A New Algorithm for Cyclic Scheduling and Design of Multipurpose Batch Plants

Many researchers have studied the scheduling, planning, and design of multipurpose batch processes. However, not so many studies have treated design and scheduling or design and planning simultaneously. The complexity of these systems stems from the fact that plant configuration must be determined for the purpose of process scheduling, yet scheduling must be done to devise the plant configuration. In the present study, a new algorithm for determining the best multipurpose scheduling and plant configuration is suggested. Since the objective function of the problem is nonlinear, it is linearized using a separable programming method. The proposed method consists of a number of procedures. First, a feasible configuration is obtained. Next, both the optimum equipment size and cyclic scheduling are determined for the plant configuration obtained in the first procedure. Last, the evolutionary design method proposed by Fuchino et al.(J. Chem. Eng. Jpn. 1994, 27, 57−64) is used to find the solution that minimizes ...