| dc.description.abstract | Process Intensification (PI) has been identified as a promising tool to drastically improve process profitability and energy efficiency, and reduce process waste through the application of innovative schemes and processes. The past few decades have witnessed burgeoning interest in the field of PI towards systematic innovation of chemical processes. Recent efforts by the Process Systems Engineering (PSE) community have focused on: (i) generating novel intensified designs without pre-postulating chemical processes and/or equipment, (ii) flexibility, safety, and controllability analysis of PI systems under uncertain conditions, and (iii) integrated framework for process synthesis, optimization, and operability analysis of PI processes. Despite current advances in commercial software for chemical process modeling and simulation, there lacks a widely used software platform to support PI innovation, synthesis, and operability analysis.
In this work, we present a software prototype for systematic generation of PI process systems with guaranteed safety, flexibility, and control performances. The prototype leverages state-of-the art PSE strategies and toolkits in an integrated manner for: (i) computer-aided process synthesis and optimization using the Generalized Modular Representation Framework, (ii) operability and safety analysis using flexibility test and quantitative risk analysis, and (iii) explicit model predictive control following the PAROC (PARametric Optimization and Control) Framework. Commercial platforms embedded within the prototype include Python for user interface, GAMS® for process synthesis and optimization, DWSIM® & ASPEN® for process simulation, and gPROMS® & MATLAB® for dynamic analysis, process operability, and process control. The capabilities of the prototype are demonstrated through a case study on the process design and intensification of pentene metathesis reaction/separation systems. | en |
