The design of processes with very exothermic or endothermic reactions often require the addition of a heat carrier to moderate the temperature change through the reactor. The selection of the heat carrier can have a major impact on the flowsheet alternatives that arise using Douglas' hierarchical decision procedure to synthesize the flowsheet, and these new alternatives change as the values of the design variables change. The evolution of the alternatives is illustrated for styrene manufacture, although different structures are to be expected for different reaction chemistries.
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