Читать книгу Profit Maximization Techniques for Operating Chemical Plants - Sandip K. Lahiri - Страница 72

Once a process model is developed for a major equipment, the next step is to optimize various process parameters so that efficiency or performance of that equipment is maximized. Due to cut‐throat competition in business, companies now want to reduce their operating costs by optimizing all their available resources, be it man, machine, money, or methodology. Optimization is an important tool that can be utilized to strike a proper balance so that profit can be maximized in the long run.

Since capital costs are already incurred for a running plant, optimization essentially boils down to minimization of operating costs 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 give either 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.

Various recent stochastic optimization techniques, like genetic algorithm, differential evolution, particle swarm optimization, etc., have been used to optimize the developed data‐driven model.