Optimal design of batch-storage network with recycling streams

Abstract

An effective methodology is reported for determining the optimal capacity (lot-size) of batch processing and storage networks which include material recycle or reprocessing streams. We assume that any given storage unit can store one material type which can be purchased from suppliers, be internally produced, internally consumed and/or sold to customers. We further assume that a storage unit is connected to all processing stages that use or produce the material to which that storage unit is dedicated. Each processing stage transforms a set of feedstock materials or intermediates into a set of products with constant conversion factors. The objective for optimization is to minimize the total cost composed of raw material procurement, setup and inventory holding costs as well as the capital costs of processing stages and storage units. The expressions for the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the optimization problem can be reduced to two subproblems. The first yields analytical solutions for determining batch sizes while the second is a separable concave minimization network flow subproblem whose solution yields the average material flow rates through the networks. For the special case in which the number of storage is equal to the number of process stages and raw materials storage units, a complete analytical solution for average flow rates can be derived. The analytical solution for the multistage, strictly sequential batch-storage network case, which was previously reported by the authors, can also be obtained via this approach. The principal contribution of this study is thus the generalization and the extension to non-sequential networks with recycle streams