| The unique characteristics of the chemical industry and the high capital cost of manufacturing facilities underline the importance of achieving optimal process designs. This is the impetus for developing systematic methods for chemical process design. One such method is the Infinite DimEnsionAl State-space (IDEAS) conceptual framework. IDEAS is the first general process network synthesis methodology that generates globally optimal designs. The framework can consider any number and type of unit operation.; Within the IDEAS framework, the synthesis of the overall network is decomposed into the synthesis of an operator network (OP), where unit operations and/or their aggregate effects are represented, and a distribution network (DN), where mixing, splitting, recycling, and bypassing occurs. The key concept behind IDEAS is the use of a process operator whose domain and range lie in infinite (rather than finite) dimensional spaces. This process representation allows for the consideration of all possible process networks for an a priori given set of unit operations and gives rise to a linear feasible region. Consequently, when the objective function is convex, all locally optimal solutions of the resulting process network synthesis problem are guaranteed to be globally optimal.; The applicability of IDEAS is demonstrated for reactor network synthesis and reactive distillation network synthesis. Within reactor network synthesis, attainable regions are constructed for networks featuring a single feed, multiple feeds, and volumetric constraints. In addition, capital cost minimization of a reactor network, in which the solution is shown to converge to a simple optimal network when the objective function exhibits economies of scale, is pursued.; For reactive distillation network synthesis, total liquid holdup minimization is considered with restrictions on total plate area. The proposed optimal design methodology is demonstrated on a case study involving reactive distillation-based synthesis of methyl tert-butyl ether from isobutene and methanol. Comparisons are also made between reactive distillation design for both constrained and unconstrained utility use, and results are shown for the minimization of utility cost with constraints on the network's total liquid holdup. |
