SIMULTANEOUS SCHEDULING AND OPERATIONAL OPTIMIZATION OF MULTIPRODUCT, CYCLIC CONTINUOUS PLANTS

• Main Authors: A. Alle, J.M. Pinto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazilian Society of Chemical Engineering 2002-03-01
• Series: Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering
• Subjects: Scheduling; Operation; Mixed-Integer Optimization; Continuous Plants
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322002000100003&lng=en&tlng=en

The problems of scheduling and optimization of operational conditions in multistage, multiproduct continuous plants with intermediate storage are simultaneously addressed. An MINLP model, called TSPFLOW, which is based on the TSP formulation for product sequencing, is proposed to schedule the operation of such plants. TSPFLOW yields a one-order-of-magnitude CPU time reduction as well as the solution of instances larger than those formerly reported (Pinto and Grossmann, 1994). Secondly, processing rates and yields are introduced as additional optimization variables in order to state the simultaneous problem of scheduling with operational optimization. Results show that trade-offs are very complex and that the development of a straightforward (rule of thumb) method to optimally schedule the operation is less effective than the proposed approach.