(143a) Towards the Incorporation of Operability and Safety in the Synthesis of Intensified Reactive and Extractive Separation Systems

Intensified processes typically feature higher degree of integration of multifunctional phenomena, less degrees of freedom, narrower operability windows, and even faster dynamics [1-2]. Thus, the incorporation of control, operability, and safety assessment at the design level becomes even more critical to ensure the actual operational performances in these systems, comparing to their conventional unit-operation-based counterparts. Despite recent advances [3-6], systematic synthesis approaches and analytical tools for the design and operability/safety optimization of intensification processes are still lacking.

To address this challenge, in this work and as part of the RAPID SYNOPSIS Project [7], we propose a systematic framework for the synthesis of operable process intensification systems, with specific focus on reactive and extractive separation processes. This framework is based on a phenomenological process intensification/synthesis approach (i.e., Generalized Modular Representation Framework (GMF) [8-10]), which first identifies candidate/promising intensified tasks and then translates them to equipment-based flowsheet alternatives. Flexibility analysis is integrated with the GMF model to ensure that resulting design configurations can be operable under varying operating conditions. To systematically account for inherent safety performance, risk assessment criteria are included as process constraints considering failure frequency and consequence severity. Simultaneous design and control strategies are also employed to ensure validated operable intensified design configurations using advanced multi-parametric model-based predictive control (mp-MPC) developed via the PAROC (i.e., PARametric Optimization and Control) framework [11]. Two case studies are presented to highlight the potential of the proposed approach: (i) a reactive separation system - methyl-tert-butyl-ether production, and (ii) an extractive separation system - methanol/water azeotropic separation.

References

1. Tian, Y., Demirel, S. E., Hasan, M. F., & Pistikopoulos, E. N. (2018). An Overview of Process Systems Engineering Approaches for Process Intensification: State of the Art. Chemical Engineering and Processing-Process Intensification, 133, 160-210.

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4. Carrasco, J. C., & Lima, F. V. (2018). Bilevel and parallel programing‐based operability approaches for process intensification and modularity. AIChE Journal, 64(8), 3042-3054.

5. Nemet, A., Lee, K., Klemeš, J. J., Varbanov, P. S., Moon, I., & Kravanja, Z. (2015). Safety analysis embedded in total site synthesis. In Chemical Engineering Transactions. Italian Association of Chemical Engineering-AIDIC.

6. Medina-Herrera, N., Grossmann, I. E., Mannan, M. S., & Jiménez-Gutiérrez, A. (2014). An approach for solvent selection in extractive distillation systems including safety considerations. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 53(30), 12023-12031.

7. SYNOPSIS - Synthesis of operable process intensification systems (DE-EE0007888-09-03).

8. Papalexandri, K. P., & Pistikopoulos, E. N. (1996). Generalized modular representation framework for process synthesis. AIChE Journal, 42(4), 1010-1032.

9. Ismail, S. R., Proios, P., & Pistikopoulos, E. N. (2001). Modular synthesis framework for combined separation/reaction systems. AIChE Journal, 47(3), 629-649.

10. Tian, Y., Mannan, M. S., & Pistikopoulos, E. N. (2018). Towards a systematic framework for the synthesis of operable process intensification systems. In Computer Aided Chemical Engineering (Vol. 44, pp. 2383-2388). Elsevier.

11. Pistikopoulos, E. N., Diangelakis, N. A., Oberdieck, R., Papathanasiou, M. M., Nascu, I., & Sun, M. (2015). PAROC—An integrated framework and software platform for the optimisation and advanced model-based control of process systems. Chemical Engineering Science, 136, 115-138.