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An Intelligent Simulation-Optimization
and environmental considerations, in that order. However, the situation has changed
much during the recent past. Chemical companies have embraced the concept of
sustainable development as part of their core business values. This means that the
feed materials and energy must be renewable, products non-toxic and biodegradable,
and wastes minimized or even eliminated at source. Such need for sustainable
development has challenged the chemical process industries to seek new approaches
to tackle the waste problem. This includes exploitation of popular, commercial tools
simulators are useful, one main shortcoming of their application to the waste
minimization is the lack of decision support for the non-expert user. The inherent
in response to changes in one or more variables. When used for waste minimization,
the overall outcome of the study is still very much dependant on the insight, skill,
27
and expertise of the user in diagnosing the traits of waste generation in that specific
case, identifying the relevant features (root causes) that control them, exploring and
generating different alternatives, and tuning the necessary variables to optimize the
Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Center for Waste Reduction
practical, easy to use even by a non-expert and require less precise process
information. However, they only provide broad direction for improving the process.
optimization can provide precise actions for retrofitting. However, they need
combines the strength of each approach is proposed. In the following sections, each
element of the framework will be discussed but before that, a literature case study
28
3.1 Hydrodealkylation (HDA) Process of Benzene from Toluene
Fresh toluene and hydrogen are initially mixed with a recycle stream containing
hydrogen, methane, benzene and toluene. The feed mixture is first heated in a
diphenyl. The reactor effluent comprising the products and unreacted hydrogen and
separator (V-100) to remove the aromatics from the non-condensable hydrogen and
methane. A fraction of the vapor stream leaving the top of the separator which
contains significant amount of methane and hydrogen is recycled and mixed with the
raw material streams while the rest is purged as waste. The liquid from the flash
separator is split into two. The first stream is mixed with the reactor effluent and
recycled back to the cooler. The second stream is passed through a series of
distillation columns (stabilizer T-100, benzene column T-101 and toluene column T-
102) to separate the benzene product and the methane byproduct from the other
components. Benzene product is obtained at 99% (mol) purity from T-101. The
distillate stream from T-102 contains high purity toluene and is recycled, while the
diphenyl stream from the bottom of the column becomes waste. The process
currently incurs an environmental impact of 1473 and an operating cost of $1504 per
hour. The objective in this case study is to retrofit the process to make it
economically attractive.
29
RCY-2
5 Recycle-gas
7 E-Compressor
13 K-100
MIX-100
H2-feed 2
MIX-101 Furnace
8
6 9 10 11
Toluene-feed 15
P-100 E-Cooler Purge
E-100 TEE-101
E-P100 E-Cond101
14 Sep_inlet
Fuel-gas
RCY-1 T-101
T-100
RCY-3 V-100
E-Cond100 Benzene-
product
E-Cond102 12
Toluene- TEE-100
Toluene- T-102
recycle P-101
byproduct Sep-bottoms
16
E-P101 E-Reb101
E-Reb100
E-Reb102 17
Diphenyl-waste 18
The WAR algorithm was first developed by Hilaly and Sikdar (1994), who
the original WAR algorithm. From the PEI balance calculation, a relative indication
.
In the WAR algorithm, a potential environmental impact I , of a chemical k
. .
I NP
= M j x kjNP k (3.1)
.
where M j is the mass flowrate of stream j, x kjNP is the mass fraction of chemical k in
k =
l
l
s
k ,l (3.2)
chemical k and ks,l is the specific potential environmental impact of chemical k for
warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, smog formation, human toxicity, aquatic
toxicity and terrestrial toxicity (see Table 3.2). The relative weighting factor l
needs and policies. Throughout this thesis, l is set to 1. Chemical impact scores k
31
of several chemicals have been quantified using this expression. A database
software containing the environmental impacts of various chemicals has also been
Based on the steady state balance, the environmental impact of any processes
. . .
I gen = I out - I in (3.3)
. .
where I in is the input impact rate of stream entering the system, I out is the output
.
impact rate of stream leaving the system and I gen is the rate of impact generation by
the system. For balance involving only the non-product (NP) streams, the following
. . .
I NP
gen = I NP
out - I NP
in (3.4)
Using the terminology described in equation (3.1) and the impact balance of
.
equation (3.4), the potential environmental impact I gen generated by the non-
. . .
I NP
gen = M outj
j
xkjNP k -
k
M inj
j
x k
k
NP
kj (3.5)
To account for the product stream of the process, an index I NP
gen , is introduced as
. NP
I gen
follows: I NP
gen = .
(3.6)
P p
p
where I NP
gen is defined as a measure of the potential impact created by all non-
.
product streams in producing all of the products P produced by the system.
32
By setting the potential environmental impact k of all product streams to
zero, which means no environmental impact generated by the product streams and
setting all the non-product streams k to one, the following index can be deduced
. .
M outj xkjNP M inj xkjNP
j k j k
from equation (3.5) and (3.6): M NP
gen = .
(3.7)
Pp
p
where M NP
gen is a measure of the mass inefficiency of the process, i.e. it gives the
form.
One main drawback of the WAR algorithm arises due to the difficulty,
the process. Nevertheless, the algorithm provides a useful basis for comparing the
Process Design
stage review (Allen and Rosselot, 1997). During the preliminary stage, the team
would assess the different parts of the process and derive several possible
alternatives to reduce the waste generated within the process. Since source reduction
gets a higher priority, it is explored first before recycling options are considered. All
the alternatives, which are generally available in qualitative form, are assessed in
more detail in the next stage of the study. At this stage, process simulators may be
33
used to evaluate the resultant changes in the product and waste streams.
laborious, time consuming, and expensive. Given the complex and multifaceted
design alternatives is thus essential. In this section, a framework that mimics the
problem.
Figure 3.2 shows the proposed framework for conducting sustainability study
34
A process graph-based scheme is used for diagnosing the waste sources in the
heuristic alternative design solutions that address the origin of waste. The efficacy of
35
USER INPUT
Environmental Material
impact data classification
(WAR)
Process flowsheet
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
Functional
model
Multi-objective
Simulated Annealing Simulation engine
730
Environmental Impac
725
720
715
710
705
78300 78800 79300 79800 80300
Operating Cost ($)
36
3.3.1 Process Information Representation
extract appropriate knowledge about that process including the flowsheet, reaction
chemistry, and material and energy balances. If a simulation of the process already
exists, such information can be extracted easily using industrial standards such as
(HTML), the XML syntax consists of a set of tags, i.e., identifiers enclosed in angle
brackets (Kokkonen et al., 2003). The starting-tag, ending-tag and parsed character
information can also be embedded inside a tag as pairs of attributes and values. A
parent element can contain many child elements to form a hierarchical structure.
reported including CapeML (von Wedel, 2002), Logical data model (Karhela, 2002),
schema currently exists for modeling and simulation purposes. In this work, HYSYS
is used as the simulator and therefore use its XML schema for importing process
information. The XML document of a simulation contains all the building blocks of
the case study, includes the list of materials, list of unit operations, stream and unit
operating variables or process parameters. An extract from the XML document for
the HDA case study is shown along with the HYSYS-XML schema in Figure 3.3.
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Case definition
Component list
Stream or Variable and Stream or unit position
File name unit name parameter
Software version
Model type Component name
Date X and Y coordinates
XML Data
Reaction package
Material stream name <FSO OwnerType="FlowShtObject"
Pressure OwnerName="Main" Type="ParamSet">
Reaction name Temperature <FSOName OwnerType="FlowShtObject"
Composition OwnerName="Main" Type="Param">
XML Data
<Value>Toluene-feed</Value>
<ComponentName OwnerType= Reaction type </FSOName>
FluidPkgMgrObject" OwnerName="" <Icon OwnerType="FlowShtObject"
Energy stream name OwnerName="Main" Type="Param">
Type="Param"> Energy flow
<Value>Hydrogen</Value> Fluid package <Value>MaterialStream</Value>
<Status>Specified</Status> </Icon>
</ComponentName> <X OwnerType="FlowShtObject"
<ComponentName Unit operation name OwnerName="Main" Type="Param">
Property
OwnerType="FluidPkgMgrObject" Feed stream list <Value>838.718143</Value>
coefficient
OwnerName="" Type="Param"> Product stream list </X>
<Value>Methane</Value> Energy stream list <Y OwnerType="FlowShtObject"
<Status>Specified</Status> Thermodynamic Design parameter OwnerName="Main" Type="Param">
</ComponentName> model <Value>-371.314925</Value>
</Y>
</FSO>
Figure 3.3 Hierarchical representation of process flowsheet in XML document
38
In addition to these, other data needed for the sustainability study are the
classification of material components into raw material, utility, waste or product (see
economic data (Table 3.3), and bounds on the decision variable (Table 3.4).
Table 3.2 Environmental impact indexes (per mass basis) of chemicals in HDA process
39
Table 3.3 Economic information for HDA process
Description Cost
Energy ($/kWh)
Furnace 0.05
Compressor 0.07
Pump 0.07
Cooler 0.10
Condensor (distillation) 0.004
Reboiler (distillation) 0.02
Reactor 0.02
Table 3.4 Initial values and bounds for decision variables in HDA process
the process can be diagnosed. For this, the process graph (P-graph)-based approach
proposed by Halim and Srinivasan (2002a) is adopted. P-graph originates from the
work of Friedler et al. (1994) who demonstrated a special directed bipartite graph for
representing process structure suitable for the synthesis problem. In the P-graph
40
model, a material stream is represented by a circle, an operating unit by a bar and
connections between material streams and operating units by directed arcs. The flow
Srinivasan (2002a, 2002b) showed that the P-graph for a continuous process can be
derived automatically from the process flowsheet. They also reported methods for
identifying the sub-graph of streams and unit operations that contribute to the
presence of different material components in each waste stream. Figure 3.4 shows
the P-graph model for the HDA process. The flow paths of methane and benzene
(highlighted) have been traced from the diphenyl-waste and the benzene and fuel-
gas product streams, in the upstream direction until the input streams.
(4) useless material produced from reaction or phase change phenomena, and
The term ineffective separation is used to describe a separation that causes an escape
product material in the waste stream, for example, is detrimental. Likewise, a waste
there is a material that is detrimental in the waste stream, yet desirable in other
streams. The next step is to find the intersecting separation operation which leads to
the escape of such material into the former stream. In the example in Figure 3.4, the
41
stabilizer and benzene columns lead to the escape of desirable methane and benzene
into the waste streams can be identified as ineffective separators. Such analysis,
when performed on all components in the waste streams, reveals the following waste
(1) excessive raw materials in the H 2 and toluene streams leading to their presence
(2) diphenyl by-product and low conversion of toluene and hydrogen in the reactor,
The subsequent step after diagnosing the waste sources is to derive decision
42
RECYCLE
GAS
H2 FEED Hydrogen
Hydrogen Methane
Methane Toluene
Benzene
TOLUENE
FEED
FUEL-GAS
Methane
(desirable)
the valuable material from the waste stream has been identified (Halim and
Srinivasan, 2002b). These heuristics, which are based on Douglas (1992) and Smith
(1) If an impurity exists in a feed stream, then prevent it from entering the process.
(2) If a useful material in the feed stream exits through a waste stream, then prevent
formation.
(4) If an inefficient separation unit exists, then improve the separation process or
(5) If a useful material exists in a waste stream, then recover and recycle that
material.
For example, in the HDA process, the presence of toluene and hydrogen in the waste
streams can be eliminated or minimized through reducing their amounts in the feed
the solutions involve eliminating it during the reaction by changing the operating
conditions of the reactor. To prevent the escape of benzene product into the waste
Table 3.5 shows the list of solutions derived for this HDA process.
44
Table 3.5 Qualitative waste minimization alternatives for HDA process
The heuristics for diagnosing the source of waste using P-graph analysis and
using Gensym’s G2 expert system shell (Halim and Srinivasan, 2002a; Halim and
Srinivasan, 2002b; Halim and Srinivasan, 2002c). It has been applied on several case
45
studies including a hydrocarbon separation and a chemical intermediate
The heuristics provide potential solutions whose benefits to the plant can be
justified only when significant reduction in the waste amount can be demonstrated.
The analysis based on the P-graph model only suggests “how” a particular waste
source can be solved. It is not capable of specifically determining the variables that
terms. For example, consider the alternative “optimize the reactor condition to
eliminate diphenyl production”; there are many ways of improving the reaction,
such as changing the temperature, pressure and flow of the reactants. These
alternatives cannot be evaluated by using the P-graph model. For example, consider
there are many ways of improving the reaction, such as changing the temperature,
pressure and flow of the reactants. These alternatives cannot be evaluated by using
the P-graph model. Thus, the next step in the sustainable design framework is to
46
3.4.1 Intelligent Identification of Decision Variables
functional models that capture the functional interactions between the constituent
elements of the process (Modarres, 1993). In this case, each of the unit operations in
the plant is classified according to its function. Following the terminology of Lind
(1994), each unit operation is considered to serve one or more of the following basic
flow functions:
(1) Source ─ a supply of mass and energy to the process, e.g., feed stream, reactor,
(2) Sink ─ an end point for mass and energy flow, e.g., product stream or waste
stream
separation tank
(4) Balance ─ acts as a balance between the incoming and outgoing flow of mass
(5) Barrier ─ prevents transfer of mass and energy between two flow functions, e.g.,
valve
(6) Transport ─ transfers mass and energy between the two flow functions, e.g.,
Main and supporting variables that influence that function are also defined for each.
The term “main variable” is used to describe those variables that directly affect the
flow function of a unit. For example, temperature is the main variable for coolers or
heat exchangers and pressure for pumps or compressors. On the other hand,
47
“supporting variables” directly or indirectly influence the main variable. These
variables) with upstream units. Consider a cooler as an example. The cooling energy
would be the supporting variable as it directly impacts the main variable cooler
temperature, which in turn affects the cooler temperature. Thus, given a process
flowsheet, the entire chain of functional interactions between the units can be
identified.
Figure 3.5 shows the functional model for the HDA process from the
perspective of main variables of each process unit. This reveals that the hydrogen
and toluene feed, heating-energy of furnace, and the energy of compressor, cooler
and pump (P101) are relevant variables (degrees of freedom) that control the flow
and concentration of diphenyl waste stream. These six variables thus become the
automatically shortlist the set of variables that are relevant to a design alternative
48
K-100
Pressure
TRANSPORT
H2-feed
Concentration MIX-100
SOURCE PFR-100
Furnace Temperature
BALANCE Temperature
BALANCE Concentration
SOURCE
MIX-102
MIX-101
E-102 SOURCE SOURCE
Toluene-feed TRANSPORT Temperature BALANCE
E-100
Concentration TEE-101
Temperature
SOURCE BALANCE
SOURCE
P-100
Pressure T-100 T-101
STORAGE STORAGE BALANCE Concentration
TRANSPORT Concentration
V-100 Pressure Pressure
Concentration Temperature Temperature
Pressure
T-102 Temperature TEE-100
P-101 SINK
Pressure Concentration
Pressure STORAGE STORAGE
Diphenyl-waste Temperature
Numerous indicators have been developed to set the performance targets and
include impacts such as global warming, ozone depletion, and ecotoxicity as well as
the products life-cycle. The UK IChemE produced a more complete set of indicators
Schwartz et al. (2002) under the sponsorship of AIChE’s Centre for Waste
consumption, toxic emissions and pollutant emissions. The term material intensity is
used as a measure of waste material per unit product and this is calculated by
subtracting the product outputs from the raw material inputs (excluding utilities). In
the same way, energy intensity is a measure of fuel consumption per unit of
Glavic (2003) used indicators from different sources (such as IChemE and AIChE)
sustainability measure as they are the most practical to the operation of process
plants. For the former, pollutants are used as the measure of environmental impact
50
although the other metrics can be additionally used as well. In this case, the WAste
the environmental impact indicator due to its wide database of chemical compounds,
al.(1997), or Koller et al. (2000) can also be used. The economic objective is
calculated based on the costs of raw material, waste treatment, and energy
consumption.
potential impacts to different environmental categories. Based on this index, the total
impact of a waste stream in the plant can be calculated as the sum of each material
index of the waste stream weighted by its flowrate. The total environmental impact
of a process is thus calculated as the sum of the environmental impact of all the
waste streams in the process. The flowrates for the economic impact calculation and
aspects of the proposed alternatives may conflict one another. For example,
increasing the reactant flowrate to reduce the byproducts formation and thus the
environmental impact would lead to higher operating costs. Thus the next step
offs.
51
(Srinivas and Deb, 1994) or tabu search (Cavin et al., 2004) can be used as well. The
simulated annealing seeks to reach the global minimum energy state by temporarily
other words, given a prior solution x and a new solution x for the optimization
1 if f x f x
P f ( x ) f ( x ) (3.8)
e T
Otherwise
was designed for single objective optimization. However, it has recently been
where x is the vector of decision variables, and f env and f eco are the two objective
functions. For two solutions x and x , x is said to dominate x if f env ( x ) is no
worse than f env ( x ) and f eco ( x ) no worse than f eco ( x ). x would be Pareto-optimal
solutions if x is better than x in exactly least one of the two objective functions.
The set of all Pareto-optimal solutions is termed as the Pareto set, which represents
52
Suppapitnarm et al. (2000) proposed an extension of the simulated annealing
(1) Specify the elements of the solution vector x , the various decision variables that
control the sustainability profile of the process. Specify the minimum and
maximum values for each. Use the values from the base-case design as the initial
solution vector x .
(2) Initialize the Pareto set with the triplet x , f env ( x ), f eco ( x ) as its element.
(3) Using the candidate solution vector, simulate the process to obtain the
(5) Perform random perturbation to generate a new solution vector x in the
neighborhood of x and evaluate its objective function values – f env ( x ) and
(6) Compare objective values of x with all solutions in the Pareto set. If
x dominates any element of the Pareto set, replace that element with x . If x is
Pareto-optimal with all the elements in the set, then include it in the set.
(7) If x is dominated, temporarily accept it as the current solution vector with a
probability P defined as
Senv Seco
P min 1, exp .exp (3.10)
T T
53
Senv f env x f env x
where (3.11)
Seco f eco x f eco x
(8) x is accepted as the new solution, i.e., x x iff P > P rand a random number
T T Rt (3.12)
(11) Steps (3) to (10) are repeated for a predefined total number of iterations N Total .
(2004) has been used to serve as the optimizer in the proposed framework.
Both the steps described above have been automated so that the various tasks
for sustainable design are transparent to the user. The automated procedure starts
with ENVOPExpert extracting the information about the process from the HYSYS
model. This is done by converting the flowsheet information into an XML file,
relations in G2. Once all the relevant information is available, P-graph diagnosis is
also used for the quantitative assessment of the process. A bridge between G2 and
54
latter allows connection between HYSYS and Excel through VisualBasic for
Applications (VBA). This two-way connection is used to send the values of decision
variables to HYSYS, which simulates their effects and returns the results back to
these results. The multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm has also been
variables and sends them again to HYSYS for simulation. This cycle is repeated for
Objectives
Operating cost 1504 1495 1486 1489 1493
($/h)
Total impact 1476 1197 1218 1214 1205
Table 3.6 shows the complete Pareto solution set for the HDA case study.
Among the optimal solutions, the environmental impact ranges from 1197 to 1218
and the operating cost from 1486 to 1495. Compared to the base case, this signifies a
reduction of up to 19% for environmental impact and 1% for costs. The same case
55
study has been previously used by Fu et al. (2000) for optimization using four
decision variables: hydrogen and toluene flowrate, furnace temperature and reaction
HTPI / TTP, HTPE, GWP and PCOP. (In this work, HTPI and TTP have been
classified as one environmental category as both share the same material indexes.
ODP and ARP have also been eliminated from assessment due to their zero
indexes.) Table 3.7 presents the optimization results for the five different objective
functions. The table shows that the environmental impact of this process is
dominated by PCOP followed by ATP; in fact the two contribute to 93% of the total
impact and operating cost compared to the base case. However, it also reveals a
trade-off between cost and environmental impact (See “Min cost” and “Min
PCOP”). Compared to their approach, where the analysis and formulation had to be
3.7 also reveals that the multi-objective optimization yields better results than
solving any single objective optimization. All the single-objective results are
56
Table 3.7 Comparison of HDA design alternatives
Base 1 2 3 4 5
Description case Min Min HTPI, Min Min Min
Cost TTP HTPE GWP PCOP
Decision variables
H 2 feed (kmol/h) 222.44 221.125 220.718 220.912 221.751 221.22
Toluene feed 123.83 121.274 121.365 121.743 120.936 121.279
(kmol/h)
E-Furnace 2.47 2.476 2.476 2.477 2.474 2.474
(×107 kJ/h)
E-Compressor 6.142 6.152 6.263 6.165 6.160 6.151
(×104 kJ/h)
E-Cooler 3.000 3.028 3.063 3.075 3.063 3.068
(×107 kJ/h)
E-Pump101 7172 7178 7174 7179 7175 7173
(kJ/h)
Objectives
Operating cost 1504 1486 1489 1493 1496 1494
($/h)
HTPI 89 77 75 75 75 75
TTP 89 77 75 75 75 75
HTPE 2 1 1 1 1 1
ATP 369 369 371 371 365 368
GWP 7 6 6 7 6 6
PCOP 920 723 691 700 706 703
Total impact 1476 1253 1219 1229 1228 1228
1260
1250
1240
Environmental impact
1230
1220
1210
Pareto plot of multi-
objective solution
1200
1190
1484 1486 1488 1490 1492 1494 1496 1498
Operating cost ($/hour)
57
3.5 Case Study: Biodiesel Production
plant is illustrated. Different routes for biodiesel production have been developed
or waste oil (Zhang et al., 2003a). The process considered here is based on acid-
methanol, sodium hydroxide, water, glycerol and biodiesel (methyl oleate). Figure
3.7 shows the flowsheet of the process (Zhang et al., 2003a), which involves the
following operations:
mixed with the recycled stream for reaction with waste oil (triolein). The
reaction, which is carried out at 80°C and 400 kPa pressure, converts 97% (mass
vacuum tower to recover the excess methanol. In this process, 94% of methanol
is recovered and recycled back to the reactor. The bottom stream is again cooled
(3) Acid removal: In this step, sulfuric acid is neutralized by adding calcium oxide
58
(4) Water washing: The purpose of this operation is to separate the biodiesel from
the glycerol, methanol and acid catalyst. This is done through washing with
(5) Biodiesel purification: In the final stage, the biodiesel product is distilled further
The process currently generates four waste streams: bottom liquid of the acid
neutralization column, washwater waste of the extractor column, vent gas of the
purifier column, and reboiler liquid. As the vent flowrate is negligible compared to
the other waste streams, it is thus ignored during analysis. Table 3.8 shows the cost
and environmental data for this process. The process generates a total environmental
impact of 126.9 as calculated from the three waste streams. The economic objective
treatment and energy – and is $728.4/hour for the base case. Thus, with a throughput
loss of $218.4 per hour of operation is incurred. The process can be made more
efficient to lower the loss through better utilization of raw material and energy; this
59
Recycle
Recycled-methanol
Vent-gas
Reactor-mixer
Recycled-feed
Reactor-feed E-condenser1
Pumped-feed
Oil Methanol-
column Methanol-top
Feed-mixer Reactor
E-reactor E-cooler1
Methanol Fresh-feed E-pump2 Methanol-
Feed-pump Reactor-product pump
H2SO4
E-pump1 E-reboiler1
E-cooler2
Cooled-product
Product-cooler
Biodiesel-bottom
Waste-vapor
Vent-gas2 Bottom-cooler
E-condenser2
Extractor
CaO
E-reboiler2 E-neutralizer
Purifier
Top-mixture
Waste-oil
Waste-water Bottom-Waste
Settler Neutralized-mixture
E-settler
CuSO4-waste
Waste-mixer
Using the P-graph based approach, the following waste sources were first
diagnosed by ENVOPExpert:
(1) Waste byproducts (glycerol and CuSO 4 ) which are formed in the reactor and the
neutralizer.
(2) Inefficiencies in the extraction and purification columns that lead to the escape
(3) Excessive feed of methanol, H 2 SO 4 and oil cause the presence of those
components in the waste water and the waste vapor stream. However, as the
(4) Excessive use of CaO and water as the neutralizing and extraction agent lead to
61
presence in the waste water stream is assumed negligible.
Subsequently, the design modifications listed in Table 3.9 were proposed. Six
variables – feed streams of waste oil, methanol, H 2 SO 4 , the energy of the two
coolers, and water flowrate – are selected as the decision variables and their values
varied in the ranges shown in Table 3.10. Such ranges of the variables have been
optimization run. This is particularly important as changes, even small ones, in these
variables could lead to failed convergence, especially in the column operation. For a
process without column operation, a wider range of variables can always be used.
Like in the HDA case, the objective in this process is to minimize both the
Figure 3.8 shows the Pareto optimal set. Compared to the base design, the
4% and 1.5%, respectively. This finding thus confirms the benefits of implementing
waste minimization to the plant. Figure 3.8 also shows the trade-off between the
objectives. Overall, about 80% of the environmental impact is due to the presence of
un-recovered methanol and H 2 SO 4 in the waste stream; about half of the operating
cost comes from energy consumption. Therefore, decreasing the amount of methanol
and CaSO 4 in the waste by reducing the feed amounts leads to lower raw material
and waste treatment cost, but the energy needed increases since the efficiency of
methanol- H 2 SO 4 separation has to increase. It should also be noted that, in this case
study, glycerol has been considered as a waste byproduct and its contribution to the
standpoint, it would be desirable to find a beneficial use for glycerol, so that it can
become a product.
62
Table 3.9 Waste minimization alternatives for biodiesel process
Table 3.10 Initial values and bounds for decision variables in biodiesel process
63
131
130
129 Base case (728.4, 126.9)
been proposed for synthesizing waste minimization analysis generic to any chemical
base for identifying the root cause of waste generation in a process, a heuristic
process, batch operation delivers its product in discrete amount. Consequently any
process wastes generated from batch operation would vary with time. To
64