The CAPEC Annual Meeting 2010 – CAM10 – was held at the conference center Kolle Kolle in Værløse June 1-4. 83 researchers from industry and academia shared knowledge and insights into CAPE technology, spanning from molecular to production plant scale and covering a multitude of research fields.
Like earlier years the Danish weather showed its most charming face while researchers and students from CAPEC met with partners from industry and research colleagues from other universities at the CAPEC Annual Meeting 2010 CAM10 - during 1-4 of June.
A total of 83 CAM10 participants were gathered at the Kolle Kolle conference hotel in Værløse amidst beautiful summery countryside scenery to network and share insights into the latest CAPEC research and feel the pulse of current CAPE/PSE trends in industry and academia. 24 of the participants were from CAPEC Consortium member companies, 14 were invited guests from academia and 45 were from DTU Chemical Engineering.
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83 people participated in CAM10 held at the Kolle Kolle conference hotel in Værløse
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Spanning from molecular to production plant scale and covering a multitude of research fields, 27 oral presentations by CAPEC coworkers gave a taste of the variety of fields where computer modeling is applied. 5 invited speakers from academia and industry supplemented the broad technical overview with status reports on specific areas of CAPE/SPE application in industry and research centers elsewhere.
Collaboration with PROCESS
After the first day's social get-together and excursion to Frederiksborg Castle, the technical program opened on the second day with status presentations by CAPEC Advisory Board member Lars Wiebe, Danisco, and head of CAPEC Professor Rafiqul Gani.
In his opening presentation, Professor and Head of the CAPEC Center Rafiqul Gani gave an overview of the status and recent achievements of CAPEC and outlined the new organization within DTU Chemical Engineering where research and education is now represented by 6 core disciplines: Polymer Engineering, Enzyme Technology, Reaction Engineering, Systems Engineering, Unit Operations & Process Engineering and Engineering Thermodynamics (se overview of centers/disciplines at DTU Chemical Engineering here).
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| Professor Rafiqul Gani, Head of the CAPEC Center |
Professor Gani also highlighted the new collaboration between CAPEC and PROCESS, CAPEC's sister center at DTU Chemical Engineering. PROCESS and CAPEC are already collaborating on a number of projects where emphasis is on the development, use and verification of systematic methods and tools in bioprocessing, process intensification and process analytical technology. Furthermore, the CAPEC consortium will now be represented by CAPEC and parts of the PROCESS center of the department of chemical & Biochemical Engineering.
Industry perspectives and a review of 40 years in membrane technology On the 3rd day of the annual meeting, a session was reserved for invited speakers. Industrial speakers were represented by Bent Sarup, General Manager of the Vegetable Oil Technology division in the company Alfalaval, who gave a presentation about the need for computer aided tools in the fats and oil industry, and Rob Meier, Program Manager in the industrial chemical sector of the company DSM who talked molecular properties from quantum mechanical calculations.
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| Professor Zainuddin A. Manan, PROSPECT, UTM, Malaysia |
Among the invited speakers was also Professor Zainuddin A. Manan, PROSPECT, UTM, Malaysia whose presentation was entitled ‘Research on process systems engineering at PROSPECT’, and Professor Jean-Noël Jaubert, Thermodynamics & Energy, University of Nancy, France, who gave the presentation ‘Research on property modeling at the Thermodynamics & Energy group.’
Later in the invited speakers session Professor Emeritus John Villadsen gave a presentation about the remarkable methodology of the French biologist Jaques Monod who won the Nobel prize in 1965. Gunnar Jonsson gave a summary of his 40 years in Membrane technology, a shorter version of a seminar given by Gunnar Jonsson in connection with the celebration of Jonssons 40 years jubilee at DTU on May 27 2010 (pictures from the event can be seen
here.)
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| Professor John Woodley, Head of the PROCESS Center |
Reflecting the closer collaboration between CAPEC and PROCESS, Professor and head of the PROCESS research center John Woodley and another key profile from PROCESS, Associate Professor Krist V. Gernaey, delivered presentations in the session entitled ‘CAPEC Research Overview & Future Plans’.
Gernaey talked about methods and tools for the pharma-bio industries while John Woodley focused on Process intensification for future bio-catalytic processes. Professor Gani rounded off the session with a presentation called ‘Managing the complexity in product-process design’.
Computer modeling at the center of development efforts
Bent Sarup, General Manager, Vegetable Oil Technology Business Unit at Alfa Laval, opened the invited speaker’s session with an overview of applied and needed methods in his company. In an interview after the presentation Sarup elaborated on the background for his company’s current involvement in computer modeling and the prospect of the near future.
»Computer modeling is at the center of the development efforts at Alfa Laval,« Bent Sarup said, »the purpose of our collaboration with CAPEC at DTU Chemical Engineering is plant design, via process design and process simulation.«
»Before coming to Alfa Laval I worked in the refining and petrochemical industry for a number of years,« says Bent Sarup, »process simulation is very advanced in those industries and I saw the big difference between the two worlds.«
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| Bent Sarup, General Manager, Vegetable Oil Technology Business Unit at Alfa Laval |
»Part of the reason for this difference between the two industries is the complex nature of the molecules we are dealing with in the food industry. If it was simple these molecules would be included in the commercial process simulators, and the fact is they're not. Now, CAPEC has entered with group contribution simulation methods which are the key to describing the properties of these molecules. Nobody has done this before in such a comprehensive approach, and these methods have traditionally been seen as non-viable in the edible oil industry. «
»To me it was quite an eye-opener to come from one world to the other, and knowing what is possible with modeling tools in the refining and petrochemical industries, I have the hope that I can apply some of these methods in the work I’m doing now with DTU.«
- What do you bring home from CAM10?
»I saw interesting contributions towards modelling of crystallization in unit operations - but I’m also interested in methods for characterization of complex molecules which we are also dealing with at a fundamental level. But the network factor is also very important. Using and building your network - it gets a big boost every time we participate. Things like getting in contact with an interesting laboratory in France who can carry out fundamental measurements on the systems of interest to us, and contact with the software developers who make the actual software we use etc,« says Sarup.
Gathering data for a helicopter view
Rob Meier is Principal Scientist in the industrial chemical sector of the company DSM. DSM was once a mining company but has been transformed into a materials sciences and life sciences company.
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| Franz Mascarello and Rob Meier (right). Meier is Principal Scientist in the industrial chemical sector of the company DSM. CAM10 was the first CAPEC Annual Meeting attended by Rob Meier while his colleague Franz Mascarello has participated over many years. |
»A very large segment is to do with animal nutrition - all kinds of flavor, food additives and all possible vitamins. The other part is the material segment which is resin, polymer resins, nylons and polymer intermediates,« Rob Meier said in an interview after his presentation at CAM10.
»I work in a mixed group of chemists and process technologists,« says Meier. »In general it is a challenge for people to communicate between different disciplines. Chemists and process technologists have a different language. With my mixed background as a theoretician and experimenter, a physicist and a chemist, I am well aware of the different world views and the way people work together.«
»This relates to my work in the sense that one of my duties is to acquire a helicopter view of all sorts of computer simulations – to get to a shared view on whether we doing enough in the company and see if new or improved methods can be applied. What is the state of the art in the world? How are our competitors doing this or that? And that is basically why I am in this meeting, to see what these tools could potentially mean to us.«
For Rob Meier to get the ‘big picture’ he needs to scan the full spectrum of research fields - from molecular modeling over fluid dynamics, the CAPEC software tools, bio-informatics etc.
»My assignment is to make a kind of inventory and talk to all my colleagues to get an understanding of what kinds of networks they have. A summary to see if are we doing the right thing to the right extent,« says Meier.
»Of course it is also important in a meeting like this to make people aware that DSM is a member of this consortium and to better understand the available tools etc. That is why we stay for the workshop on the last day - to get a more hands-on feeling of what we can do with the tools. Later our specialists will have to implement the tools,« says Rob Meier.
At the meeting he joined his colleague Franz Mascarello who has been attending the CAPEC consortium meetings for many years, and who is one of the users in DSM of the CAPEC tools.
More Photos from CAM10 - click below for slideshow