|
Process Synthesis is a structured method in the area of Conceptual Process Design.
It allows systematic development of the most economical process flowsheets.
The problem statement is fairly straightforward: find the cheapest way to convert
raw materials into products. Of course one has to observe the constraints, such as
product quality, process safety and environment.
|
 |
Ideally, Process Synthesis should be applied as early as possible during the process
development phase. One reason is that results of a Process Synthesis project gives
focus to the R&D program, which therefore greatly benefits from the project.
The reverse is also true: R&D results give input to the Process Synthesis effort,
increasing the reliability of its results.
Even more importantly, during early process development one has the highest degree
of freedom in making decisions, that have the highest impact on the final costs. In the
pursuit of the most economical process flowsheet, this phase is the most critical one.
 |
Pitfalls
Conventionally new processes are developed by reusing existing ideas, usually based on
company preferences or personal judgments. These do not necessarily lead to the best,
i.e. most economical production plant. This certainly holds for revamp projects, where
existing plants need to be improved. Even in such highly constrained situations,
Process Synthesis lowers the risk that the value of fruitful ideas is not captured.
Another feature of a more traditional industry approach is that developers start to
think in terms of equipment too early. So they may step over the cheapest process concepts,
only because one of their unit operations seems very expensive. Process Synthesis
prevents this trap by stepping through different levels of conceptualization, where
the equipment-level is one of the last.
|
PDC’s solutions
With its proprietary Process Synthesis tools and services, PDC has significantly
enhanced its customers’ process development capabilities. Cost savings of 20 to 50%
have been reached while simultaneously reducing the development time by a factor of two.
|
