PROCESS NETWORK SYNTHESIS - PROBLEM DEFINITION

Analyses of network problems have yielded mathematically and practical ly significant results. Naturally, it should be of substantial interes t to extend such results to a general class of network problems where the structure of any system can be represented by a directed bipartite graph containing two types of vertices; the model for one of them is nonlinear. This class of problems is frequently encountered in the des ign of process systems for carrying out transformation of chemical or material species through physical, chemical, or biological means. Gene ral-purpose mathematical programming methods have failed so far to sol ve large-scale network problems involved in the design of such systems . This paper is intended to define this class of network problems, i.e ., the problems of process network synthesis, and to elucidate the uni que features of these problems. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.