Procedures for the initial design of chemical processing systems

Process synthesis as a problem in devising chemical processing structures is considered as a multi-step search procedure beginning with the consideration of production goals one at a time and ending with a feasible process flowsheet with regard to mass and energy balance. The theoretical foundation for the search procedure employed guarantees that a solution will be found in a finite number of steps if one exists within the information constraints imposed. These information constraints include the availability of raw materials and reaction chemistries provided to the computer program.A depth-first sequential search for a feasible process structure is based on the following rules: (a) use the compositionally most similar sources to generate products, (b) give preference to by-products instead of raw materials, and (c) reduce mass load on separation tasks.