Cascaded Option Trees for Biobased Processes
In several projects in cooperation with industry and colleagues from other universities, the method of cascaded option trees has been developed as shown in the diagram. The various options are explicitly noted and then evaluated systematically with respect to feasibility, where a color code simplifies presenting and discussing the results. The method has proven to be very useful when developing process options in a larger consortium, because it allows very clear presentation of the remaining feasible options and forms a good basis for further discussions in the consortium. The option trees can be used also stepping through different levels of detail, e.g. on principal downstream options, on solvent selection, on choice of operating conditions. This cascading way of applying the option trees has the advantage that even if under certain conditions one option should later turn out to be infeasible, the second-best option can directly be realized.
These cascaded option trees have been applied in a variety of contexts. Especially in designing complete new processes like for the downstream after a fermenter with new reactants, the cascaded option trees were helpful to guide the process design. It has been applied especially for solvent selection in reactive extraction with special focus on the separability of the phases, which turn out to be critical in some cases. But such cascaded option trees have also been used for systematic model design in our own work. We currently use cascaded option trees whenever complex design tasks are to be solved.
Publications
- S. Ruckes, A. Pfennig: Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Mulm auf das Abscheideverhalten organisch- wässriger Stoffsysteme. Final Project Report, 2010.
- M. Henschke, L.H. Schlieper, A. Pfennig: Determination of a coalescence parameter from batch-settling experiments. Chem. Eng. J. 85 (2002) 369–378.
- A. Bednarz, B. Rüngeler, A. Pfennig: Use of Cascaded Option Trees in Chemical-Engineering Process Development. Chem. Ing. Tech. 86(5) (2014) 611-620.
Contact(s) : Andreas Pfennig
