Optimal design of solvent blends for environmental impact minimization

A systematic procedure proposed here selects optimal solvent blends for non reactive, multicomponent absorption processes accounting for plant-wide poi nt source environmental interactions. This approach, based on the optimal d esign technique for pure solvents developed in our earlier work, involves t he identification of all agent-based operations (such as gas absorption and liquid extraction) within the process of interest, the determination of a list of candidate solvent blends satisfying separation task operational and environmental constraints, and the selection of an optimal solvent blend c andidate based on global plant-wide process and environmental constraints. The procedure features new property and operational feasibility constraints , a refined task-based problem formulation, and a new solution strategy. Tw o examples are presented to demonstrate the approach, and trade-offs betwee n cost and environmental impact objectives are discussed.