Digital and process innovation

Overview

We develop cutting-edge approaches to understanding and managing the complexity in process and energy conversion systems to address the grand challenges of energy, water, environment and food presently faced by modern society. Thus, we propose improved and new processing routes required to convert available (new) resources to useful products, recycle unused material and reprocess used material, without negatively impacting sustainability.

To test the performance and the applicability of results obtained under lab conditions, flexible modular and transportable mini-plants are conceptually designed, built and tested at Surrey.

The use of this technology enables experimental investigations on a continuous mode, and thus allowing studies on the influence of recycle streams, catalyst performance, economic feasibility of the overall process and process stability in general. This systematic approach embodies undoubtedly a significant benefit which diminishes considerably the process development in the chemical and process Industry.

Moreover, the development of sustainable processes requires the connectivity of systems based on multi-criteria analysis and selection of operational, design and safety options enabling a smooth operation and control of large and complex infrastructures.

For this purpose, we adopt a whole systems approach and propose new concepts of hierarchical modelling based on the integration of massive spatial-temporal data from wide-ranging sources and time points within a collaborative smart sensing framework.

This represents new-generation production systems characterized by ubiquitous sensing and intelligent services into a model-based intelligent network through cyber–physical systems and enabled over the Internet of Things (IoT). This represents the basis of our newly proposed approach towards the industrial 6th sense (6S).