CHEG 5165 –Process Integration

and Pinch Analysis

Department of Chemical Engineering

BiT-BDU
CHAPTER TWO

Process optimization
Lecture No. 2
Desalegn A. & Addis L.

May, 2020
Outline
 Introduction

 Basic concepts to problem formulation

 Linear Programming

 Non-linear programming (NLP)

 Integer and mixed integer programming

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 Objective of the lecture

• Formulate, analyze and solve optimization problems

in chemical process.

• Differentiate the various optimization techniques

available.

• Demonstrate the optimization techniques learnt in the

analysis and design of a chemical process plant.

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 INTRODUCTION
Why do we optimize process design?
Objectives
• To minimize total cost of a design
-Unit operations, Auxiliaries, flowsheets, etc…
• To optimize operation (planning and scheduling)
-Minimize capital expenditure, minimize operating cost,
maximize profit, etc…
• To improve plant performance
-Yield, selectivity, use of resources, etc…
• To improve environmental performance
-Reducing the emissions of CO2, H2S, SO2 , etc…
• To improve process safety
-Reducing the effect of hazardous chemicals: toxic, reactive, flammable,
etc…
Basic concepts for problem formulation

1. Design Variable
• Design variable is always involved with a trade-off.
• Changing the value of a design variable results:

- Increase/ bring benefits in one part of a design.

- Decrease/ has a detrimental effect in other parts.

• Hence, there must be an optimum value for the design variable

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Example: Reaction conversion (X)

• A cheap and simple reactor with low conversion

- Higher separation cost

• An elaborate and costly reactor with high conversion

-Lower separation cost

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• X↑ reactor cost ↑ separation cost ↓
• X↓ reactor cost ↓ separation cost ↑

• Minimum total cost exists at Xopt.

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2. Types of Variables
• Continuous variables
- can take any value in a region
-example: Temperature, Pressure, Flowrate,…

• Discrete/ Integer/ variables

-can take discrete values
-example: no. of reactors, no. of columns in sequence, no. of
trays in columns,…

• Binary variables
-can only take 0 or 1
-example: Existence or non-existence of equipment in a design,
plant operation or shutdown, …

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3. Objective function
• Objective function/ performance index/

- Expressed in terms of design variables

• Goal of optimization

- To find the values of the variables which give the

optimal of the objective function

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4. Process model and constraints
• Constraints arise from
- Kinetics, material & energy balances
- Physical bounds on variables
- Empirical relations
- Physical laws
• Constraints expressed
- Equalities
- Inequalities
• Process model
-Whole set of equalities & inequalities + objective function
-Describes the interrelation of design variables

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General optimization model
• Generally, a mathematical programming model
can be expressed in the following form:
minimize f(x) - Objective function
or maximize
Subject to:
h (x) = 0 - equality constraints
g(x) ≥ 0
g(x) ≤ 0 - inequality constraints

Where x is assumed as a set of continuous variables

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Example

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Problem Formulations

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A complete optimization model

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NOTES
• If f(x), g(x) and h(x) are all linear, then this leads
to a linear programming (LP) problem.

• If the objective function or at least one of the

constraints is non-linear, it becomes a non-linear
programming (NLP) problem.

• If some variables are integer, then we have either

mixed integer linear programming (MILP)
problem or mixed integer non-linear
programming (MINLP) problem.
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 Problem Size

Scale # constraints # variables

Small < 100 < 500
Medium < 400 < 1000
Large 106 - 109 106 - 109

• Major difficulties in solving optimization problem arise:

- Types of variables (continuous or integer)
- The nature of non-linearity (convexity or
non-convexity).

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Degrees of freedom (DOF)
Example
Minimize f = X2 – X1 + 2X23 – 4X4X5
Subject to:

X3 - 2X1 + X2 = 2

X4 + X1 - 3X2 = 2

X5 + X1 + X2 = 4

• The number of equations (NE) = 3

• The number of variables (NV) = 5
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• Rearranging the constraints

X3 = 2 + 2X1 - X2

X4 = 2 + 3X2 - X1

X5 = 4 - X1 - X2

• Assume any value of X1 and X2

- X3 , X4 and X5 are fixed and can be calculated

- X1 and X2 are called independent variables

- X3 , X4 and X5 are called dependent variable

• Two degrees of freedom (choosing X1 & X2 )

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• For some values of X1 and X2
-f(x) can achieve a minimum
-Determined by optimization

• Degree of freedom (DOF) = NV – NE

• Therefore, a problem is regarded as an

optimization problem when there is at least one
degree of freedom, i.e., DOF ≥ 1

• For the above example DOF = 5-3 = 2

• Hence, it is an optimization problem

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Linear Programming
General features
• LP is the most widely used optimisation technique in
chemical industry
• LP implies that the objective function and all constraints are lin-
ear
• LP problems are convex programming, where the
objective function is convex (linear) and the constraints
form a convex region or solution space an optimal
solution is global optimum

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Problem formulation

The basic steps involved in formulating LP

Model are:

1) Identify decision variables

2) Express constraints as linear
equalities or inequalities
3) Write the objective function as a
linear function

Let’s illustrate these basic steps with an example

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 
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f3 f
f1 4
f2 
f0 optimal point

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Non-linear Programming (NLP)

SCOPE

• Generalized Reduced Gradient method (GRG)

• Penalty function method

• Successive Quadratic programming (SQP)

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∇
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Integer and Mixed Integer Programming

Scope

• MILP problems
• MINLP problems
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

x1 x2 c
0 15 95.31023
0.5 14.4 97.94745
1 13.8 98.81912
1.5 13.2 99.32551
2 12.6 99.62933
2.5 12 99.79589
3 11.4 99.85923
3.5 10.8 99.83968
4 10.2 99.7503
4.5 9.6 99.59994
5 9 99.39467
5.5 8.4 99.13867
6 7.8 98.83468
6.5 7.2 98.48425
7 6.6 98.08794
7.5 6 97.64528
8 5.4 97.15474
8.5 4.8 96.6135
9 4.2 96.01714
9.5 3.6 95.35893
10 3 94.62862
10.5 2.4 93.81009
11 1.8 92.87599
11.5 1.2 91.77361
12 0.6 90.37116
12.5 0 87.53276

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