A rigorous synthesis and optimal design methodology for chemical and biochemical processes

This study presents a systematic methodology for process synthesis based on superstructure optimization, which identifies the optimal configuration of a biorefinery to produce high value chemical and biochemical products, by maximizing product profits and minimizing process energy costs and the investment costs. The case study employed agave bagasse as a feedstock. The results indicated that furfural production is the best option, followed by lactic acid production as the second best and, ethanol, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol production was the third best option, relying on the objectives previously mentioned. The optimization was performed using a variant of genetic algorithms with multi-objective approach (Gamultiobj), through a COM® interface linking the computational tools such as, Aspen Plus and MATLAB, which allowed to perform a rigorous energy balance calculation employing the proper thermodynamic models.