PSE

Process Optimization
 Definition of Optimization

Optimization is the science and the

art of determining the best solutions
to problems
 Why OPTIMIZE?
Budget/Financial reason
 Largest production
 Greatest profit
 Minimum cost
 Least energy usage
Plant performance
 Improved yields of valuable products
 Reduced energy consumption
 Higher processing rates
 Longer time between shutdowns
 Reduced maintenance costs
 Optimization of a
Distillation Column at Design Stage
 The relationship between the number of stages and
the reflux ratio is linked to capital cost and the
operating cost.

 The more stages, the higher the capital cost and the
lower the operating cost.

 Choose No. of stages and reflux ratio to minimize

total cost while meeting specifications.
 total annual cost

minimum reflux ratio

Operating cost:
e.g. utility costs (steam & cooling water)

capital cost (equipment)

Reflux Ratio
RR*
 Features of Optimization Problem
objective function to be
minimised (or
maximised)
min f(xi)
xi vector of decision
variables to be chosen to
find the min. of f(x)

i = 1, 2, … i
Subject to
c(xi) = 0 g(xi)  0 in-equality
constraints

equality
constraints
 Terminology
Objective function
Function that you wish to minimize or maximize, usually an
economic value eg. maximize profit, production rate,
throughput, minimize energy utilisation, cost
Decision variables
Variables that you can adjust (manipulate) or chose in order
to minimize or maximize the objective function
Variables can be:
 Real eg. flow rates, concentration, temperature, pressure
 Integers eg. No. of trays
 Binary eg. Select/not select - plant process flowsheet

Constraints
Limitations on the free adjustment of decision variables.
They can be physical, economic, policy, or environmental
Constraints can be explicitly defined in terms of the decision
variables eg. flow rate > 0 or implicitly defined in terms of
other variables eg. product concentration > 95%
 Linear Objective Function
Maximum objective function is desired.

f(x) f(x)

x xopt = xU x

Unconstrained Constrained: subject to

(No equality and inequality inequality constraint. x ≤ xU.
constraints, no solution (Optimal solution is at the
exists) bound)
 Non-Linear Objective Function
Maximum objective function is desired.

f(x) f(x)

xL xopt x xopt = xU x

Subject to slack constraint Subject to binding constrained

(constraint is at a lower (x ≤ xU, bound is below the
limit of x, or x ≥ xL. The value of maximum objective
optimal value is at the function)
maximum value of the
objective function)
 LINEAR PROGRAMMING (LP) MODEL
Example 1
A farmer is preparing to plant a crop in the spring and needs to fertilize a field. There are
two brands of fertilizer to choose from, Super-gro and Crop-quick. Each brand yields a
specific amount of nitrogen and phosphate per bag, as follows:

Chemical Contribution
Product Nitrogen Phosphate
(lb/bag) (lb/bag)

Super-gro 2 4
Crop-quick 4 3

The farmer requires at least 16 pounds of nitrogen and 24 pounds of phosphate. Super-gro
costs $6/bag, and Crop-quick costs $3/bag. The farmer wants to know how many bags of each
brand to be purchased in order to MINIMIZE the total cost of fertilizing.
 Solution for Example 1
Step 1: Define the desicion variables
x1 = bags of Super-gro
x2 = bags of Crop quick

Step 2: Define the objective function

min f(x) = 6x1 + 3x2

Step 3: Define the equality and inequality constraints

 Equality constraint
- None except if the farmer said that the phosphate requirement
must be exacly 24 pound, the constraint should be written
4x1 + 3x2 = 24 (phosphate constraint)

 Inequality constraint
2x1 + 4x2  16 (nitrogen constraint)
4x1 + 3x2  24 (phosphate constraint)

 Nonnegativity constraints – to indicate that negative bags of

fertilizer cannot be purchased
x1, x2  0

Step 4: Simplification – not necessary

Step 5: Apply suitable optimization technique
x2

14 3 points that satisfy the constraints, and the respective

costs for each point are,
12
x1 = 0, x2 = 8: $24
10 x1 = 5, x2 = 2: $36
x1 = 8, x2 = 0: $48
8
4x1 + 3x2 =24 Therefore, the minimum cost is $24.
6

4
2x1 + 4x2 = 16
2

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 x1

Step 6: Perform sensitivity analysis e.g. What if the cost of raw material is increased by 10%.
 Example 2
Ready-Mixes produces both interior and exterior paints from two raw material,
M1 and M2. the following table provides the basic data of the problem

Tons of raw material per ton of Maximum daily

Exterior paint Interior paint availability (tons)
M1 6 4 24
M2 1 2 6

Profit per 5 4
ton ($1000)
A market survey indicate that’s the daily demand for interior paint cannot
exceed that for exterior paint by more than 1 ton. Also, the maximum
daily demand for interior paint is 2 tons. Determine the optimum (best)
product mix of interior and exterior paints that maximizes the total daily
profit.
 Solution for Example 2

Step 1 : Define the decision variable,

x1 = tons produced daily of exterior paint
x2 = tons produced daily of interior paint

Step 2 : Define the objective function

Max total daily profit = 5x1 + 4x2

Step 3: Define equality & inequality constraint

6x1 + 4x2  24 (M1 constraint)
x1 + 2x2  6 (M2 constraint)
x2 - x1 1 (market limit)
x2  2 (demand limit)
 Step 4: Simplification
Not applicable

Step 5: Choose the best suitable optimization technique

The optimization problem is comprised of a linear function and linear constrained,
hence linear programming would be the best technique. Use graphical method to find
the optimum value. Verify your answer using Excel Solver add-in.

7
6
5
4 M1 const
3 M2 const
X1

2 Market limit
1 Demand limit
0
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

-2
X2

Answer:
 Example 3

During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, a local plant
X received a rush order for 100 gals of A containing 4.0 vol%
alcohol. Although no 4% A was in stock, large quantities of A-4.5 with
4.5% alcohol at a price of $6.40/gal and A-3.7 with 3.7% alcohol
priced at $5.00/gal were available, as well as water suitable for
adding to the blend at no cost. The plant manager wanted to use at
least 10 gal of A-4.5. Neglecting any volume change due to mixing,
determine the gallons each of A 4.5, A-3.7, and water that should be
blended together to produce the desired order at the minimum cost.
Use 6 steps approach to solve optimization problem.
 Solution to Example 3
Step 1: Define the decision variables
V4.5 = gallons of A-4.5
V3.7 = gallons of A-3.7
Vw = gallons of water

Step 2: Define the objective function

Minimize Cost, $ = 6.40V4.5 + 5.00 V3.7 + 0.00VW (eq 1)

Step 3: Define the equality & inequality constraints

 Equality constraints
0.045V4.5 + 0.037 V3.7 + 0.00VW = 0.04(100) = 4.00 (eq 2)
V4.5 + V3.7 + VW = 100 (eq 3)

 Inequality constraints
V4.5  10
V3.7  0
VW  0
.
Step 4 : Simplification.

The problem can be reduced to two decision variables by solving (eq 3) for
V3.7,
V3.7 = 100 – V4.5 – VW (eq 4)

And substituting it into (eqs 1 and 2) to give the following restatement of this
problem:

Minimize Cost, $ = 1.40V4.5 - 5.00VW +500

Subject to:

0.008V4.5 + 0.037 VW =0.3 (eq 5)

V4.5  10
V3.7  0
VW  0

The optimal volume of A-3.7 need only to be calculated from (eq 4), after the
optimal volumes of A-4.5 and water have been determined from (eq 5). Since
the objective function, the equality constraints, and the lower and upper bound
are all linear, this constitutes an LP problem.
Step 5 : Choose suitable optimization technique

With just two decision variables, the problem can be shown graphically on a plot of V
against cost as shown in the following figure.

V4.5 (gal) V3.7 (gal) VW (gal) Cost ($)

10 95.95 -5.95 543.73
15 89.86 -4.86 545.32
20 83.78 -3.78 546.92
25 77.70 -2.70 548.51
30 71.62 -1.62 550.11
35 65.54 -0.54 551.70
40 59.46 0.54 553.30
45 53.38 1.62 554.89
50 47.30 2.70 556.49
55 41.22 3.78 558.08
60 35.14 4.86 559.68
65 29.05 5.95 561.27
70 22.97 7.03 562.86
75 16.89 8.11 564.46
80 10.81 9.19 566.05
85 4.73 10.27 567.65
90 -1.35 11.35 569.24
 120

100 V W constraint V A3.7 constraint

Feasible region
80
V A4.5 constraint
V, gallons

60 VA4.5
VW

40 VA3.7

20
V A4.5 constraint

V A3.7 & V W 0
constraint
540 545 550 555 560 565 570 575
-20
Cost, $

With the constrained given, the optimal solution is when V4.5 is 37.5 gal,
V3.7 is 62.5 and V is 0 with the minimum cost at $552.50.
 Example 4
A chemical plant makes three products
(E, F, G) and utilizes three raw materials Maximum
(A, B, C) in limited supply. Each of the Raw available, Cost,
three products is produced in a separate Material lb/day cent/lb
process (1, 2, 3); a schematic of the plant
is shown in Fig. 2. The available materials A 40,000 1.5
A, B and C do not have to be totally
consumed. Find the optimum production to B 30,000 2.0
maximize the total operating profit per day
in $/day C 25,000 2.5

Reactant
requirement (lb) Processing Selling price
Process Product per lb product cost of product
1 E 2/3 A, 1/3 B 1.5 cent/lb E 4.0 cent/lb E
2 F 2/3 A, 1/3 B 0.5 cent/lb F 3.3 cent/lb F
3 G 1/2 A, 1/6 B, 1/3 C 1.0 cent/lb G 3.8 cent/lb G
The reactions involving Process 1: A + B  E
A, B and C Process 2: A + B  F
Process 3: 3A + 2B + C  G
are as follows:
A
1 E

2 F
B

3 G
C
Step 1 : Define the decision variable, XA, XB, Xc, XE, XF, XG
Step 2 : Define the objective function
Profit = Income – raw material cost – Processing cost
 Income = 0.04 xE + 0.033 xF + 0.038 xG
 Operating costs in $ per day include:
 (a) Raw material costs : 0.015xA + 0.02xB + 0.025xC
 (b) Processing costs: 0.015xE + 0.005xF + 0.01xG
Therefore
Max f(x) = (0.04xE + 0.033xF + 0.038xG) – (0.015xA + 0.02xB + 0.025xC + 0.015xE
+ 0.005xF + 0.01xG)

Step 3: Define equality & inequality constraint

 Equality constraint, from material balances,
xA = 0.667 xE + 0.667 xF + 0.5 xG
xB = 0.333 xE + 0.333 xF + 0.167 xG
xC = 0.333 xG
xA + xB + xC = xE + xF + xG
 Inequality constraint
Three are also bounds on the amount of A, B, and C processed:
xA ≤ 40,000
xB ≤ 30,000
xC ≤ 25,000

Step 4: Simplification
Not applicable

Step 5: Choose the best suitable optimization technique

The optimization problem is comprised of a linear function and linear constrained, hence
linear programming would be the best technique. However, this problem cannot be solve
using graphical technique because it consists of more than 2 variables. Solve using
computation e.g. Excel Solver

Solution by EXCEL Solver add-in

 Assignment
The Nusajaya Fertilizer Company produces two brands of lawn fertilizer - NJ1 and NJ2 at
plants in Tanjung Langsat and Tampoi. The plant at Tanjung Langsat has resources
available to produce 5,000 kg of fertilizer daily; the plant at Tampoi has enough resources
to produce 6000 kg daily. The cost per kg of producing each brand at each plant is as
follows:
Plant
Product Tg. Langsat Tampoi
NJ1 $2 $4
NJ2 $2 $3

The company has a daily budget of $45,000 for both plants combined. Based on past
sales, the company knows the maximum demand which is 6000 kg for NJ1 and 7000
kg for NJ2 daily. The selling price is $9/kg for NJ1 and $7/kg for NJ2. The company wants
to know how much of fertilizer per brand need to produce at each plant in order to
maximize profit.