Systematic Procedures for the Design of MultiProduct Plants,Multipurpose Plants, and Plant Complexes

本研究的目标是为多产品和多用途工厂的概念设计开发系统的综合程序和捷径评估技术，其中涉及将问题分解为抽象空间的层次，其中层次中的每一层包含比其上一层更多的细节，但比其下一层更少的细节。首先考虑解决方案的最重要的特性，然后通过将不太重要的细节层添加到在以前级别开发的部分解决方案中来开发解决方案。PI使用这种技术，并且已经表明，在层次结构中较低级别做出的决策永远不会反映出消除冲突解决问题的较早决策。同时生产多种产品，但市场需求与单次反应器生产的产品分布不相对应的石化工艺合成系统程序（例如乙二醇和胺）将是一个非常有价值的工艺设计工具。同样，在某些情况下，在同一设备上通过不同的化学路线生产一种以上的产品，每一种产品一年只生产部分时间，可能是有利的。多用途工厂通常（但并非总是）需要以批处理模式运行。在这个项目中要解决的第三类问题是工厂综合体的设计，即设计生产反应中间体的工艺，然后使用中间体生产最终项目。所有这些算法的发展将是有价值的，不仅因为一个更有效的设计程序将是可用的，而且作为教学工具的设计指导给本科生。

The goals of this research are to develop systematic synthesis procedures and short-cut evaluation techniques for the conceptual design of multiproduct and multipurpose plants which involves breaking the problem down into a hierarchy of abstraction spaces, where each level in the hierarch contains more detail than the level above it but less detail than the level below it. The most important features of the solution are considered first, then the solution is developed by adding layers of less important details to the partial solution that was developed at previous levels. The PI uses this techniques and has already shown that decisions made at lower levels in the hierarchy never reflect back on earlier decisions eliminating the problem of conflict resolution. A systematic procedure for synthesizing petrochemical processes where multiple products are produced simultaneously but where the market demand does not correspond to the product distribution produced in a single pass through the reactor (e.g. glycols and amines) would be a very valuable process design tool. Similarly, in some cases it might be advantageous to produce more than one product by different chemical routes in the same equipment, where each product is made for only part of the year. Multipurpose plants often, but not always, run in a batch mode are needed for such operation. The third category of problems to be addressed in this project is the design of plant complexes, i.e. the design of processes to produce reaction intermediates, and then use the intermediates to produce a final project. The development of all of these algorithms would be valuable not only because a more efficient design procedure would be available but also as teaching tools for the instruction of design to undergraduates.