Sustainable integrated process design and control for a distillation column system

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to develop a sustainable integrated process design and control methodology for a distillation column system. The sustainable integrated process design and control problem for a distillation column system is typically formulated as a mathematical programming (optimization with constraints) problem, and solved by decomposing it to six sequential hierarchical sub-problems: (i) pre-analysis, (ii) design analysis, (iii) controller design analysis, (iv) sustainability analysis, (v) detailed economics analysis and (vi) final selection and verification. The results through case study of benzene-toluene separation process shows the proposed methodology is capable to find the optimal solution that satisfies design, control, sustainability and economic criteria in a simple and efficient way.