Capabilities
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Functional Materials Design and Development
Overview Overview Bioprocessing research and development are driven by the need to increase the quantity and quality of energy products derived from biomass, and advanced materials are key for the development of more efficient and cost-effective separations. Although adsorption, electrochemical, and pressure-driven membrane processes are… Read More
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Thermodynamic Property Analysis and Modeling
Overview Separation processes, both old and new, depend on mixture physical properties. Accurate and practical physical property models are required to accurately model and compare separation processes. Data from bio-relevant compounds and mixtures are often scant, unreliable, or unavailable. In general, reliance on property estimation… Read More
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Economic Decision Support
Overview Decisions involve choices. Economic decision support involves using economic measures to compare alternatives. The process makes use of process modeling and cost estimates, but it involves more than determining whether a process meets a target cost goal. Economic decisions also consider parametric uncertainty and… Read More
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Discrete Event Modeling
Overview A biorefinery is a combination of discrete operations (e.g. feedstock shipments, fermentation, maintenance) and continuous operations (e.g. distillation, drying). Discrete operations are often stochastic in nature as are equipment failures. An accurate representation of a biorefinery requires consideration discrete operations, the interface between discrete… Read More
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Technical and Project Risk Assessment
Overview Research and deployment of new technologies, like all human endeavors, involves the possibility of failure. Different degrees of failure such as failure to demonstrate the concept in a research program or failure to complete the project on time. Risk analysis is a systematic method… Read More
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Capacitive Deionization (CDI)
Overview Electrochemical systems for ionic species removal from liquid streams include well-established platforms such as electrodialysis and electrodeionization along with emerging ones such as capacitive deionization (CDI). One advantage of electrochemical separations is the ability to target and remove the minority component (ions) rather than… Read More
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The GREET® Model: Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy used in Technologies
Overview The GREET model is a publicly available life-cycle analysis tool for consistently examining life-cycle energy and environmental effects of a wide range of technologies in transportation, power, and material products. It takes a holistic approach to model energy and environmental effects over the entire… Read More
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Techno-Economic Analysis
Overview Techno-economic analysis (TEA) is a critical tool in separation process development. TEA calculates the separation costs using a process model and an economic model. The former solves mass and energy balances, and the latter estimates capital and operating costs and the overall separation and… Read More
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Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) Chromatography and Continuous Ion Exchange (CIX)
Overview SMB is a scalable chromatographic technology that simulates the counter current motion of the solids stationary phase against the liquid eluent. SMB technology is used today for continuous chromatographic separations at the commodity scale. For example, parrafins are separated from kerosine to produce straight… Read More
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In Situ Product Recovery (ISPR)
Overview In Situ Product Recovery (ISPR) is a form of process intensification wherein product is separated from a bioreactor as it is produced from the microorganism. ISPR has many process benefits including increased titer, rate, and yield by ameliorating end product inhibition, reducing bioprocess water… Read More