(521c) A Cost-Effective and Common Sensical Approach to Batch Process Optimization - an Industrial Case-Study

Batch process industry is characterized by low volume, high cost products manufactured in limited development time. Like all other chemical processes, batch processes can also be optimized to reduce the cost of production and increase profit. But high development costs usual limits the further optimization of batch processes. In this paper we present a cost effective and commonsensical approach to optimization which was carried out in an agrochemical industry. More than 15 years in production, the product returned diminishing returns by time. High product demand also meant that no changes in the plant can be brought about without downtime. With the limited industrial data available, a new approximate model-based method was used to approximate the plant conditions. The actual optimization was done using three methods ? two commercially available software as well an in-house developed algorithm, all of which returned same results, which proves the effectiveness of the process. This also shows the generality of the process, in view of which suggestions were given on extending it to similar industrial problems.