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Integrated Safe Design of Industrial Processes under Uncertainty

Meghdari, Mojtaba | 2015

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 49799 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Rashtchian, Davood; Sharifzadeh, Monireh
  7. Abstract:
  8. Chemical industries are associated with hazardous chemicals and extreme operating conditions. Unsafe events can incur dramatic costs in terms of the loss of life, financial penalties and damages to the environment. Therefore, design of industrial processes which can be operated safely over a wide range of operating conditions is vital. Nevertheless, operation of industrial processes is a strong function of their design. If the process is initially poorly designed, ensuring its safe operation, if not impossible, would require costly modifications at the operational phases. This observation is due to the fact that process design decisions (e.g. design of process equipment) often have a physical realization and later on they are fixed throughout the process life. Therefore, many commentators recommended that the design and the safe operation of chemical processes should be considered simultaneously. The challenge is that during the process design phase, there are large uncertainties in the operational conditions and parametric values of the process models. The present research aims at developing an optimization framework which ensures the process safe operation and simultaneously optimizes other design objectives such as process profitability considering the associated uncertainties. The developed optimization framework is demonstrated on the case of a hybrid power plant including solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and steam/gas turbines. The significance of this industrial application is due to the fact that power plants experience a wide range of electricity power load. Furthermore, their behavior changes over the time. For instance, coking of the fuel cells can change their heat transfer coefficient and affect their performance. The results of the case study demonstrated a strong trade-off between the range of safe process operation and the process economy in terms of the required capital investment and operating costs. Furthermore, it was shown that it is possible to maximize the process profitability and at the same time ensure its safe operation over a high degree of uncertainties in the operating conditions and design parameters. While these results provide the proof of concept, they are to large extent general and it is expect to be transferable to other industrial processes
  9. Keywords:
  10. Multiobjective Optimization ; Uncertainty ; Integrated Design ; Industrial Processes ; Operating Condition ; Safe Design ; Design under Uncertainty ; Safe Operation

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