Telephone (+49)231 755-2339
Fax (+49)231 755-2341
Laboratory of Plant and Process Design Emil-Figge-Str. 70 Geschossbau 2 44227 Dortmund Germany
Room G2-R3.20
Mirka Lochmüller studied Biochemical Engineering at the University of Technology in Dortmund. She started in 2005 and graduated in September 2010 with a final thesis dealing with the “Systematic Synthesis of Downstreamprocesses for Secondary Metabolites”.
Since November 2010, she is working at the Laboratory of Plant and Process Design on her PhD. In the context of her research, she works on the optimization of biochemical processes by combining scheduling and process design.
Scheduling of chemical and biochemical processes deals with the allocation of a set of limited resources over time to manufacture one or several products. The aim is to optimize the process according to one or more goals, like reducing costs or meeting delivery dates.
Parameters normally considered when optimizing a schedule are production rates as well as the number and the size of the equipment. The fact that the processing times of the unit operations and consequently the schedule are also influenced by process parameters like for example temperature or pressure is normally neglected.
The objective is to integrate variable process parameters into the scheduling. Hereby, the number of degrees of freedom is increased and the value of the objective function can be improved and new possibilities are generated to be able to meet customer demands according delivery day and production volume. The focus is on the scheduling of bioprocesses. They make very high demands on the scheduling, among other things, because the recipes are complex, batch and continuous unit operations have to be combined and operations often share media and buffer solution.
Papers
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