Synthesis of flexible mass-exchange networks
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abstract
in this work, a new algorithm for the synthesis of cost effective flexible mass-exchange networks that can accommodate a given range of potential variations in the waste streams is presented. In order to automatically synthesize the network, a structural-representation scheme is developed to embed all potential configurations of the network. With this representation, both economic and flexibility aspects in the design can be simultaneously handled. The synthesis task is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MIN LP) problem which seeks to minimize the total annualized cost, while incorporating thermodynamic, technical and flexibility constraints. An iterative procedure is devised to solve this optimization program by decomposing the problem into two subproblems:synthesis and flexibility analysis. The synthesis subproblem attempts to generate a minimum-cost solution by identifying the most appropriate mass-exchange technologies along with their types, sizes, operating conditions, and stream distribution. The flexibility analysis subproblem is aimed at insuring that the synthesized system can be feasibly operated over the entire range of potential variations. A case study is tackled to outline the merits of the proposed strategy. 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
