Upcoming WebCAST: Optimal Design and Operation of Natural Gas Value Chains

Professor Paul I. Barton
MIT, Cambridge
DATE: Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 2 PM - 4 PM EST


*Deadline to Register- 4:00 PM, 12 Jan 2009
http://www.castdiv.org/WebCAST.htm*


Dial-in from the comfort of your office to hear the presentation

Abstract
Natural gas contributes roughly 20% of world energy consumption. Natural 
gas reserves are plentiful and natural gas produces less CO2 per unit of 
energy generated than any other hydrocarbon. The liquefied natural gas 
(LNG) segment is growing very rapidly and is enabling the emergence of a 
global natural gas market. Natural gas value chains have very 
distinctive features arising from the low volumetric energy density of 
natural gas, and the significance of gas quality and pressure in supply 
chain operations. Gas infrastructure investments can be risky due to the 
high capital and specificity of the infrastructure, leading to complex 
ownership and contractual agreements amongst multiple parties to manage 
this risk. This talk will present two case studies applying optimization 
formulations to the design and operation of natural gas value chains. 
Short-term operational planning in upstream natural gas supply chains 
can play an important role in ensuring reliable supplies, consistent 
fulfillment of customer requirements and efficient management of 
production and transportation infrastructure. A real world case study 
involving the Sarawak Gas Production System (SGPS), located in East 
Malaysia and operated by Sarawak Shell, is presented to demonstrate a 
short-term (8-12 weeks) production allocation model and optimization 
framework for the upstream natural gas supply chain. The second case 
study involves the design of a novel liquefied energy chain for the 
exploitation of remote offshore natural gas combined with CO2 capture 
and sequestration with enhanced oil recovery. Here optimization is used 
to design novel offshore and onshore subambient processes required to 
implement the proposed supply chain.

Biographical Sketch
Paul Barton is the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering at 
MIT, where he has been since 1992. He received his Ph.D. from the Centre 
for Process Systems Engineering at Imperial College, London University 
in 1992. He has held Visiting Professor appointments at CNRS-ENSIC, 
Nancy, France and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. He has industrial 
experience with BP and Air Products, and has consulted for major 
corporations including Dow Chemical, Alstom Power and Aspen Technology. 
In 2004 he was awarded the Outstanding Young Researcher Award by AIChE's 
CAST Division. Barton's research interests include hybrid 
discrete/continuous dynamic systems; numerical analysis of ordinary 
differential, differential-algebraic and partial differential-algebraic 
equations; sensitivity analysis and automatic differentiation; global, 
mixed-integer and dynamic optimization theory and algorithms; and open 
process modeling software. Some of the applications his group is 
currently focusing on include energy systems engineering, continuous 
pharmaceutical manufacturing and organic electronic devices. He served 
as Director of AIChE's CAST Division from 2001-2004 and is currently a 
subject editor for the journal /Optimal Control Applications and 
Methods/. He is author or co-author of over 80 articles in refereed 
journals. He has been very active in the design and the development of 
process modeling software, having been the original author of gPROMS, 
and having led the development of ABACUSS/JACOBIAN and DAEPACK at MIT, 
all of which are now commercial products widely used in industry.





Mayuresh V. Kothare (WebCAST Chair for the CAST Division)
R. L. McCann Professor
Chemical Process Modeling and Control Research Center
Department of Chemical Engineering
Lehigh University, D322 Iacocca Hall
111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, U.S.A.
Tel: (610) 758 6654; Fax: (610) 758 5057
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.lehigh.edu/~mvk2