Computational modeling and optimization of biopharmaceutical downstream processes

Vaccination is a strong and effective way to prevent spreading of infectious diseases and promotes global health. In the future, the importance of vaccines is expected only to increase, driven by factors such as increased international traveling, higher healthcare expenditures, and a growing population. To meet the growing demands, it is...

Continuous Multimodal Monitoring of Neonates with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Introduction: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a rare developmental defect of the diaphragm characterised by herniation of abdominal organs into the thoracic cavity during prenatal development. This herniation is usually accompanied by pulmonary hypertension (PH) and cardiac dysfunction (CD). Although several parameters are known to...

Using artificial neural networks to accelerate flowsheet optimization for downstream process development

An optimal purification process for biopharmaceutical products is important to meet strict safety regulations, and for economic benefits. To find the global optimum, it is desirable to screen the overall design space. Advanced model-based approaches enable to screen a broad range of the design-space, in contrast to traditional statistical or...

Recent advances to accelerate purification process development: A review with a focus on vaccines

The safety requirements for vaccines are extremely high since they are administered to healthy people. For that reason, vaccine development is time-consuming and very expensive. Reducing time-to-market is key for pharmaceutical companies, saving lives and money. Therefore the need is raised for systematic, general and efficient process...

Student Living in 2040: A vision for student housing corporation DUWO to stimulate social well-being

DUWO, the largest student housing corporation in the Netherlands, strives to contribute to the best time of a student’s life by offering suitable and affordable housing for both national- and international students. An opportunity here is to explore the wishes and expectations of student housing in the future to build new innovative/ successful...

Defining Dashboards: The degree to which guidelines for designing different dashboard types in a business context are applicable in a non-business context

This thesis presents the research on developing a suitable dashboard for Project ENHANCE following the design guidelines from Few and Eckerson, and the recommendations that follow from this process for dashboard design in a non-business context. Two mock-up dashboards were developed in Python, using the Dash library. this case study shows that...

Continuous adsorption in food industry: The recovery of sinapic acid from rapeseed meal extract

Efficient recovery and utilization of valuable components from industrial food side streams is a main driver towards a circular economy. Among different available purification techniques, adsorption can effectively recover these components. However, the conventional batch mode of operation can limit its applicability in food processes due to...

Smart Start: A Directed and Persistent Exploration Framework for Reinforcement Learning

An important problem in reinforcement learning is the exploration-exploitation dilemma. Especially for environments with sparse or misleading rewards it has proven difficult to construct a good exploration strategy. For discrete domains good exploration strategies have been devised, but are often nontrivial to implement on more complex domains...

Effect of admixture on the pore structure refinement and enhanced performance of alkali-activated fly ash-slag concrete

This paper investigates the influence of a plasticizing admixture on the pore structure refinement of alkali-activated concrete and paste mixtures and the consequently enhanced performance. Alkali-activated fly ash-slag concrete and paste are designed using a polycarboxylate-based admixture with different dosages. The pore structure and...

Waste glass as partial mineral precursor in alkali-activated slag/fly ash system

The feasibility of a waste glass powder residue (GP) from glass recycling as partial mineral precursor to produce alkali-activated materials is investigated. GP served as powder coal fly ash (PCFA) replacement within a reference system composed of 50% PCFA and 50% ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). Compared with PCFA, GP was better...

Membrane distillation against a pressure difference

Membrane distillation is an attractive technology for production of fresh water from seawater. The MemPower®MemPower® concept, studied in this work, uses available heat (86 °C) to produce pressurized water (2.2 bar and 46 °C) by membrane distillation, which again can be used to power a turbine for co-production of electricity. We develop a non...

Experimental study on workability of alkali activated fly ash and slag-based geopolymer concretes

This paper presents an investigation on workability and strength of geopolymer concrete made of fly ash (FA), blast furnace slag (BFS) and a multicompound activator of Na2SiO3 and NaOH solutions. The FA/BFS ratios were 100:0, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 30:70 and 0:100. The workability of geopolymer concretes was performed by using slump test...

Concept design of a circulair GBS LNG Export Terminal

The development of an outfitting cost prediction method for technical spaces

Maximum allowable pressures during horizontal directional drillings focused on sand

Horizontal directional drilling (HOD) is a rather simple installation technique for pipes for public infrastructure and it has therefore become increasingly popular. When HOD is started, a pilot drilling is made first; a small borehole is made in the soil along the trajectory. After the pilot drilling the borehole is enlarged with a reamer until...