공정 운전 조건을 고려한 플랜트 최적화 배치에 관한 연구

Abstract

The plant layout problem is one of the most important factors for reducing plant construction costs. In the research field of plant layouts, the main purpose is to minimize the total length and cost of pipelines between equipment by satisfying various constraints, such as safety regulations and passages for operators. However, previous research overlooks the consideration of operating conditions. For example, to evaluate energy losses due to the pumping costs and the heat transfer between equipment, the operating conditions of equipment are essential. Additionally, sufficient safety distances between equipment have to be guaranteed to mitigate danger or domino accidents, and maintenance spaces should be considered for on-site repairs or maintenance. Moreover, various multi-floor plants have been constructed. Therefore, an appropriate algorithm for handling these issues urgently needs to be developed. Equations for the MINLP (Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming) problem considering the abovementioned issues are proposed in this study. It is determined that the objective function is the total summation of pipeline, land, and additional energy costs generated by pressure drop and heat transfer. Additionally, predefined safety and maintenance spaces should be transformed into inequality constraints. Since it is not always possible to use the derivatives of mathematical equations, such as in this study, an original PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) technique is employed. Two case studies are illustrated to verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.