Optimization-Based Quantification of Performance Limits for Process Networks

Research Interests:  Process systems engineering, global optimization, energy systems, process synthesis and design, modeling and simulation, computational fluid dynamics.

Teaching Interests:  Transport phenomena, mass transfer, heat transfer, thermodynamics, chemical process computer-aided design and analysis, numerical and mathematical methods, process dynamics and control.

The goal of any synthesis task is to design a feasible network that can deliver desired products from a set of inlet raw material using one or more chemical processes. Computational tools are usually employed to perform this task, aiming to find an optimal solution to a given design problem. Nevertheless, existing tools cannot ensure that the identified solution is a global rather than local optimum, keeping open the possibility of further performance improvements.

In order to find a global optimal solution for the process network synthesis problem, a methodology that employs the Infinite DimEnsionAl State-Space (IDEAS) conceptual framework is presented in this work. The IDEAS framework is based on the techniques of optimization by vector spaces, convex analysis and chemical engineering fundamentals, which guarantee global optimality.

This work presents several examples of globally optimal synthesis of process networks involving reactive/non-reactive distillation of azeotropic mixtures.