to adapt batch processes operation by solving flexible control recipes including structural and operational decisions is tackled. The problem is extrapolated from design and synthesis of processing networks, to find improved recipe solutions in multipurpose batch plants with given equipment sets for different economic scenarios. Process cell superstructure and process dynamics are modelled using algebraic – differential equations and general disjunctive programming (GDP). The obtained problem is a mixed-logic dynamic optimization (MLDO) problem, subsequently translated to a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) one. Denbigh Reaction case study is used as an example, by defining and comparing a fixed control recipe which is designed attending to processing objective function (i.e. product selectivity) and flexible recipes for different unitary costs scenarios and economic objective functions (i.e. profit and profitability). Improved operation is obtained from the economic point of view. This problem can be also considered for adaptation of operation strategies to new process requirements in a given plant where new equipment installation is not considered. 2011-11-10T09:04:23Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/11853 Title: Material docente en formato digital para asignaturas de experimentación en química de la UPC Authors: Cardona Planes, Anna Maria; Graells Sobré, Moisès; Calafell Monfort, Margarita; Pardo Tràfach, Patricia; Almajano Pablos, María Pilar; Morillo Cazorla, Margarita; Garrido Soriano, Núria; Grau Vilalta, Maria Dolors; Guaus Guerrero, Ester; Martínez Martínez, María del Rosario; Calvet Tarragona, Aureli; Salán Ballesteros, Maria Núria; Farran Marsà, Adriana; Gorchs Altarriba, Roser; Álvarez del Castillo, María Dolores 2011-03-15T12:51:29Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10878 Title: Optimal production scheculing and lost-sizing in yogurt production lines Authors: Kopanos, Georgios; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís; Georgiadis, Michael C. Abstract: The lot-sizing and production scheduling problem in a real-life multi-product yoghurt production line is addressed. A new discrete/continuous time representation mixedinteger linear programming model, based on the definition of families of products, is presented. It is mainly optimized the packaging stage while timing and capacity constraints are imposed with respect to the pasteurization/homogenization and fermentation stage. Packaging units operate in parallel and may share common resources. Sequence-dependent times and costs are also explicitly taken into account. An industrial case study is presented wherein production bottlenecks are revealed and several retrofit design options are proposed to enhance the production capacity and flexibility of the plant. 2011-01-03T11:04:39Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10876 Title: Scheduling and control decision-making under an integrated information environment Authors: Capón García, Elisabet; Muñoz Mata, Edrisi; Moreno Benito, Marta; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: The complexity of decision-making in process industries and the need of highly competitive organizations require new supporting tools to coordinate and optimize the information flow among decision levels. This work presents a framework for integrating the scheduling and control decision levels by means of an ontology, which allows and coordinates the information exchange among the different modeling paradigms/conventions currently used for the enterprise-wide optimization (EWO). A multiproduct batch plant rescheduling case study is presented that illustrates the proposed working procedure. 2011-01-03T10:40:18Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10231 Title: Evaluating the performance of micro-training actions for environmental learning Authors: Pérez Moya, Montserrat; Graells Sobré, Moisès; Rodríguez González, María Elena; Gallego, Rosalia; Meluni, Alesandro; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio Abstract: The impact and significance of a training process may not be easily noticeable in the short term, and is difficult to track in the long term. This is more common when training targets are acquiring positive attitudes and competences (i.e. environmental awareness) rather than specific technical procedures. Thus, such training requires specific evaluation tools for quantifying the degree of achievement the objectives. Microteaching is a training methodology characterized by brevity and flexibility, which focuses in promoting active learning and evaluating its long-term impact (including performance indicators). The methodology was developed during two European projects (Leonardo da Vinci Programme(Overschie,2006; Pérez-Moya, 2008, www.microtrainingsupport. eu/). 2010-11-09T19:09:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10154 Title: Analysis of volatile organic compounds in a waste collection centre using multisorbent adsorption and GC/MS thermal desoprtion system Authors: Torrado, S.; Rosell, M.G.; Gallego Piñol, Eva Abstract: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by waste treatment systems may lead to major impacts such as toxic air levels, discomfort incidents and annoying odours. The main objectives of this work were to identify and quantify selected VOCs, emitted during waste collection and processing, to control exposure hazards. An analytical method, previously developed and validated in our laboratory, for the determination of VOCs within a wide range of volatility and polarity and with variable concentrations was used. 2010-11-05T17:15:13Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/10074 Title: Comparative study of the adsorption performance of a multi-sorbent bed (Carbotrap, Carbopack X, Carboxen 569) and a Radiello adsorbent tube for the analysis of VOCs Authors: Gallego Piñol, Eva; Roca Mussons, Francisco Javier; Perales Lorente, José Francisco; Guardino, Xavier; Rosell, M.G. Abstract: In the present study, a comparison between the performance of two types of sampling strategies, active (multi-sorbent bed (Carbotrap, Carbopack X, Carboxen 569)) and passive (Radiello® diffusive sampler indicated for thermal desorption, filled with Carbograph 4), is done. 2010-11-02T12:49:07Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/8603 Title: Managing financial risk in the coordination of supply chain and product development decisions Authors: Lainez Aguirre, José Miguel; Reklaitis, Gintaras V; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: In today's highly competitive marketplace, supply chain (SC) and product development activities should be coordinated and synchronized so that market demand, product release and capacity requirements are matched in a financially sustainable fashion. In this work, an integrated model is developed which incorporates simultaneous treatment of SC design-planning and R&D decisions in the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, the aforementioned cross-functional model embeds a capital budgeting formulation enabling the quantitative assessment of the firms’ value. The model also considers the endogenous uncertainty associated with product test outcomes during the development process. To tackle this problem, a scenario based multi-stage stochastic mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is proposed. This model includes risk constraints which allow finding optimal solutions within accepted risk levels. A decomposition technique is applied in order to reduce the computational effort required for the solution of the monolithic model, thus facilitating the solution of realistic industrial problems of moderate scale. 2010-08-05T09:36:51Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/8602 Title: Towards an ontological infrastructure for chemical batch process management Authors: Muñoz Mata, Edrisi; Kopanos, Georgios; Espuña Camarasa, Antonio; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: Chemical batch process management, regardless of the level where its analysis is focused (such as pre-formulation and new process development, supply chain management, scheduling, process control, fault analysis, etc.) implies the collection and exploitation of huge amounts of data, which should be viewed as sources of information. Due to this, the information infrastructure which supports different activities by streamlining information gathering, data integration, model development and decision making is a crucial element for any effort for process improvement/optimization. In this work it is presented a Batch Process Ontology (BaPrOn), where different concepts regarding batch processes are categorized, and the relations between them are examined and structured. Properties and relationships are introduced in accordance with ISA-88 standard, which provides a solid framework for integrating batch-related information. 2010-08-05T09:22:29Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/8580 Title: Dealing with uncertainty in polymer manufacturing by using linear regresión metrics and sensitivity analysis Authors: Bojarski, Aarón David; Puigjaner Corbella, Lluís Abstract: In the polymers industry, models are heavily parametrizised, and the effect of each parameter on model outputs has not been extensively studied. A wide range of values for most of model’s parameters can be found in literature [1], a thorough analysis regarding the model’s sensitivity to the parameters’ values is needed to find the set of parameters that have the most impact in the output results and consequently deserve an extra effort and care during their estimation. In this work, a global sensibility analysis of a styrene emulsion polymerization reactor model is carried out in order to determine the set of critical parameters. 2010-08-04T10:52:48Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/8426 Title: Operation scheduling of batch autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion processes Authors: Capón García, Elisabet; Rojas, Jaime; Zhelev, Toshko; Graells Sobré, Moisès Abstract: The autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) is an exothermic batchwise operated sludge treatment process, in which sludge undergoes heating and pasteurization as temperature attains values about 50-60ºC. Based on detailed process models, different approaches have been suggested (Rojas and Zhelev, 2009) to minimize the specific energy requirement of existing ATAD designs by altering the operating conditions, but less attention has been paid to process optimization by means of operation planning and timing. This work aims at minimizing the specific energy requirement of existing ATAD processes considering simultaneously operational conditions, planning and timing. Hence, a scheduling formulation including process model variables and a flexible recipe is proposed. Energy savings are reported for a case study of a simplified treatment plant. The proposed approach results in energy consumption reduction by optimizing batch sizes and operating conditions. 2010-07-27T11:51:30Z http://hdl.handle.net/2117/6263 Title: Como aplicar el método científico en los laboratorios de ciencias y tecnología Authors: Gallego Fernández, María Isabel; Martínez Martínez, María del Rosario; Graells Sobré, Moisès; Cadenato Matia, Ana María; Amante García, Beatriz; Jordana Barnils, José; Gorchs Altarriba, Roser; Salán Ballesteros, Maria Núria Abstract: Resumen: La presente comunicación es parte del resultado de un proyecto financiado por la AQU (Agencia para la Calidad del Sistema Universitario de Cataluña, resolución 11 de diciembre de 2007), para la elaboración de una guía de evaluación de competencias en los laboratorios en el ámbito de ciencias y tecnología. El punto de partida es la identificación y definición de la competencia específica “Aplicar el método científico para la resolución de problemas” en los laboratorios de Ciencias y Tecnología. A partir de la definición de los componentes que configuran la competencia específica, se establecen unos niveles competenciales y se proponen unas rúbricas o criterios de calidad como instrumentos de evaluación en función de dichos niveles. La integración de esta competencia supone un cambio en el diseño de actividades formativas y el replanteamiento de la metodología docente, en los tres momentos claves: pre-laboratorio, laboratorio y post-laboratorio. Se pretende, que partiendo de actividades y/o experimentos que se llevan a cabo actualmente en el laboratorio, se adquieran las competencias de medir, diseñar ensayos o experimentos, correlacionar datos, modelizar y predecir el comportamiento de un sistema, además de tomar decisiones en función de la información y el conocimiento adquirido en el laboratorio. El laboratorio, pues, debe ser el lugar donde escenificar la práctica del método científico como herramienta para resolver problemas prácticos. 2010-02-01T10:24:14Z