The key role of digital design in designing sustainable processes

Creating sustainable processes inevitably involves trade-offs that reconcile production, safety, profitability and sustainability objectives to minimize plant emissions and energy, water and other resources usage while achieving a range of production KPIs.

A digital design approach utilizes high-fidelity, predictive process models validated against experimental or pilot plant data to explore the process design space rapidly and effectively so that such decisions can be taken based on accurate quantification of the options. Key technologies are large scale Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) optimization and Global System Analysis (GSA). MINLP optimization enables determination of the optimal value of multiple decision variables simultaneously while ensuring that equipment, process constraints, and safety constraints are observed. GSA allows rigorous quantification of the risk associated with the resulting optimal process design.

This presentation describes the digital design approach currently being applied to the design of processes from large-scale chemical plants to fuel cells to foodstuff production, briefly illustrated with real-world case studies.