I-Corps: Robust Equation-oriented Chemical Process Optimizer

这个I-Corps项目侧重于应用严格的优化工具来解决工艺设计优化问题。例如，I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力可以与化学工艺设计人员获得现代优化技术相关联。虽然对所有化工公司都至关重要，但化工工艺的优化设计（在选择工艺温度、压力、流量等方面，以获得最佳的经济性能）仍主要由设计工程师根据经验进行。工作流通常是迭代的、劳动密集型的和耗时的，并且不能保证结果的最优性。提议的活动将为化工、石化、天然气和其他过程工业的工程师提供一个新的计算框架，该框架使用严格的优化工具来找到最佳的过程设计。商业潜力包括增加可在设计阶段考虑的工艺选择的数量，支持新生产设施的最佳投资决策或升级现有生产设施。拟议中的活动还具有重要的潜在社会影响：对美国化学生产设施的投资（受到近期国内页岩气和石油资源开发的刺激）将创造新的就业机会，并促进目前和未来从事化工厂设计和运营的劳动力的培训和发展。应用严格的优化工具来解决过程设计优化问题一直受到解决过程模型所带来的数值挑战的阻碍。过程模型是一组非常非线性的方程，对应于化学和其他工艺装置中反应器、蒸馏塔、热交换器等的物质和能量平衡。该项目依赖于最近发明的计算方法来解决和优化工艺流程图模型。该方法涉及对模型方程进行系统的数学重新表述，从而得到可以用普通数值方法可靠求解的等效表达式。单元操作模型库可以连接在一起创建整个过程的数学模型，并且已经在学术和工业测试问题的设计优化中得到了广泛的验证。这项工作的商业化将弥合目前存在于工业实践和优化理论众多最新进展之间的巨大差距。

This I-Corps project focuses on applying rigorous optimization tools to solve process design optimization problems. For example, the broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project can be associated with giving chemical process designers access to modern optimization techniques. While critical to all chemical companies, optimizing the design of a chemical process (in terms of choosing the process temperatures, pressures, flow rates, etc., that give the best economic performance) is still largely carried out empirically by design engineers. The workflow is typically iterative, labor-intensive and time-consuming, and the optimality of the outcome is not guaranteed. The proposed activity will place at the fingertips of engineers in the chemical, petrochemical, natural gas and other process industries a new computational framework that uses rigorous optimization tools to find the best process design. The commercial potential ranges from increasing the number of process alternatives that can be considered at the design stage, to supporting optimal investment decisions in new production facilities or upgrading existing ones. The proposed activity also has important potential societal impact: investment in US-based chemical production facilities (spurred by recent developments in accessing domestic shale gas and oil resources) will create new jobs and advance the training and development of the current and future workforce engaged in the design and operation of chemical plants.Applying rigorous optimization tools to solve process design optimization problems has been hindered by numerical challenges posed by solving the process model - a set of very nonlinear equations corresponding to material and energy balances for reactors, distillation towers, heat exchangers, etc. found in a chemical and other process plant. The project relies on a recently-invented computational approach for solving and optimizing process flowsheet models. The approach involves a systematic mathematical reformulation of the model equations, resulting in equivalent expressions that can be solved reliably using common numerical methods. A library of unit operation models which can be linked together to create a mathematical model of an entire process is also available, and has been extensively validated on the design optimization of academic and industrial test problems. The commercialization of this work will bridge the large gap that currently exists between industrial practice and the numerous recent advances in optimization theory.