(7hc) Process Systems Engineering Methods in the Design and Optimization of Biorefineries and the Supply Chain

Process Systems Engineering is a wide and well-established multi-disciplinary scientific field, which has been traditionally applied in the areas of the design of chemical and bio-chemical processes, the optimization of the supply chain operations and recently in the design and optimization of multi-product biorefineries, with significant results and future perspectives. It involves Process Synthesis and Design, Modelling and Optimization at different levels ranging from conceptual, to pilot and ultimately to industrial scale. Process Design offers technology that combines mathematical and thermodynamic methods for process integration of industrial flowsheets through state-of-the-art methods that target maximum efficiencies for the use of energy, water and material. In the case of Biorefineries, Process Synthesis methods enable the selection of integrated processing schemes involving various feedstocks, chemical paths and end products, but also -at a lower level- unit operations, utilities and auxiliary material (solvents, catalysts etc.). Modelling advocates a multi-scale approach using a variety of industrial and academic software to develop first-principle models for flowsheeting, steady state and dynamic simulation. The Optimization of complex biorefinery systems involves methods for site analysis through superstructure models and the intensification of water and energy networks. The evident applications of the modeling and optimization results are the scale-up and engineering costing, which in close synergy with the upper level Process Synthesis and Design stages, produce the final designs for the realization of sustainable biorefineries.

Supply Chain and Logistics is another area, where Modelling and Optimization have been traditionally applied, as the core tools of the Operations Research science. Mathematical formulations of systems in this area often result in computationally intractable optimization problems (NP-Hard Mixed Integer Linear Programming or NP-Hard and non-convex Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming problems), which demand for innovative custom-made solution methods in the form of hybrid metaheuristic algorithms, which exploit the special features of each problem class to derive good solutions in affordable computational times. Such complicated problems arise also in process synthesis and the optimization of chemical process flowsheets where the presence of non-linear and combinatorial optimization models impose hard obstacles when approached by conventional solution methods.

Again, targeted solution methods based on heuristic tools and surrogate process models featuring enough information for the optimization purposes, prove to be valuable in producing useful shortcut solutions prior to the detailed designs of biorefineries. Refinement of the initial solutions is then possible by introducing gradually more detailed requirements and applying more sophisticated optimization methods before final implementations.

Current research interests include applications in the design and scale-up of several types of biorefineries (ligno-cellulosic, oleo-chemical, aquatic, waste-based), retrofitting of conventional process industries into Circular Economy plants, and the strategic and operating optimization of Supply Chain networks.

Specific research interests include the:

- Development of methods for industrial water integration and robust network design using steady state and dynamic simulations of industrial water using and wastewater treatment process.

- Energy integration in mixed continuous, batch and semi-batch biorefinery processes

- Synchronized process synthesis of multiple biorefinery processing paths and control system design for sustainable and controllable final process designs

- Application of economic model predictive control and hybrid metaheuristic optimization methods for the coordinated distribution and inventory control in two echelon Supply Chain networks.

Research projects:

Horizon 2020 - Bio-based Industries Joint Technology Initiative (BBI-JTI), Research project - 745719: BIOPEN - “Accelerating and supporting business development of bio-based industries and downstream sectors”

Senior Researcher

Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programmer, Research project - 641942-2: RESYNTEX - “A new circular economy concept: from textile waste towards chemical and textile industries feedstock”

Senior Researcher

FP7 Marie Curie European Research project – 607415: RENESENG - “Renewable Systems Engineering in Biorefinery Process Design”

Senior Researcher – Invited Lecturer

7th European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) Research project - 613870: D Factory - “The Micro Algae Biorefinery”

Senior Researcher

National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - COOPERATION 2011 Research program 11ΣΥΝ_6_528: AI4b - “Accountable IT Infrastructures for Optimizing Supply Chains in Bioenergy Symbiotic Networks.”

Senior Researcher

7th European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) Research project - 241566: BIOCORE – “Biocommodity refinery”, Process Flowsheeting, Integration and Synthesis for the design of future Biorefineries

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) - Project -01ED38: “Systems Development for the Forecasting of Sales Volume and Production Planning Using Methodologies of Artificial Intelligence” with the collaboration of FAGE S.A. Dairy food industry.

Doctoral Research Engineer

Project THALIS -65117900 – National Technical University of Athens “Solving Mixed Integer and non-Linear Programming Problems using Genetic Algorithms”

Doctoral Research Engineer

Postdoctoral Project: “European Research project - 241566: BIOCORE – “Biocommodity refinery”, Process Flowsheeting, Integration and Synthesis for the design of future Biorefineries”

Under supervision of Antonis Kokossis, Chair of Process Systems Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

PhD Thesis: “Development of Hybrid Metaheuristic Algorithms for the Solution of Non-Linear and Complex Combinatorial Optimization Problems”

Under supervision of Haralambos Sarimveis, Chair of Process Control and Informatics, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Teaching Interests:

My teaching experience includes:

- Chemical Process Design and Simulation – Process Simulation Laboratory in Aspen Plus, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA

- Computational Methods of Analysis and Design - Laboratory in GAMS, Aspen Plus, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA

- Chemical Process Control – Laboratory in MatLab and Simulink, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA

- Advanced Process Control – Laboratory in MatLab and Simulink, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA

- Operations Research – Laboratory in GAMS, LINGO and LINDO, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA

- Operations Research and Quantitative Methods, Department of Mathematics and Engineering, Hellenic Military Academy

- Supply Chain Management, Department of Mathematics and Engineering, Hellenic Military Academy

- Industrial water integration and network design, Seminars in the course of EU Marie Curie Project RENESENG – 607415

I am interested in continuing teaching courses in Chemical and Biochemical Process Design, Process Control, Optimization and Modelling and also transfer the knowledge and experience I obtained in Process Systems Engineering and the general systems approach perspective to engineering problems to new generations of engineers and researchers. Combined with new research on Biorefinery Process Design and Supply Chain optimization, I aspire to collaborate with and support students in Industry and Research related MSc and PhD Theses.

Selected Publications:

Nikolakopoulos, A., Ganas, I. Economic model predictive inventory routing and control (2017) Central European Journal of Operations Research, pp. 1-23. Article in Press. DOI: 10.1007/s10100-017-0472-0

Nikolakopoulos, A. An economic model predictive approach for inventory routing and control with time windows constraints: Application in the distribution of industrial gases (2016) Chemical Engineering Transactions, 52, pp. 925-930.

DOI: 10.3303/CET1652155

Nikolakopoulos, A., Faskiotis, D., Kokossis, A. Cascade models for targeting and synthesis of total water networks (2016) Chemical Engineering Transactions, 52, pp. 943-948. DOI: 10.3303/CET1652158

Nikolakopoulos, A., Faskiotis, D., Kokossis, A. Integrated Transshipment Models for Synchronous Screening of Treatment Technologies and Targeting of Fresh Water and Recycle Flows (2016) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 38, pp. 715-720. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63428-3.50124-7

Nikolakopoulos, A., Kokossis, A. A problem decomposition approach for developing total water networks in lignocellulosic biorefineries (2015) Process Safety and Environmental Protection. Article in Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.psep.2016.12.007

Nikolakopoulos, A. A Metaheuristic Reconstruction Algorithm for Solving Bi-level Vehicle Routing Problems with Backhauls for Army Rapid Fielding (2015) Operations Research/ Computer Science Interfaces Series, 56, pp. 141-157. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-12075-1_8

Nikolakopoulos, A., Kokossis, A. A Mathematical Programming Targeting Method to Select Treatment Technologies Ahead of Design (2015) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 37, pp. 1091-1096. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63577-8.50027-9

Koufolioulios, D., Nikolakopoulos, A., Pyrgakis, K., Kokossis, A. A mathematical decomposition for the synthesis and the application of total site analysis on multi-product biorefineries (2014) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 34, pp. 549-554.

DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63433-7.50076-6

Nikolakopoulos, A., Thomaidis, L., Kokossis, A. Mathematical programming shortcut screening models for the design of integrated waste treatment systems (2014) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 34, pp. 381-386. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63433-7.50048-1

Mountraki, A.D., Nikolakopoulos, A., Mlayah, B.B., Kokossis, A.C. BIOCORE- A systems integration paradigm in the real-life development of a lignocellulosic biorefinery (2011) Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 29, pp. 1381-1385. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-54298-4.50055-6

Nikolakopoulos, A., Sarimveis, H. A metaheuristic approach for the sequencing by hybridization problem with positive and negative errors (2008) Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 21 (2), pp. 247-258.

DOI: 10.1016/j.engappai.2007.03.004

Nikolakopoulos, A., Sarimveis, H. A threshold accepting heuristic with intense local search for the solution of special instances of the traveling salesman problem (2007) European Journal of Operational Research, 177 (3), pp. 1911-1929. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2005.12.010

Sarimveis, H., Nikolakopoulos, A. A line up evolutionary algorithm for solving nonlinear constrained optimization problems (2005) Computers and Operations Research, 32 (6), pp. 1499-1514. DOI: 10.1016/j.cor.2003.11.015