Software tools overview: process integration, modelling and optimisation for energy saving and pollution reduction

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of software tools based on long experience and applications in the area of process integration, modelling and optimisation. The first part reviews the current design practice and the development of supporting software tools. Those are categorised as: (1) process integration and retrofit analysis tools, (2) general mathematical modelling suites with optimisation libraries, (3) flowsheeting simulation and (4) graph-based process optimisation tools. The second part covers an assessment of tools which enable the generation of new sustainable alternatives to adapt to the future needs. They deal with waste, environment, energy consumption, resources depletion and production cost constrains. The emphasis of the sustainable process design tools is largely on the evaluation of process viability under sustainable economic conditions, synthesis of sustainable process and supply chain process maintenance and life cycle analysis. Major software tools development and the potential of the research-based tools for sustainable process design task are overviewed in the concluding part. 

A Review of Footprint analysis tools for monitoring impacts on sustainability

“…An advanced branch-and-bound (ABB) algorithm is used to determine the optimal structure without generating all of the solutions (Friedler, 2010). The optimal structure can be assessed in terms of the cost, profit, or footprint (Lam et al, 2011). PNS Solution enables the optimisation of footprints and economics at scales from a single product or process, to e.g., optimal energy networks, or to the whole supply chain.…”

“…MP tools use mathematical methods in the forms of linear (LP), non-linear (NLP), or mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP), or other approaches, to numerically solving a certain optimisation problem. Amongst the widely and less-widely used tools for performing SOO or MOO are the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) (Brooke et al, 2005), A Mathematical Programming Language (AMPL) (AMPL, 2011), Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modelling System (AIMMS) (Roelofs and Bisschop, 2011), the Mixed-Integer Process SYNthesizer (MIPSYN) (Kravanja, 2010;Lam et al, 2011) and others. They support a range of different types of solvers for different types of models, such as BARON, CONOPT, CPLEX, DICOPT, MINOS, OQNLP, etc.…”

Process Integration and Heat Exchanger Networks

“…Lam et al [22] have provided an extensive review of commercial software tools for process integration, modeling and optimization for energy saving and pollution reduction. Lam et al [22] have provided an extensive review of commercial software tools for process integration, modeling and optimization for energy saving and pollution reduction.…”

“…CP Cold (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) or CP leaving pinch ! CP Cold (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) or CP leaving pinch !…”

“…The area of a single counter current heat exchanger is defined by: (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) where:…”