Studies On Optimization Metheds Of Reactor Network Synthesis Based On Superstructures

The reactor network synthesis problem which as the key sub-problem of process synthesis can be simply stated as: Given a system of reactions with known reaction kinetics and known feed, what is the optimum reactor type and arrangement of the reactors that would optimize a special objective function? The reactor network synthesis problem is very important for the development and design of process system, and also has great effect to the environment because most pollution sources are resulted from reaction process. Due to the complex non-linear program which involving both high non-linear differential and algebraic equation models, it is difficult to gain global optimal solution using the traditional optimization approaches. Two significant mathematical programming strategies that many scholars have studied are superstructure optimization and targeting. In the superstructure optimization a fixed network of reactors is postulated and an optimal sub-network which maximized the performance index is derived. The advantage of superstructure is that constrains can directly be added and the optimization objective functions be changed, in the meanwhile, the optimal value of the objective and the reactor network be obtained. Generally the scale of the superstructure is very large. For the purpose of simplifying the superstructure models, this paper will study the optimal approaches of the reactor network starting with the superstructure. The embodied contents are as follows:...