Kuen-Hack Suh

Algicidal activity of the seaweed Corallina pilulifera against red tide microalgae

Extracts of seaweeds from the coast of Korea have been tested in vitro for algicidal activity against the growth of the toxic microalga Cochlodinium polykrikoides. Blooms of C. polykrikoides and the ensuing mass mortalities of farmed fish and shellfish are an escalating and worrisome trend. Cell growth of C. polykrikoides was inhibited by the addition to the culture medium of several seaweed extracts. Inhibition of growth resulted from methanol-soluble extracts of the seaweeds Corallina pilulifera, Ulva pertusa, Ishige foliacea and Endarachne binghamiae. Growth inhibition also resulted from the water-soluble extract of C. pilulifera. Powder and dry tissue from the seaweed C. pilulifera also inhibited cell growth of C. polykrikoides. The active algicidal products of C. pilulifera showed stable activity when boiled, exposed to light, or when treated under alkaline condition. Corallina pilulifera had no regional and seasonal variations in this algicidal activity. A powder of the seaweed C. pilulifera, the most potent species, showed algicidal activity against several red tide microalgae, especially C. polykrikoides, Gymnodiniummikimotoi, G. sanguineum, Heterosigma akashiwo, Prorocentrum triestinum and Pyraminonas sp.

Optimal operation of quality controlled product storage

Abstract The mixed integer linear programming model has been developed for the production scheduling of polybutene (PB) process of Daelim Industrial Co. (DIC) in Korea. The PB process is composed of one reactor, 13 storage tanks and two package types. It produces seven reactor products. Most of the tanks are practically dedicated to a specific product but in general, any tanks can be shared by multiple products. Also, two major products use multiple tanks. The reactor is operated on block mode. The products are liquid and they should be stored in tanks before packaging. The unique characteristics of this scheduling problem exists on the fact that the product in tank should be locked for 3–15 days in order to check the quality specifications after run-down from the reactor. The primary objective of scheduling is reducing the number of quality checking process because it causes great loss in production time and tank utilization. The model is composed of about 1500–2000 integer variables. The branching priorities are adjusted according to the importance of variables based on current manual scheduling practice and it greatly enhanced the convergence of mixed integer model. The scheduling system was successfully implemented in real plant and replaced the manual work of scheduler.

Optimal Design of Process-Inventory Network Considering Late Delivery Costs

This study deals with stockout costs in the supply chain optimization model under the framework of batch-storage network. Stockout is very popular in chemical industries. Estimating stockout cost involves an understanding of customer reactions to a seller being out of stock at the time the customer wants to buy an item. This involves massively non-trivial work such as direct customer interviews and extensive mail survey. In this study, we will introduce a new interpretation of stockout costs combined with batchstorage network optimization model and thus suggest an easy way of estimating stockout costs. Optimization model suggest that optimal process and storage sizes considering stockout cost are smaller than those that do not consider stockout cost. An illustrative example support the analytical results.

Optimal Design of Process-Inventory Network under Cycle Time and Batch Quantity Uncertainties

The aim of this study is to find an analytic solution to the problem of determining the optimal capacity of a batch-storage network to meet demand for finished products in a system undergoing joint random variations of operating time and batch material loss. The superstructure of the plant considered here consists of a network of serially and/or parallel interlinked batch processes and storage units. The production processes transform a set of feedstock materials into another set of products with constant conversion factors. The final product demand flow is susceptible to joint random variations in the cycle time and batch size. The production processes have also joint random variations in cycle time and product quantity. The spoiled materials are treated through regeneration or waste disposal processes. The objective function of the optimization is minimizing the total cost, which is composed of setup and inventory holding costs as well as the capital costs of constructing processes and storage units. A novel production and inventory analysis the PSW (Periodic Square Wave) model, provides a judicious graphical method to find the upper and lower bounds of random flows. The advantage of this model is that it provides a set of simple analytic solutions while also maintaining a realistic description of the random material flows between processes and storage units; as a consequence of these analytic solutions, the computation burden is significantly reduced. The proposed method has the potential to rapidly provide very useful data on which to base investment decisions during the early plant design stage. It should be of particular use when these decisions must be made in a highly uncertain business environment.

Optimal Design of Multiperiod Process-Inventory Network Considering Transportation Processes

The optimal design of batch-storage network by using periodic square wave model provides analytical lot sizing equations for a complex supply chain network characterized as multi-supplier, multi-product, multi-stage, non-serial, multi-customer, cyclic system including recycling and/or remanufacturing. The network structure includes multiple currency flows as well as material flows. The processes are represented by multiple feedstock/product materials with fixed composition which are very suitable for production processes. In this study, transportation processes that carry multiple materials with unknown composition are added and the time frame is changed from single period into multiple periods in order to represent nonperiodic parameter variations. The objective function of the optimization involves minimizing the opportunity costs of annualized capital investments and currency/material inventories minus the benefit to stockholders in the numeraire currency. The expressions for the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the optimization problem are reduced to a multiperiod subproblem for average flow rates and analytical lot-sizing equations. The multiperiod lot sizing equations are different from single period ones. The effects of corporate income taxes, interest rates and exchange rates are incorporated.

Optimal Design of Process-Inventory Network Considering Exchange Rates and Taxes in Multinational Corporations

This paper presents an integrated analysis of supply chain and financing decisions of multi-national corporation. We construct a model in which multiple currency storage units are installed to manage the currency flows associated with multi-national supply chain activities such as raw material procurement, process operation, inventory control, transportation and finished product sales. Core contribution of this study is to quantitatively investigate the influence of macroscopic economic factors such as exchange rates and taxes on operational decisions. The supply chain is modeled by the Process-Storage Network with recycle streams. The objective function of the optimization is minimizing the opportunity costs of annualized capital investments and currency/material inventories minus the benefit to stockholders interpreted by home currency. The major constraints of the optimization are that the material and currency storage units must not be depleted. A production and inventory analysis formulation, the periodic square wave (PSW) model, provides useful expressions for the upper/lower bounds and average levels of the currency and material inventory holdups. The expressions for the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the optimization problem are reduced to a subproblem and analytical lot sizing equations. The procurement, production, transportation and financial transaction lot sizes can be determined by analytical expressions after the average flow rates are already known. We show that, when corporate income tax is taken into consideration, the optimal production lot and storage sizes are smaller than is the case when such factors are not considered typically by 20 %.