Abstract
The work consists of an optimization study of the design of a complete chemical plant. The process chosen is the manufacture of acetic anhydride by thermal cracking of acetone. There are involved fourteen design variables, two major recycles and six iterative, computational loops. The process includes the most important unit operations of chemical engineering. Emphasis is placed in two areas: developing computer procedures which perform the design of individual items of plant in considerable detail and in producing an optimization program for the integrated plant. An improved version of the Pattern Search method is presented, known as MOSP, and it is shown to be competitive with the best Direct Search techniques available. A new approach is offered for achieving global rather than local optima. The results show clearly the feasibility of optimization in process design and give quantitative informations, for the chosen example, of the optimum conditions.