4 - Process Design, Integration and Optimisation: advantages, challenges and drivers

Abstract

‘Process design, integration and optimisation: advantages, challenges and drivers’ is a revised version of the equivalent chapter published in the first edition of the Handbook of Process Integration. In this version, all definitions have been retained, but they are illustrated from publications that appeared after the first edition was published. The chapter begins with a brief history of process design, then presents the primary currents of the hierarchical approach: heuristic, phenomena-driven design, conflict-based, case-based reasoning, driving force method and axiomatic design. Similarities and differences between design and retrofit are emphasised. Process integration definitions and primary tools are introduced, integration techniques are detailed, and the distinctions between integration and intensification are clarified. The primary optimisation techniques are shown, emphasising various scalar/vector objective functions applied to the same mathematical model to obtain different topologies. Lastly, simultaneous integration and control are advocated following a thorough discussion of how process integration affects controllability.