Synthesis of heat integrated processing systems taking into account reliability

Because of the ever increasing complexity of processing systems, the reliability becomes a key aspect in selecting the best process during process design. This is especially crucial if heat integration is also part of process design, because it increases the complexity of the system that may reduce its reliability. Since the selection of a process network during synthesis has major influence on the cost, the reliability, and the level of heat integration, these three items must be considered simultaneously in process synthesis. To do so, a general modeling tool is required that simultaneously covers all three areas. In the present work, three formerly developed modeling tools and solution procedures are adapted and integrated, all of them are related to the P-graph framework. Because of their common basis, their integration is natural and highly effective. In addition to the three aspects considered here in synthesizing a process, there are further features to be considered in the final selection of the best process during process design (e.g., controllability and sustainability). The capability of the method in generating all or the n-best networks serves this purpose.