Ezra's Round Table / Systems Seminar: José María Ponce-Ortega (Michoacan)
Location
Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall 253
Description
From Process Integration to Sustainable Production and Consumption
In a world where efficiency and environmental responsibility are awarded, optimization emerges as an indispensable tool for reducing resource consumption as well as mitigating the environmental impact of chemical processes. Thus, optimization has become a cornerstone in the fostering of a more sustainable approach within the industry in addition to paving the way towards cleaner and more effective processes. In the pursuit to enhance the design and operation of these processes, optimization challenges us to devise ingenious and creative solutions to solve conflicting objectives. It is here, in this unending quest for chemically sustainable processes, that optimization stands as the mediator that unravels complexities and resolves dilemmas. It is no wonder that the scientific community and researchers are directing an ever-growing attention to this continually evolving field.
This seminar addresses several approaches to industrial energy and water integration and expands these concepts to the proper use of resources in a macroscopic scheme. First, optimization strategies for energy integration inside industrial processes are presented, and then these ideas are extended to waste heat recovery through trigeneration schemes and extended to eco-industrial parks. In addition, proper optimization strategies for synthesizing intra and inter-plant water networks are presented. Furthermore, strategies for the optimal production and consumption of resources (water, energy, and food, and the corresponding nexus) in different scales are presented. Finally, strategies for the sustainable transition for the water-energy-food nexus are addressed in this seminar.
Bio:
José María Ponce-Ortega earned his Ph.D. and master's in chemical engineering from the Celaya Institute of Technology in Mexico in 2009 and 2003, respectively. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University from 2011 to 2012 and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University from 2006 to 2007. Ponce-Ortega has been a full professor at the Michoacan University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo in Mexico since 2012, and he is a member of the National Research System of Mexico (Level III). Ponce-Ortega’s research focuses on the areas of energy planning and optimization, sustainable energy transition, water-energy-food nexus, process integration, waste heat recovery, and sustainable production and consumption. He has published more than 300 research papers, three books, and more than 50 chapters of books. He also has supervised 30 Ph.D. and 50 master’s graduate students.