Studies of Scheduling, Design, and Synthesis of Batch, Semi-Continuous, and Continuous Processes

这项拨款为各种工艺操作中出现的调度、设计和合成问题的理论、算法和计算技术的发展提供资金。所开发的算法方法将提供一个系统的框架，以确定在时间范围内将任务分配给不同的工艺单元，每个任务中产生的材料数量，每个任务的时间和持续时间，以及可用工艺单元的设计和能力。一个新的连续时间公式的短期调度的连续和批量过程具有多个到期日期的需求将进行研究。为同时合成、设计和调度批处理过程提供了一种新的数学建模和优化框架。为不确定条件下的批处理过程设计和调度提供了一种新的方法。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致化学和制造过程的操作、设计和合成方面的实质性改进。优化框架是基于调度，设计和合成问题的新颖连续时间公式，将允许生产设施有效地处理广泛的产品，以解决各种产品需求的多个到期日期，并考虑到产品需求的变化以及加工参数和成本的不确定性。理论和算法的发展将与工业案例研究相辅相成，并将导致计算工具的发展，用于制造过程的调度和设计。

This grant provides funding for the development of theoretical, algorithmic and computational techniques for scheduling, design, and synthesis problems that arise in a variety of process operations. The developed algorithmic approaches will provide a systematic framework for the determination of the assignments of the tasks to the different process units during the time horizon, the amounts of material produced in each task, the timing and duration of each task, and the design and capacities of the available process units. A novel continuous-time formulation for the short-term scheduling of continuous and batch processes with multiple due date demands will be investigated. A new mathematical modeling and optimization framework for the simultaneous synthesis, design and scheduling of batch processes will be studied. A new approach for the design and scheduling of batch processes under uncertainty will be developed.If successful, the results of this research will lead into substantial improvements in the operation, design and synthesis of chemical and manufacturing processes. The optimization framework which is based on the novel continuous time formulation of scheduling, design and synthesis problems will allow for production facilities to handle efficiently a wide spectrum of products, to address a variety of multiple due dates in the product demands, and to account for variations in the product demands as well as uncertainties in the processing parameters and costs. The theoretical and algorithmic developments will be complemented with industrial case studies and will lead to the development of computational tools for the scheduling and design of manufacturing processes.