Abstract：Mass exchange network (MEN) has become an effective tool for pollution prevention in the process industry. When the staged column was employed as mass exchanger to synthesize a MEN, the number of trays must be rounded up to the next largest integer number after obtaining an optimal design, which would increase the capital cost. In designing a staged column, when the capital cost increased, the operating cost should decrease. However, the operating cost was regarded as a fixed value in the traditional optimization model even if the capital cost increased after rounding up to the number of trays, so the total annual cost (TAC) was higher than the real optimal objective. To solve this problem, an integral function was added to the mathematical model in this research. This function was applied in the nonlinear programming (NLP) based on the stage-wise superstructure. The modified model was applied in the case of coke-oven gas treatment, leading to a MEN with lower cost than data from other literatures. This paper showed that the integer function can solve the inaccurate minimum TAC result of the optimal MEN due to the rounding of the number of trays. A more accurate MEN structure with lower TAC could obtained than those previously reported in similar studies.
HOU Chuang1,2,LUO Mingsheng1 et al. An Integral Function to Optimize the Mass Exchange Network Based on Superstructure Model[J]. 化学反应工程与工艺, 2020, 36(2): 108-116.
