Huang - Abstract - 9414494 Rapidly changing industrial technologies are often accompanied by the generation of hazardous or toxic wastes. One way to reduce the quantity and toxicity of these wastes is to incorporate waste minimization strategies into process design. This study will focus on the development of a novel and systematic process synthesis methodology for designing/modifying processes that satisfy environmental objectives. The methodology assesses cost and waste minimization simultaneously, and utilizes knowledge representing operation protocols, environmental regulations, and designers' experience of process design and implementation of waste minimization strategies. Because a large amount of extractable knowledge can only be represented in a symbolic form, and because the available process information and data are often imprecise, incomplete, and uncertain, conventional optimization techniques may not be applicable to solving waste minimization problems. Instead, the principle investigator (PI) uses artificial intelligence techniques (AI) in the development of this methodology. The adoption of these techniques will help the identification of economically desirable and operationally stable processes with minimum waste generation. The goal of this research is to develop an intelligent process design system based on AI methodology. This system consists of two subsystems: a decision support subsystem and a process synthesis subsystem. The first subsystem performs preconceptual synthesis. It is capable of identifying waste minimization problems in a process by means of an index of waste minimization, selecting the most efficient technology, determining the necessary unit operations and the interrelationships among processing units, and performing an overall economic evaluation. The second subsystem utilizes the selected technology to synthesize or modify a process which will not only be cost-effective but also environmentally clean. This design tool is not meant to replac e commercial process simulators, but could be used in conjunction with them. The tool will be applied to a variety of processes in the chemical and petrochemical industries which are traditionally major waste generators. The PI will work cooperatively with three companies, M. W. Kellogg, BASF, and Marathon Refining, in order to ensure that the design tool is effective for in-plant waste minimization.
