A Methodology for the Approximate Stochastic Synthesis of Flexible Chemical Processes

This work presents a two-level methodology for the optimal design and MINLP synthesis of flexible chemical processes with known probability distributions of uncertain parameters. This methodology comprises synthesis at 1) nominal level and 2) approximate stochastic level. Both levels rely on considerable reduction of discrete points. The first level provides good starting and flexible structure for the second level, therefore, the computational effort is reduced and larger problems with many uncertain parameters, e.g. 10 to 100, can be solved. The use of this methodology is illustrated by the synthesis of a flexible heat-integrated methanol process flow sheet.