Systematic process synthesis with the aid of mathematical methods

This paper presents a novel method for the process synthesis and optimisati on, the so called Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP). The special ity of this tool is that not only the operating parameters but also the str ucture of the process are simultaneously optimised. A necessary condition f or this kind of optimisation is the definition of an appropriate superstruc ture, that contains all physically relevant processes including the optimal one. Therefore, it is advantageous to determine these superstructures base d on the information relating to thermodynamic equilibrium. The methodology for the development of superstructures and the results of the optimisation are presented for several examples concerned with distillation, extractive distillation, azeotropic distillation, and reactive distillation.