DETERMINATION OF THE HORIZON CONSTRAINTS IN MULTIPURPOSE CHEMICAL-PLANT DESIGN

In this paper, a method of finding the proper horizon constraints in m ultipurpose batch chemical plants design, is proposed. The method cove rs the complex scheduling task involving the design problem and determ ining the horizon constraints, to be solved. It is characterized by us ing a solution search tree upon a search area consisting of those grou ps of compatible productions which are of maximum size. The method inc ludes three main stages 1) determining of the search area, 2) determin ing of the optimum or near to the optimum schedules, and 3) determinin g of the horizon constraints. An example from literature is used to il lustrate the opportunities of the method.