Читать книгу Profit Maximization Techniques for Operating Chemical Plants - Sandip K. Lahiri - Страница 19

Due to cut‐throat competition in business, companies now want to reduce their operating costs by optimizing all of their available resources, be it man, machine, money, or methodology. Optimization is an important tool, which can be utilized to strike a proper balance so that profit can be maximized in the long run. Since capital cost is already incurred for a running plant, optimization essentially boils down to minimization of the operating cost for the operating plants. In running a chemical plant, there is a huge scope to optimize the operating parameters, like temperature, pressure, concentration, reflux ratio, etc., which gives either a higher profit through higher production or lower operating costs. There are many ways to optimize the operating conditions of reactors, distillation columns, absorbers, etc., to enhance their profitability. Chapter 8 lays the foundation about how parameter optimization can be utilized to increase profit in running the chemical plant. Conventional optimization techniques are initially discussed to enlighten the reader about the scope and huge potential of optimization in the process industry. This chapter introduces new advanced Meta heuristic optimization techniques that can be applied where application of a conventional technique is limited due to the complexity of the industrial context. Different Meta heuristic optimization techniques, like the genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE), simulated annealing (SA), etc., are described in detail in this chapter. A basic algorithm, step‐by‐step procedure to develop an optimization technique and different uses of GA, DE, and SA in various fields of process optimization are explained here in order to develop an understanding of this new area. A case study in reactor optimization is illustrated to explain the advantage and ease of implementation of Meta heuristic methods over conventional methods.