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Papers by Michael Vincent Barrera

Research paper thumbnail of Catalytic Process for Preparing Perfluoroethanesulfonyl Fluoride And/Or Perfluorodiethylsulfone

Research paper thumbnail of Method and Apparatus for the Photosensitization of Optical Fiber

Research paper thumbnail of Perfluoroalkylsulfone reactions with nucleophiles

Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 2002

Sulfonic acids and esters P 0400 Perfluoroalkylsulfone Reactions with Nucleophiles.-Perfluorodial... more Sulfonic acids and esters P 0400 Perfluoroalkylsulfone Reactions with Nucleophiles.-Perfluorodialkyl sulfones react readily with metal hydroxides in water or alcohol solution and with ammonia to form new fluorinated sulfonic acid derivatives [cf. (II), (III), (IV) or (VI)].

Research paper thumbnail of Optimal batch process development

Computers & Chemical Engineering, 1996

... RJ ALLGOR, MD BARRERA,t PI BARTON and LB EVANS Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy ... more ... RJ ALLGOR, MD BARRERA,t PI BARTON and LB EVANS Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of ... The growing importance of the batch mode of process operation is now well recognized (Parakrama, 1985; Stinson, 1993). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Process simulation in polymer manufacturing

Computers & Chemical Engineering, 1992

A prototype simulator for applications in polymer manufacturing is presented. This prototype resu... more A prototype simulator for applications in polymer manufacturing is presented. This prototype results from the integration of extensive development and application efforts in modeling a wide range of commercial polymerization processes using ASPEN PLUS™, a well-established process flowsheet simulator with a graphical user interface called Modellvlanagerl". The main issues in the application of simulation technology to polymer processes and in the development of the prototype simulator, specifically in the areas of polymer component characterization, polymerization kinetics, and thermodynamic property requirements, are described in thispaper. Examples taken from commercial applications will be used to demonstrate the approaches used for handling the different issues. KEYWORDS Prototype Polymer Simulator, polymer thermophysical properties, free-radical polymerization, step-growth polymerization, polymerization types PROCESS SIMULATION OF POLYMER SYSTEMS In the chemical, petrochemical and petroleum industries, we have seen a wide spread in the useof process simulation technology over the past 20 years at almost all levels of engineering activity, including process research, development, and design as well as plant operation. Today's commercially available process simulators that serve these industries generally offer a robust and an easy-to-use environment so that models can be developed more quickly and applied more productively. In contrast, the use of process simulation technology in the polymer industry has been much less frequent, and such an activity is often handled by modeling "specialists" in some central organization.

Research paper thumbnail of Optimal Design and Operation of Batch Processes

Chemical Engineering Communications, 1989

The increased importance of high value-added specialty chemicals has stimulated interest in the d... more The increased importance of high value-added specialty chemicals has stimulated interest in the development of better design and optimization methods for batch processes. These processes have a number of particular aspects (time-dependent behavior, discrete processing and structural alternatives) which make the development of optimal designs quite difficult. Five sets of decisions must be made to design a batch process. Because the entire problem is so complex, previous workers have focused on smaller, more manageable parts of the overall problem. Much of the previous work has dealt with the optimal sizing of equipment units in order to produce a set of products in a new multiproduct batch plant with minimum capital investment. Processing conditions have generally been assumed given in the form of the product recipes and not subject to change. This thesis focuses on the design and operation of batch processes and represents a first attempt to consider process performance issues and equipment sizing decisions together in an optimization framework. Complexities introduced by using existing equipment are also included. The optimization problem consists of selecting the equipment units to use at each stage in the process and choosing values for all process operating conditions and operating times in order to optimize a suitable objective function. A problem formulation for the optimal design of a new batch process is developed. This formulation incorporates the effects of the overall multipurpose plant environment on the design of a single new process by allocating fixed costs through the use of equipment usage charges. These charges represent the opportunity cost of allocating scarce plant resources to one product rather than another. A decomposition strategy is proposed for solving the optimization problem. By partitioning the decision variables into two groups, simpler subproblems are generated. The Performance Subproblem involves optimizing the continuous variables that represent the processing conditions and operation times for a process with fixed structure. Generic performance trade-offs involving processing intensity and the distribution of performance load are identified. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem (NLP) and solved using a successive quadratic programming algorithm. Results

Research paper thumbnail of Catalytic Process for Preparing Perfluoroethanesulfonyl Fluoride And/Or Perfluorodiethylsulfone

Research paper thumbnail of Method and Apparatus for the Photosensitization of Optical Fiber

Research paper thumbnail of Perfluoroalkylsulfone reactions with nucleophiles

Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 2002

Sulfonic acids and esters P 0400 Perfluoroalkylsulfone Reactions with Nucleophiles.-Perfluorodial... more Sulfonic acids and esters P 0400 Perfluoroalkylsulfone Reactions with Nucleophiles.-Perfluorodialkyl sulfones react readily with metal hydroxides in water or alcohol solution and with ammonia to form new fluorinated sulfonic acid derivatives [cf. (II), (III), (IV) or (VI)].

Research paper thumbnail of Optimal batch process development

Computers & Chemical Engineering, 1996

... RJ ALLGOR, MD BARRERA,t PI BARTON and LB EVANS Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy ... more ... RJ ALLGOR, MD BARRERA,t PI BARTON and LB EVANS Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of ... The growing importance of the batch mode of process operation is now well recognized (Parakrama, 1985; Stinson, 1993). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Process simulation in polymer manufacturing

Computers & Chemical Engineering, 1992

A prototype simulator for applications in polymer manufacturing is presented. This prototype resu... more A prototype simulator for applications in polymer manufacturing is presented. This prototype results from the integration of extensive development and application efforts in modeling a wide range of commercial polymerization processes using ASPEN PLUS™, a well-established process flowsheet simulator with a graphical user interface called Modellvlanagerl". The main issues in the application of simulation technology to polymer processes and in the development of the prototype simulator, specifically in the areas of polymer component characterization, polymerization kinetics, and thermodynamic property requirements, are described in thispaper. Examples taken from commercial applications will be used to demonstrate the approaches used for handling the different issues. KEYWORDS Prototype Polymer Simulator, polymer thermophysical properties, free-radical polymerization, step-growth polymerization, polymerization types PROCESS SIMULATION OF POLYMER SYSTEMS In the chemical, petrochemical and petroleum industries, we have seen a wide spread in the useof process simulation technology over the past 20 years at almost all levels of engineering activity, including process research, development, and design as well as plant operation. Today's commercially available process simulators that serve these industries generally offer a robust and an easy-to-use environment so that models can be developed more quickly and applied more productively. In contrast, the use of process simulation technology in the polymer industry has been much less frequent, and such an activity is often handled by modeling "specialists" in some central organization.

Research paper thumbnail of Optimal Design and Operation of Batch Processes

Chemical Engineering Communications, 1989

The increased importance of high value-added specialty chemicals has stimulated interest in the d... more The increased importance of high value-added specialty chemicals has stimulated interest in the development of better design and optimization methods for batch processes. These processes have a number of particular aspects (time-dependent behavior, discrete processing and structural alternatives) which make the development of optimal designs quite difficult. Five sets of decisions must be made to design a batch process. Because the entire problem is so complex, previous workers have focused on smaller, more manageable parts of the overall problem. Much of the previous work has dealt with the optimal sizing of equipment units in order to produce a set of products in a new multiproduct batch plant with minimum capital investment. Processing conditions have generally been assumed given in the form of the product recipes and not subject to change. This thesis focuses on the design and operation of batch processes and represents a first attempt to consider process performance issues and equipment sizing decisions together in an optimization framework. Complexities introduced by using existing equipment are also included. The optimization problem consists of selecting the equipment units to use at each stage in the process and choosing values for all process operating conditions and operating times in order to optimize a suitable objective function. A problem formulation for the optimal design of a new batch process is developed. This formulation incorporates the effects of the overall multipurpose plant environment on the design of a single new process by allocating fixed costs through the use of equipment usage charges. These charges represent the opportunity cost of allocating scarce plant resources to one product rather than another. A decomposition strategy is proposed for solving the optimization problem. By partitioning the decision variables into two groups, simpler subproblems are generated. The Performance Subproblem involves optimizing the continuous variables that represent the processing conditions and operation times for a process with fixed structure. Generic performance trade-offs involving processing intensity and the distribution of performance load are identified. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem (NLP) and solved using a successive quadratic programming algorithm. Results