Process Synthesis Applied to Activated Sludge Processes: a Framework with Minlp Optimisation Models

Process Synthesis seeks to develop systematically process flowsheets that convert raw materials into desired products. In recent years, the optimization approach to process synthesis has shown promise in tackling this challenge. It requires the development of a network of interconnected units, the process superstructure, that represents the alternative process flowsheets. The mathematical modeling of the superstructure has a mixed set of binary and continuous variables and results in a mixed-integer optimization model. Due to the nonlinearity of chemical models, these problems are generally classified as Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) problems. In this work presents the illustrative example of Process Synthesis applied to the activated sludge process.