Optimal Multi-floor Plant Layout based on the Mathematical Programming

Abstract

In the fields of researches associated with plant layout optimization, the main goal is to minimizing the costs of pipelines for connecting equipment. However, what is lacking of considerations in previous researches is to handle safety distances for preventing domino impacts on a complex plant. The mathematical programming formulation can be presented as considering safety distances and economic benefits for solving the multi-floor plant layout problem. Under the risks of physical explosion, the safety distance must be considered to generate more reasonable and safe plant layouts. To consider the safety distance, a consequence analysis is employed to calculate the probability curve for the explosions of all equipment. The objective function of this study consists of two steps. The first is to minimize the costs (piping costs) connecting facilities in the process. The second is to minimize the explosion impacts under given conditions and a process. MINLP (Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming) solvers can be performed to determine the optimal multi-floor process plant layout. The liquefaction process of an LNG-FPSO is illustrated to verify the efficacy of this study.