ELECTROLYTIC PROCESS OPTIMIZATION BY SIMULTANEOUS-MODULAR FLOWSHEETING

A procedure is described for computer-assisted optimization of an elec trolytic process flowsheet. Material, energy, and economic balances fo r all process units were incorporated in a nonlinear optimization rout ine for predicting the minimum selling price based on a discounted cas h flow rate of return on investment. The optimization utilized a simul taneous-modular approach which was incorporated into the public versio n of the Aspen flowsheeting package, and used an infeasible path conve rgence method based on successive quadratic programming procedures. El ectrolyte vapour-liquid equilibrium data were estimated by the 'non-ra ndom two-liquid' model. The Lagrangian multipliers of the constraint e quations were used to determine the sensitivity of the optimum to key process variables. The method was illustrated by evaluation of two pro cess flowsheets for electrosynthesis of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) from 1-butene based on pilot-plant performance reported in the patent lite rature.