A visual representation of process heat exchange as a basis for user interaction and stochastic optimization

The use of visualization for heat exchanger network synthesis, both grass-r oots and retrofit, has a long history. Visualization is appealing to the us er because it helps gain insight into the underlying problem. When coupled with user interaction, this insight generation can be enhanced. Furthermore , when the interaction includes access to an optimization procedure, the re sult is a tool that is appealing and has the potential to generate good res ults. This paper describes the implementation of an interactive visualizati on procedure for heat integrated process design. The visualization includes information about the underlying process responsible for the heating and c ooling requirements which define the heat exchanger network synthesis probl em. Furthermore, the data structures which underpin the visualization metho d provide a natural problem formulation for simulated annealing as an optim izer for the heat exchanger network structure. The combination of visualiza tion, user interaction, and stochastic optimization results in a robust and easy to use tool for heat integrated process design.