Design, Synthesis and Scheduling of Multipurpose Batch Plants via an Effective Continuous-Time Formulation

Design, synthesis and scheduling issues are considered simultaneously for multipurpose batch plants. A previously proposed continuous-time formulation for scheduling is extended to incorporate design and synthesis. Processing recipes are represented by the State-Task Network. The superstructure of all possible plant designs is constructed according to the potential availability of all processing/storage units. The proposed model takes into account the trade-offs between capital costs, revenues and operational flexibility. Computational studies are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed formulation. Both linear and nonlinear models are included, resulting in MILP and MINLP problems, respectively. The MILP problems are solved using a branch and bound method. Globally optimal solutions are obtained for the nonconvex MINLP problems based on a key property that arises due to the special structure of the resulting models. Comparisons with previous approaches are also presented.