On robust estimation of the location parameter

Technology development for the production of biobased products from biorefinery carbohydrates—the US Department of Energy’s “Top 10” revisited

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is broadly recognised as having the potential to play a key role in meeting climate change targets, delivering low carbon heat and power, decarbonising industry and, more recently, its ability to facilitate the net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, despite this broad consensus and its technical maturity, CCS has not yet been deployed on a scale commensurate with the ambitions articulated a decade ago. Thus, in this paper we review the current state-of-the-art of CO2 capture, transport, utilisation and storage from a multi-scale perspective, moving from the global to molecular scales. In light of the COP21 commitments to limit warming to less than 2 °C, we extend the remit of this study to include the key negative emissions technologies (NETs) of bioenergy with CCS (BECCS), and direct air capture (DAC). Cognisant of the non-technical barriers to deploying CCS, we reflect on recent experience from the UK's CCS commercialisation programme and consider the commercial and political barriers to the large-scale deployment of CCS. In all areas, we focus on identifying and clearly articulating the key research challenges that could usefully be addressed in the coming decade.

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS): the way forward

The discovery of the enhancement of Raman scattering by molecules adsorbed on nanostructured metal surfaces is a landmark in the history of spectroscopic and analytical techniques. Significant experimental and theoretical effort has been directed toward understanding the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect and demonstrating its potential in various types of ultrasensitive sensing applications in a wide variety of fields. In the 45 years since its discovery, SERS has blossomed into a rich area of research and technology, but additional efforts are still needed before it can be routinely used analytically and in commercial products. In this Review, prominent authors from around the world joined together to summarize the state of the art in understanding and using SERS and to predict what can be expected in the near future in terms of research, applications, and technological development. This Review is dedicated to SERS pioneer and our coauthor, the late Prof. Richard Van Duyne, whom we lost during the preparation of this article.

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Present and Future of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with theories and progressing to the applications of those theories Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive Topics are introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to discover them only after the need to know them has been established This study reviews several of the most commonly used inductive teaching methods, including inquiry learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning, and just-in-time teaching The paper defines each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences, and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods While the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another, inductive methods are consistently found to be at least equal to, and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods for achieving a broad range of learning outcomes

Inductive Teaching and Learning Methods: Definitions, Comparisons, and Research Bases

In light of the depletion of fossil fuels and the increased daily requirements for liquid fuels and chemicals, CO2 should indeed be regarded as a valuable C1 additional feedstock for sustainable manufacturing of liquid fuels and chemicals. Development and deployment of CO2 capture and chemical conversion processes are among the grand challenges faced by today’s scientists and engineers. Very few of the reported CO2 capture and conversion technologies have been employed for industrial installations on a large scale, where high-efficiency, cost/energy-effectiveness, and environmental friendliness are three keys factors. The CO2 capture technologies from stationary sources and ambient air based on solvents, solid sorbents, and membranes are discussed first. Transforming CO2 to liquid fuels and chemicals, which are presently produced from petroleum, through thermochemical, electrochemical, photochemical, and biochemical routes are discussed next. The relevant state-of-the-art computational methods and tools a...

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Toward the Development and Deployment of Large-Scale Carbon Dioxide Capture and Conversion Processes

The objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic framework for simultaneous solution of process/product design problems related to separation. This framework is based on the recently developed property clustering approach that allows one to perform design calculations on a component-free (or composition-free) basis. Removing the composition dependency from the design problem enables the simultaneous consideration of process and product selection and optimization. The clustering concept is based on the observation that properties, unlike mass, are not conserved and consequently they cannot be tracked among process units without performing component material balances. To overcome these limitations the use of property-based clusters has been proposed. The model derivations and reformulations to cluster-based models are presented and the usage highlighted through a simple proof of concept example and a case study.

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A novel framework for simultaneous separation process and product design

Standard techniques for process design are based on tracking individual chemical species. Component material balances are at the heart of any design approach. Nonetheless, many design problems are not component dependent, but are driven by properties. Recently, the concept of clustering has been introduced to enable the conserved tracking of surrogate properties. Hence, the process design can be optimized, based on integrating properties instead of chemical species. Systematic techniques have been developed for this new paradigm of property integration to illustrate its applicability. Property integration is defined as a functionality-based, holistic approach to the allocation and manipulation of streams and processing units, which is based on tracking, adjusting, assigning, and matching functionalities throughout the process. Revised lever arm rules are devised to allow optimal allocation while maintaining intra- and interstream conservation of the property-based clusters. The property integration problem is mapped into the cluster domain. This dual problem is solved in terms of clusters and then mapped to the primal problem in the property domain. Several new rules are derived for graphical techniques. Particularly, systematic rules and visualization techniques for the identification of optimal mixing of streams and their allocation to units. Furthermore, a derivation of the correspondence between clustering arms and fractional contribution of streams is presented. This correspondence is employed to minimize the usage of fresh resources by minimizing cluster arms. The selection of optimal values of the augmented property index is also developed. Finally, graphical tools are devised for task identification of property adjustment. The new techniques are illustrated using a case study on fiber recovery in papermaking. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50: 1854–1869, 2004

Property integration: Componentless design techniques and visualization tools

Formation lithology classification using scalable gradient boosted decision trees

The integrated biorefinery has the opportunity to provide a strong, self-dependent, sustainable alternative for the production of bulk and fine chemicals, e.g. polymers, fiber composites and pharmaceuticals as well as energy, liquid fuels and hydrogen. Although most of the fundamental processing steps involved in biorefining are well-known, there is a need for a methodology capable of evaluating the integrated processes in order to identify the optimal set of products and the best route for producing them. The complexity of the product allocation problem for such processing facilities demands a process systems engineering approach utilizing process integration and mathematical optimization techniques to ensure a targeted approach and serve as an interface between simulation work and experimental efforts. The objective of this work is to assist the bioprocessing industries in evaluating the profitability of different possible production routes and product portfolios while maximizing stakeholder value through global optimization of the supply chain. To meet these ends, a mathematical optimization based framework is being developed, which enables the inclusion of profitability measures and other techno-economic metrics along with process insights obtained from experimental as well as modeling and simulation studies.

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Mario R. Eden

Papers

Toward the Development and Deployment of Large-Scale Carbon Dioxide Capture and Conversion Processes

A novel framework for simultaneous separation process and product design

Property integration: Componentless design techniques and visualization tools

Formation lithology classification using scalable gradient boosted decision trees

Optimal biorefinery product allocation by combining process and economic modeling