The Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes with Waste Minimization

在化学工业中，化学家、生物化学家、微生物学家或聚合物科学家发现新的反应体系或新材料后一周内启动第一次设计研究并不罕见。第一次设计的目标是看看这个过程是否有利可图，看看是否会遇到环境问题，确定最好的几个过程流程图，并指导最终设计所需的数据库的开发。因此，重点是理解问题，而不是获得严格的解决方案。因此，在初始研究中通常使用捷径模型进行评估，然后在确定最佳方案后，在后续设计研究中引入严格的设计计算。从概念设计到详细设计再到最终设计，采用分层方法在计算机上逼近该方法。这项工作涉及自动执行第一步，即程序的概念设计阶段。在这一阶段，设计者确定可能的工艺方案，选择工艺单元，确定可能的污染问题等。这个概念设计问题的特点通常是有很多可能的过程，这些过程可以使用给定的反应化学将原材料转化为所需的产品（和一些副产品）。遇到了大量的结构选择（即设备选择和流）以及设计变量的值（影响流流量和设备尺寸）。将开发基于人工智能的规则，以便在众多备选方案中进行选择。具体来说，PI计划开发用于分离蒸汽-液体-液体-固体混合物的新合成程序，这将使分层决策程序适用于大多数化学过程的概念设计。他计划开发的代码将包括一个系统的程序，用于探索工艺替代方案，以及对这些替代方案的快速筛选；并且，是更详细的算法综合研究（混合整数非线性规划和模拟退火）的良好起点。该规范还将指出设计决策何时会导致污染问题，并建议替代工艺以避免环境问题。此外，该软件将与其他本科和研究生院校共享（由CACHE公司发行），用于工艺设计教学。

It is not unusual in the chemical industry to initiate the first design study within one week of a chemist's, biochemist's, microbiologist's or polymer scientist's discovery of a new reaction system or a new material. The goals of this first design are to see if the process is profitable, to see if environmental problems will be encountered, to determine the best few process flowsheets, and to guide the development of a database that is needed for a final design. Thus, the focus is on understanding the problem, rather than obtaining a rigorous solution. For this reason, short-cut models normally are used for the evaluations in the initial study, and then rigorous design calculations are introduced in subsequent design studies after the best alternatives have been identified. The method can be approximated on the computer by using hierarchical methods, going from a conceptual design to a detailed design to a final design. This work involves automatic implementation of the first step, the conceptual design phase of the procedure. In this stage, the designer identifies the possible process alternatives, selects process units, identifies possible pollution problems, etc. This conceptual design problem is often characterized by a very large number of possible processes that can use a given reaction chemistry to transform the raw materials to the desired product (and some by-products). Both a large number of structural alternatives (that is, equipment selection and streams), as well as values of the design variables (which effect the stream flows and equipment sizes) are encountered. Rules based on artificial intelligence will be developed to choose between these numerous alternatives. Specifically, the PI plans to develop new synthesis procedures for the separation of vapor-liquid-liquid-solid mixtures that will make the hierarchical decision procedure applicable to the conceptual design of most chemical processes. The code he plans to develop will include a systematic procedure for exploring process alternatives, as well as the quick screening of these alternatives; and, be a good starting point for more detailed algorithmic synthesis studies (mixed integer nonlinear programming and simulated annealing). The code will also indicate when pollution problems will result from the design decisions and suggest process alternatives to avoid environmental problems. In addition, the software will be shared with other undergraduate and graduate institutions (it is to be distributed by the CACHE Corporation) to be used for the teaching of process design.