OPTIMAL SYNTHESIS OF STAGEWISE CONTINUOUS CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS NETWORKS

A new synthesis method based on targeting is presented for the design of stagewise continuous crystallization processes. The methodology det ermines the optimal flow distribution to each of the crystallizers in addition to other common control variables, including temperature, con centration, and vessel volume The resulting optimization model yields a boundary-value differential equation system, which is transformed in to a set of nonlinear equations through orthogonal collocation and sol ved numerically. For the synthesis of the continuous KNO3 crystallizat ion process considered here, the predicted optimal network solution sh ows that the common tradeoff between high yield and large average crys tal sizes has been successfully eradicated by the new design approach.