Welcome to the Process Systems Engineering Laboratory

The MIT Process Systems Engineering Laboratory combines the academic and industrial experience of three principal investigators. A broad program of research is conducted on the analysis, modeling, simulation, optimization, design, control, and operation of process systems. Applications are primarily to chemical, petrochemical, electrochemical, pharmaceutical, biochemical, and biomedical systems spanning length scales from the molecular to the nano- and micro-scales to very large-scale production facilities and even complete supply chains.

The three research groups are led by

pib [at] mit [dot] edu (Paul I. Barton)	braatz [at] mit [dot] edu (Richard D. Braatz)	geosteph [at] mit [dot] edu (George Stephanopoulos)

Barton Lab	Braatz Lab	Stephanopoulos Lab

PSEL in the News

Keynote presentation at CHEMPOR 2011

Submitted by Achim Wechsung on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 08:25

Pedro Sá Gomes' paper "Gas-Phase Simulated Moving Bed separation of propane/propylene: is it worth it?" was selected as the keynote presentation at the upcoming CHEMPOR 2011 - 11th International Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Pedro is a post-doctoral affiliate at MIT supported by a Marie Curie fellowship. His work is co-authored by Paul Barton and Pedro's thesis advisor Alírio E Rodrigues.

Paul Barton gives Bayer lecture at Carnegie Mellon University

Submitted by Achim Wechsung on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 16:51

Paul Barton is giving the Bayer lecture at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. His talk discusses recent work in the laboratory on Optimal Design and Operation of Natural Gas Value Chains.

PSEL welcomes Prof. Richard Braatz and Prof. George Stephanopoulos

Submitted by Achim Wechsung on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 17:18

The PSEL is expanding through the addition of two new PIs, Prof. Richard D. Braatz and Prof. George Stephanopoulos. Prof. Braatz will be joining the MIT faculty in September. Prof. Braatz's experience in simulation, design, and control of multiscale systems and Prof. Stephanopoulos's work on nanoscale process systems engineering will compliment ongoing research in the PSEL.

Scientific American features PSEL's Natural Gas Plant

Submitted by Achim Wechsung on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 15:44

Scientific American reports on the novel natural gas plant proposed by Tom Adams and Paul I. Barton.

Novel Natural Gas Plant

Submitted by Achim Wechsung on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 03:13

Tom Adams and Paul I. Barton developed a novel high-efficiency system with no atmospheric CO2 emissions to produce electricity from natural gas. The proposed process uses fuel cells and carbon capture, and it will be economically competitive with current natural-gas plants. See our recent publication in J. of Power Sources.

It has been featured on the MIT Website, in a press release by the MIT News Office and a newsletter by the MIT Energy Initiative (pg. 11-13).

Process Systems Engineering Laboratory