TGCC Chapter Program July 2018
PRAF: Process Resilience Analysis Framework for Design and Operations
Process plants are complex socio-technical systems that degrade gradually and change with
advancing technology. This research deals with exploring and answering questions related to the
uncertainties involved in the process units, and their complexity. It aims to systematically
integrate resilience in process design and operations through three different phases of avoidance,
survival, and recovery. This analysis relies on data-driven model and optimization approach
utilizing the resilience metrics developed in this research. These metrics integrate both technical
(e.g., process parameters variations, equipment failure) and social (e.g., human and
organizational) factors. In particular, an integrated method incorporating process, maintenance,
safety, and cost is developed to:
- predict process upset events using deep learning, global sensitivity analysis, and robust
simulation approaches,
- assess cumulative risks and develop policies for safety barriers during a process upset
situations using Bayesian analysis, regression, modeling, and optimization, and
- reduce response time using modeling, Bayesian analysis and optimization.
This seminar highlights the application of this proposed framework for the avoidance and
survival phases. Detailed example problems on a batch reactor and cooling tower operations are
used to illustrate the potential of the proposed framework.
The results indicate that the framework is successful in capturing the interactions between the
process operability characteristics, social aspects, safety, and maintenance policy. This leads to a<
reduction in uncertainty and helps in improved and more informed decision-making.
Prerna Jain
Prerna Jain is a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University, College Station in Chemical
Engineering. Her research interests are process design and optimization, process improvement,
new process evaluation, scale-up, sustainability, and process safety engineering. She expects to
graduate in August 2018 and hopes to work in the industry. She has 5 years of industry
experience before graduate school with one of the Fortune 500 companies. She has successfully
completed two summer internships, one with ExxonMobil and second with Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). Outside research, she has served in leadership positions in
various national and international student organizations such as Graduate and Professional
Student Council, Energy Research Society, Society of Women Engineers and more. She has won
various honors and awards, some of them include Budding Researcher Award, ACE Women
Progress Award, TAMU; Buck Weirus Spirit Award, TAMU; Aggies Got Talent, TAMU.