Description of the progress of the network
Introduction
As mentioned in the workprogramme, "The objective of the project is (i) to provide extensive training for young postdoctoral workers in this important European industrial area and (ii) to give the members of the research community in chemical process control the opportunity to develop or reinforce collaborations. This should be achieved via Periodical meetings and via exchange of post-doc researchers (or eventually Ph.D. students) working on common research projects, including at least two laboratories in the network."
The first general meeting in Louvain-la-Neuve in November 1994 has been followed the following two objectives :
(i) to allow each partner to present his research activities with a particular emphasis on the possible collaborations within the network;
(ii) to take the practical decisions in order to have the most efficient network.
With that objective in mind, it has been decided to identify 6 topics for which the theme leaders are responsible to favour the exchanges, in particular via the organisation of specific meetings.
| Themes | Leader |
| Modelling tools | Wolfgang Marquardt (Aachen) |
| Identification for control | Dominique Bonvin (Lausanne) |
| Nonlinear estimation and control techniques | Pierre Rouchon (Paris) |
| Real-time optimisation | John Perkins (London) |
| Process monitoring and data interpretation | Julian Morris (Newcastle) |
| Controllability analysis | Diane Bliss (Exeter) |
Activities
Meetings
Over the period 1 November 1994 - 31 October 1995, 3 specific meetings have been organized with the objectives to gather mainly young researchers from the different institutions involved in the network and to give the opportunity to present and discuss their research works:
| Theme | Location, Date | Number of Participants |
| Modelling and Control of Distillation Columns | Stuttgart (Germany) 27-28 July | 25 |
| Modelling Tools | Aachen (Germany), 11 August | 7 |
| Controllability & Plantwide Control | Rome (Italy), 7 September | 10 |
A second general meeting has taken place in London on 14-15 September. The largest part of the meeting has been dedicated to scientific discussion and interaction via oral sessions for each of 6 themes have been organized with several presentations of scientific results, particularly by young researchers (Ph.D. students and post-doc researchers), and a poster session. At this scientifically intensive meeting, the 60 present researchers have had the opportunity to discuss about the different aspects of the recent developments and scientific results in chemical process control particularly in Europe, as well as their laboratory and industrial applications.
Having in mind that the first year of the project includes a starting phase necessary to initiate efficient collaborations and interactions between the different laboratories, one of the concern of the participants was to introduce some new actions in order to further improve the working of the network. Beside the increase of interactions, exchanges and specific meetings in the second year, it has also ben decided that a Newsletter will regularly (every 3 or 4 months) be distributed by e-mail to all members of the network. The Newsletter will contain the list of all relevant publications of each group over the last period, as well as announcements and reports of network meetings. The management of the Newsletter will be in the hand of a young researcher of Porto.
Exchanges of Young Researchers
The exchanges of young researchers plays a central part in the network. These are summarized in Table 1 for the period 1 November 1994 - 31 October 1995, with the duration of stay, the name of the young researcher involved, and the scientific publications, if relevant.
Table 1: Exchanges between the different institutions for the period November 1994-October 1995 (i.p. = in preparation)
| Partner #1 (sending) | Partner #2 (receiving) | Type of exchanges (young researcher) | Results |
| Stuttgart | Louvain-la-Neuve | 6 month post-doc (W. Waldraff) | communication |
| Stuttgart | Paris | 5 month post-doc (J. Rudolph) | |
| Paris | London | 5 months' stay (J.C. Culioli) | |
| Louvain-la-Neuve | Exeter | 1 week stay (B. Bonnet) | |
| Louvain-la-Neuve | Porto | (L. Lefevre) | communication |
| Lausanne | Newcastle | 2 months' stay (M. Armhein) | paper (i.p.) |
| Aachen | Lausanne | 2 weeks' stay (A. Helbig) | |
| Aachen | Lyngby | 2 weeks' stay (D. Mueller) | |
| Aachen | Lyngby | 1 week's stay (B. Lohmann) | |
| Thessaloniki | Newcastle | 6 months' stay (G. Mouricas, M. Papazogiou) | |
| Trondheim | Aachen | 1 month's stay (A. Christiansen) | |
| Trondheim | Aachen | 2 weeks' stay (H. Moe) | |
| Aachen | Trondheim | 2 weeks' stay (J. Blum) | |
| Aachen | Trondheim | 1 week's stay (B. Lohmann) |
Conclusions
The first year includes a starting phase for the network. The fact that the specific meetings and most of the exchanges of researchers have taken place in the second half of the period is an indicator of this situation. The network tends now to its stationary phase: this would imply an increasing number of specific meetings and exchanges of researchers for the second year. Note also that it is difficult to expect a large number of (already available) publications within one year from the beginning of the network : here again the number of publications is expected to increase.
Factual Information
(see Annexes B of each partner)
List of joint publications
Lefevre L., D. Dochain and S. Feyo de Azevedo (1996). Some properties of the orthogonal collocation method used for approximating distributed parameter process models. To be presented at the Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 6-8 March, Mierlo, The Netherlands.
Waldraff W. and D. Dochain (1996). On the use of observability measures for sensor location in fixed bed reactors. To be presented at the Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 6-8 March, Mierlo, The Netherlands.
Christiansen A.C., E.W. Jacobsen, J.D. Perkins and S. Skogestad (1995). On the dynamics of batch distillation : a study of parametric sensitivity in ideal binary columns. AIChE Annual Meeting, Miami Beach, USA, November, Paper 184d.
Chen L., M. Armhein M., J. Morris and D. Bonvin (1996). Modelling and state estimation of bioprocesses : the use of neural networks and mass balance equations. In preparation.