- Process optimization
Process optimization is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimize some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint. The most common goals are minimizing cost, maximizing throughput, and/or efficiency. This is one of the major
quantitative tools in industrial decision making.In
chemical engineering terms, a process is typically a set of equipment arranged, controlled, and operated in a particular way, to produce a product. The product must meet certain specifications, such as a certain production rate, product quality, and cost. Typically, specifications are supplied as a range of values, such as "Must be between 84% and 87% octane", or "must cost less than $250 per ton."When optimizing a process, the goal is to maximize one or more of the process specifications, while keeping all others within their constraints.
Areas
Fundamentally, there are three parameters that can be adjusted to affect optimal performance. These are:
*Equipment optimizationThe first step is to verify that the existing equipment is being used to its fullest advantage by examining operating data to identify equipment bottlenecks.* Operating proceduresOperating procedures may vary widely from person-to-person or from shift-to-shift. Automation of the plant can help significantly. But automation will be of no help if the operators take control and run the plant in manual.
* Control optimizationIn a typical processing plant, such as a
chemical plant oroil refinery , there are hundreds or even thousands of control loops. Each control loop is responsible for controlling one part of the process, such as maintaining a temperature, level, or flow.If the
control loop is not properly designed and tuned, the process runs below its optimum. The process will be more expensive to operate, and equipment will wear out prematurely. For each control loop to run optimally, identification of sensor, valve, and tuning problems is important. It has been well documented that over 35% of control loops typically have problems.Fact|date=June 2008The process of continuously monitoring and optimizing the entire plant is sometimes called performance supervision.
See also
*
Calculation of glass properties , optimization of several properties
*Metallurgical Process Optimization External links
* [http://www.expertune.com/r2.asp?f=Wikipedia&l=learncast.html Tutorials on Process Optimization]
* [http://Nutek-us.com/wp-txt.html Reference TEXTBOOKS on Taguchi Methods]
* [http://rtime.felk.cvut.cz/scheduling-toolbox TORSCHE Scheduling Toolbox for Matlab] is a freely available toolbox of scheduling and graph algorithms.
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