On the state space approach to mass/heat exchanger network design

In this paper, the conceptual framework and applications of the State Space Approach to Process Synthesis are presented. It is shown that the State Space Approach contains the concept of a Network Superstructure as a special case. Additionally, through various operators, it is shown to provide increased flexibility in formulating process network synthesis problems. As an example, it is demonstrated that an Assignment Operator can be used to facilitate the solution of large-scale problems. Pinch Operators are also employed in solving combined heat and mass exchange network synthesis problems. To demonstrate the usefulness of this new approach, two important problems are discussed. First, a one-step procedure is developed that minimizes the total annualized cost (TAC) of heat/mass exchange networks. Next, a novel problem, namely the pinch-based calculation of Minimum Utility Cost for a separable heat and mass exchange network, is solved. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.