Process design cost optimization

The estimation of operating and capital costs is an important facet of process design and optimization. In the absence of firm bids or valid historical records, you can locate charts, tables, and equations that provide cost estimates from a wide variety of sources based on given values of the design variables. 

Spreadsheet Applications. The types of appHcations handled with spreadsheets are a microcosm of the types of problems and situations handled with fuU-blown appHcation programs that are mn on microcomputers, minis, and mainframes and include engineering computations, process simulation, equipment design and rating, process optimization, reactor kinetics—design, cost estimation, feedback control, data analysis, and unsteady-state simulation (eg, batch distillation optimization). 

Catalyst Selection. The choice of catalyst is one of the most important design decisions. Selection is usually based on activity, selectivity, stabiUty, mechanical strength, and cost (31). StabiUty and mechanical strength, which make for steady, long-term performance, are the key characteristics. The basic strategy in process design is to minimize catalyst deactivation, while optimizing pollutant destmction. 

Rossiter and Douglas (1986) state that the first step in process design is to generate a basic structure for the flowsheet i.e. the choice of unit operations and interconnections which can be analysed, refined and costed, and then compared to alternatives. Thus, the generation of an industrial crystallization flowsheet gives rise to a number of optimization problems for which a systematic hierarchical decision process for particulate systems was proposed ... 

This interplay of the many variables is extremely complex and involves a matrix of the many variables. As an example in the molding simulation TMconcept system programmed Molding Cost Optimization (MCO) of Plastics Computer Inc., Dallas, TX, there are well over 300 variables. It is not reasonable to expect a person using manual methods to calculate these complex interactions even if molding only a modest shaped product without omissions or errors. Computerized process simulation is a practical tool to monitor the influence of design alternatives on the processability of the product and to select molding conditions that ensure the required product quality (3). 

The first consideration in any design and optimization problem is to decide the boundaries of the system. A reactor can rarely be optimized without considering the upstream and downstream processes connected to it. Chapter 6 attempts to integrate the reactor design concepts of Chapters 1-5 with process economics. The goal is an optimized process design that includes the costs of product recovery, in-process recycling, and by-product disposition. The reactions are... 

Optimization problems in process design are usually concerned with maximizing or minimizing an objective function. The objective function might typically be to maximize economic potential or minimize cost. For example, consider the recovery of heat from a hot waste stream. A heat exchanger could be installed to recover the waste heat. The heat recovery is illustrated in Figure 3.1a as a plot of temperature versus enthalpy. There is heat available in the hot stream to be recovered to preheat the cold stream. But how much heat should be recovered Expressions can be written for the recovered heat as ... 

Constmcted wetlands use biological processes inherent in natnral wetlands and a system designed to optimize those processes to treat wastewater contaminants specific to a particnlar site. Constructed wetlands are passive treatment systems that mimic, rather than overcome, natnral processes. Consequently, the cost of operation and maintenance is significantly lower than for... 

These tools may assist the scientist in two ways. First, the design process can be optimized with the nse of more complex constraints than could otherwise be handled. Second, in some cases the need for time-consuming and costly physical or chemical property measurements can be eliminated with the use of estimation techniques for properties of interest. 

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