TY - JOUR
T1 - Process systems engineering
T2 - From Solvay to modern bio- and nanotechnology.. A history of development, successes and prospects for the future
AU - Stephanopoulos, George
AU - Reklaitis, Gintaras V.
N1 - Funding Information:
It is commonly accepted that the larger the number of technologies integrated into a product and/or process, the higher the value of the product or process, and the higher its differentiating competitiveness, which determines its long-term robustness in the pressure of the market place. Therefore, setting up effective frameworks for collaborative research and development is highly desired and many efforts are currently under way to create such systems. Two examples characterize the efforts in this area: The nanoHUB (nanoHUB.org), and the pharmaHUB (pharmaHUB.org). Both hubs are cyberinfrastructures for scientific research, education, and collaboration, and represent web-based communities of contributors and users, who share resources and tools. They provide support for uploading resources, offering reviews and ratings, asking questions, and forming collaborative groups to pursue common goals. nanoHUB, created under NSF's Project, “Network for Computational Nanotechnology”, promotes sharing of nano-electronics design, simulation, and educational resources developed via extensive federal funding programs. All top 50 US engineering schools and 333 international universities, represented more than 91,000 users, who accessed 1600 items in the nanoHUB from 610 contributors, and more than 7100 users who run more than 400,000 simulations, in a period of 12 months. The second was also funded by NSF to create a resource for sharing scientific knowledge and engineering technologies for innovative drug development and manufacturing ( Kuriyan et al., 2009 ). In both cases, the focus has been on sharing knowledge and creating the conditions for innovative collaborations that are generated by individual initiatives. In the future, we expect the emergence of more such collaborative environments, both within the scope of individual institutions (corporations, or universities) and across boundaries of institutions.
PY - 2011/10/1
Y1 - 2011/10/1
N2 - The term Process Systems Engineering (PSE) is relatively recent. It was coined about 50 years ago at the outset of the modern era of computer-aided engineering. However, the engineering of processing systems is almost as old as the beginning of the chemical industry, around the first half of the 19th century. Initially, the practice of PSE was qualitative and informal, but as time went on it was formalized in progressively increasing degrees. Today, it is solidly founded on engineering sciences and an array of systems-theoretical methodologies and computer-aided tools. This paper is not a review of the theoretical and methodological contributions by various researchers in the area of PSE. Its primary objective is to provide an overview of the history of PSE, i.e. its origin and evolution; a brief illustration of its tremendous impact in the development of modern chemical industry; its state at the turn of the 21st century; and an outline of the role it can play in addressing the societal problems that we face today such as; securing sustainable production of energy, chemicals and materials for the human wellbeing, alternative energy sources, and improving the quality of life and of our living environment. PSE has expanded significantly beyond its original scope, the continuous and batch chemical processes and their associated process engineering problems. Today, PSE activities encompass the creative design, operation, and control of: biological systems (prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells); complex networks of chemical reactions; free or guided self-assembly processes; micro- and nano-scale processes; and systems that integrate engineered processes with processes driven by humans, legal and regulatory institutions. Through its emphasis on synthesis problems, PSE provides the dialectic complement to the analytical bent of chemical engineering science, thus establishing the healthy tension between synthesis and analysis, the foundation of any thriving discipline. As a consequence, throughout this paper PSE emerges as the foundational underpinning of modern chemical engineering; the one that ensures the discipline's cohesiveness in the years to come.
AB - The term Process Systems Engineering (PSE) is relatively recent. It was coined about 50 years ago at the outset of the modern era of computer-aided engineering. However, the engineering of processing systems is almost as old as the beginning of the chemical industry, around the first half of the 19th century. Initially, the practice of PSE was qualitative and informal, but as time went on it was formalized in progressively increasing degrees. Today, it is solidly founded on engineering sciences and an array of systems-theoretical methodologies and computer-aided tools. This paper is not a review of the theoretical and methodological contributions by various researchers in the area of PSE. Its primary objective is to provide an overview of the history of PSE, i.e. its origin and evolution; a brief illustration of its tremendous impact in the development of modern chemical industry; its state at the turn of the 21st century; and an outline of the role it can play in addressing the societal problems that we face today such as; securing sustainable production of energy, chemicals and materials for the human wellbeing, alternative energy sources, and improving the quality of life and of our living environment. PSE has expanded significantly beyond its original scope, the continuous and batch chemical processes and their associated process engineering problems. Today, PSE activities encompass the creative design, operation, and control of: biological systems (prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells); complex networks of chemical reactions; free or guided self-assembly processes; micro- and nano-scale processes; and systems that integrate engineered processes with processes driven by humans, legal and regulatory institutions. Through its emphasis on synthesis problems, PSE provides the dialectic complement to the analytical bent of chemical engineering science, thus establishing the healthy tension between synthesis and analysis, the foundation of any thriving discipline. As a consequence, throughout this paper PSE emerges as the foundational underpinning of modern chemical engineering; the one that ensures the discipline's cohesiveness in the years to come.
KW - Process control
KW - Process design
KW - Process modeling
KW - Process operations
KW - Product design
KW - Systems engineering
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ces.2011.05.049
DO - 10.1016/j.ces.2011.05.049
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80051667632
SN - 0009-2509
VL - 66
SP - 4272
EP - 4306
JO - Chemical Engineering Science
JF - Chemical Engineering Science
IS - 19
ER -