Welcome to Chemical Process Optimization, Multiscale Modelling and Process Systems

Welcome to The Chemical Process Optimization, Multiscale Modelling and Process Systems Research Group website! This is an inclusive group of self-motivated, hard-working graduate and undergraduate students with multi-disciplinary backgrounds that work together with Professor Ricardez-Sandoval in the development and implementation of novel theoretical and computational-based tools. These tools are aimed at improving the design and operability of chemical and manufacturing systems, in particular those that evolve at different time and length scales (i.e., multiscale systems), to provide new insights or improve the performance of industrially-relevant systems, and to design new materials that can accelerate the development of new processes that promote long-term sustainability. 

Our research group has specific expertise in chemical process optimization, advanced process control schemes, optimal process design, conventional and advanced CO₂ capture technologies (e.g., post-combustion and chemical looping combustion technologies), advanced energy systems (e.g., gasification), as well as computer-aided material designs for heterogeneous catalytic systems. 

The computational-based research developed in our group borrows tools from advanced mathematics, optimization, machine learning algorithms, process intensification principles and uncertainty analyses to develop new computational frameworks and models that can predict how chemical systems and materials are likely to behave in real life. This information is used to maximize economic investment, process efficiency and sustainability (e.g., reduce greenhouse gas emissions), often before any resources are invested. Our research then provides a fast, efficient, and safe way to, for example, effectively and efficiently design new chemical materials and improve chemical process and manufacturing operations. 

Much of the research activities performed in our group involve collaborations with the federal and provincial government, industrial partners from various sectors, major stakeholders within Canada, and international collaborations with renowned academic institutions and research centers located elsewhere. 

Research Topics