Colloquia

Summary

 A novel method for the design of a modular chemical process plant was developed and tested on a methanol production plant. This method envelops the entire design process from the creation of PFD to 3D layout creation in one program. In order to apply this method to a real-life scenario, a calculation-based algorithm was developed for a distillation column, heater, condenser, and pump. To steer the algorithm to optimize for the relevant parameters a rating method was developed which balanced the performance of the components with the costs. Eventually, eight separate case studies were simulated with the use of a methanol production plant as envisioned by Bright Renewables. From these case studies it was found that the optimal solution could be found by the algorithms. In two cases the optimal solution did not meet the requirements, which meant the approach had to be switched from scaling up to numbering up in order to meet the requirements.