TY - JOUR

T1 - Process Intensification: A Perspective on Process Synthesis

A1 - Lutze,Philip

A1 - Gani,Rafiqul

A1 - Woodley,John

AU - Lutze,Philip

AU - Gani,Rafiqul

AU - Woodley,John

PB - Elsevier BV

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - In recent years, process intensification (PI) has attracted considerable academic interest as a potential means for process improvement, to meet the increasing demands for sustainable production. A variety of intensified operations developed in academia and industry creates a large number of options to potentially improve the process but to identify the set of feasible solutions for PI in which the optimal can be found takes considerable resources. Hence, a process synthesis tool to achieve PI would potentially assist in the generation and evaluation of PI options. Currently, several process design tools with a clear focus on specific PI tasks exist. Therefore, in this paper, the concept of a general systematic framework for synthesis and design of PI options in hierarchical steps through analyzing an existing process, generating PI options in a superstructure and evaluating intensified process options is presented. For each step, different tools and methods will be needed. In this paper, a knowledge base tool storing and retrieving necessary information/data about intensified processes/equipments has been highlighted including metrics for performance evaluation. The application of the main concepts is illustrated through an example involving the operation of a membrane reactor.

AB - In recent years, process intensification (PI) has attracted considerable academic interest as a potential means for process improvement, to meet the increasing demands for sustainable production. A variety of intensified operations developed in academia and industry creates a large number of options to potentially improve the process but to identify the set of feasible solutions for PI in which the optimal can be found takes considerable resources. Hence, a process synthesis tool to achieve PI would potentially assist in the generation and evaluation of PI options. Currently, several process design tools with a clear focus on specific PI tasks exist. Therefore, in this paper, the concept of a general systematic framework for synthesis and design of PI options in hierarchical steps through analyzing an existing process, generating PI options in a superstructure and evaluating intensified process options is presented. For each step, different tools and methods will be needed. In this paper, a knowledge base tool storing and retrieving necessary information/data about intensified processes/equipments has been highlighted including metrics for performance evaluation. The application of the main concepts is illustrated through an example involving the operation of a membrane reactor.

U2 - 10.1016/j.cep.2010.05.002

DO - 10.1016/j.cep.2010.05.002

JO - Chemical Engineering and Processing

JF - Chemical Engineering and Processing

SN - 0255-2701

IS - 6

VL - 49

SP - 547

EP - 558

ER -