“…This well-known problem, often, is defined as: "Given a feed stream of known conditions (i.e., composition, flow-rate, temperature and pressure), what is the best process that separates the desired products from the feed at minimum Total Annual Cost." In order to solve this problem, various approaches and methods have been presented (Stephanopoulos and Westerberg, 1976;Tedder and Rudd, 1978;Porter and Momoh, 1991;Floquet et al, 1994;Garrard and Fraga, 1998;Shah and Kokossis, 2001). Nishida et al (1981) have classified these methods into the following three main categories: Heuristic methods have provided a very simple basis for an easy and quick analysis, in that these methods have the advantage of speed and minimal data requirements.…”