(8c) Simulation and Optimization of Chemical Processes for CO2 Sequestration and New Clean Energy: Cyclic Adsorption Process, Membrane, and Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Because the goal of my research is to solve environmental and energy issues, the focus is the simulation and optimization of CO₂ sequestration processes and a fuel cell system to prepare against global warming. As the methods to reduce the CO₂ emission, gas separation processes such as cyclic adsorption processes (CAPs) and membrane processes are considered in this study.

At first, this study presents the optimization approach (Ko et al., 2005) and the developed simulation model (Ko, 2016) of CAPs to sequester CO₂. The strength of the developed CAP model is to be able to accurately calculate an interstitial gas velocity within adsorption beds resulting in successful scale up designs from a laboratory scale (0.5Nm³/h) to a large commercial scale (5,000Nm³/h).

Then, a dynamic membrane simulation model for the removal of CO₂ is introduced of which mass and energy balances are derived. Optimizations are performed to conveniently perceive the scale up design conditions up to commercial scale (500Nm³/h) by solving mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems.

Finally, this work also introduces a non-isothermal dynamic optimization model of DMFC which can generate clean energy (Ko et al., 2008). The optimal operating strategy of DMFC systems was attained through the dynamic simulation and optimization.

In summary, my research includes 1) the development of the scale up design technologies based on the mathematical approaches and 2) dynamic simulation and optimization works for various chemical processes such as the gas treating and energy systems

My research will focus on the optimization technology for the process design and operation. The target processes for the optimization studies will mainly be 1) the gas separation/purification processes to sequester and capture CO₂ and 2) energy systems such as hydrogen plants, fuel cell system, or lithium ion batteries.

Teaching Interests:

What students learn should be practical as well as academic. In other words, I would like to say â??to be practicalâ? is same as â??to be academicâ? and the courses of all the chemical engineering area must be helpful for the students to apply to industries. Thus, I would like to teach the core chemical engineering courses including chemical engineering thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, mass transfer, reaction engineering, and process control for the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, I would like to select specialized fields of chemical engineering processes such as process dynamic simulation, gas separation technology, and energy systems. These specialized courses are based on my industrial and academic experiences. The results of my research and teaching must be able to be applied to real industries.