Integration of modular process simulators under the Generalized Disjunctive Programming framework for the structural flowsheet optimization

The optimization of chemical processes where the flowsheet topology is not kept fixed is a challenging discrete-continuous optimization problem. Usually, this task has been performed through equation based models. This approach presents several problems, as tedious and complicated component properties estimation or the handling of huge problems (with thousands of equations and variables). We propose a GDP approach as an alternative to the MINLP models coupled with a flowsheet program. The novelty of this approach relies on using a commercial modular process simulator where the superstructure is drawn directly on the graphical use interface of the simulator. This methodology takes advantage of modular process simulators (specially tailored numerical methods, reliability, and robustness) and the flexibility of the GDP formulation for the modeling and solution. The optimization tool proposed is successfully applied to the synthesis of a methanol plant where different alternatives are available for the streams, equipment and process conditions.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTQ2012-37039-C02-02)

A new technique for recovering energy in thermally coupled distillation using vapor recompression cycles

Even though it has been proved that a fully thermally coupled distillation (TCD) system minimizes the energy used by a sequence of columns, it is well-known that vapor/liquid transfers between different sections produce an unavoidable excess of vapor (liquid) in some of them, increasing both the investment and operating costs. It is proposed here to take advantage of this situation by extracting the extra vapor/liquid and subjecting it to a direct/reverse vapor compression cycle. This new arrangement restores the optimal operating conditions of some of the affected sections with energy savings of around 20–30% compared with conventional TCD columns. Various examples, including the direct and reverse vapor recompression cycles, are presented. Furthermore, in each example, all possible modes of distillation (direct, indirect and Petlyuk distillation) with and without vapor recompression cycles (VRC) are compared to ensure that this approach delivers the best results.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencias e Innovación (PPQ, CTQ2009–14420-C02-02 and CTQ2012–37039-C02-02)

Development of a critical structure state alarm system based on the instrumentation of the Botafoc breakwater nº 8 caisson

Balearic Port Authority has developed an instrumentation system for the #8 caisson of the Botafoc breakwater that integrates 12 pressure sensors located at three surfaces, two in contact with the sea water and another with the bottom. This design was completed with an inertial system that measures the angular velocities and the accelerations over the three Cartesian axes. Consequently, the system measures actions (pressures) and reactions (movements and accelerations) experimented by the caisson, due to sea waves and/or other service loads. R+D department of the Port Authority and Polytechnic University of Madrid are working on two directions, the development of new theories on vertical breakwater design that go beyond Goda and Sainflou, and on the creation of a real-time critical structure alarm system, based on the instrumentation installed. This alarm system has two main parts: the instrumentation itself that collects data and processes it on real-time (the data processing compares the pressure law suffered by the caisson in every step process with the design critical state of the caisson, in this case the Goda pressure law for a 6.5 m wave), giving a security coefficient that points out the risk level on real-time; and the alarm system consisting of a monitoring panel located in the Port Control Center that shows the risk level and advises in case of an incidental evacuation of this critical portuary installation

Integration of different models in the design of chemical processes: Application to the design of a power plant

With advances in the synthesis and design of chemical processes there is an increasing need for more complex mathematical models with which to screen the alternatives that constitute accurate and reliable process models. Despite the wide availability of sophisticated tools for simulation, optimization and synthesis of chemical processes, the user is frequently interested in using the ‘best available model’. However, in practice, these models are usually little more than a black box with a rigid input–output structure. In this paper we propose to tackle all these models using generalized disjunctive programming to capture the numerical characteristics of each model (in equation form, modular, noisy, etc.) and to deal with each of them according to their individual characteristics. The result is a hybrid modular–equation based approach that allows synthesizing complex processes using different models in a robust and reliable way. The capabilities of the proposed approach are discussed with a case study: the design of a utility system power plant that has been decomposed into its constitutive elements, each treated differently numerically. And finally, numerical results and conclusions are presented.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTQ2012-37039-C02-02)

An alternative disjunctive optimization model for heat integration with variable temperatures

This paper presents an alternative model to deal with the problem of optimal energy consumption minimization of non-isothermal systems with variable inlet and outlet temperatures. The model is based on an implicit temperature ordering and the “transshipment model” proposed by Papoulias and Grossmann (1983). It is supplemented with a set of logical relationships related to the relative position of the inlet temperatures of process streams and the dynamic temperature intervals. In the extreme situation of fixed inlet and outlet temperatures, the model reduces to the “transshipment model”. Several examples with fixed and variable temperatures are presented to illustrate the model's performance.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” under project CTQ2012-37039-C02-02

Charged-particle multiplicities in pp interactions at root s=900 GeV measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

22 páginas, 4 figuras, 1 tabla.-- et al.(ATLAS Collaboration).-- arXiv:1003.3124v2The first measurements from proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. Data were collected in December 2009 using a minimum-bias trigger during collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 900 GeV. The charged-particle multiplicity, its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity. and the relationship between mean transverse momentum and charged-particle multiplicity are measured for events with at least one charged particle in the kinematic range vertical bar eta vertical bar 500 MeV. The measurements are compared to Monte Carlo models of proton-proton collisions and to results from other experiments at the same centre-of-mass energy. The charged-particle multiplicity per event and unit of pseudorapidity eta = 0 is measured to be 1.333 +/- 0.003(stat.) +/- 0.040(syst.), which is 5-15% higher than the Monte Carlo models predict.We are greatly indebted to all CERN’s departments and to the LHC project for their immense efforts not only in building the LHC, but also for their direct contributions to the construction and installation of the ATLAS detector and its infrastructure. All our congratulations go to the LHC operation team for the superb performance during this initial data-taking period. We acknowledge equally warmly all our technical colleagues in the collaborating Institutions without whom the ATLAS detector could not have been built. Furthermore we are grateful to all the funding agencies which supported generously the construction and the commissioning of the ATLAS detector and also provided the computing infrastructure. The ATLAS detector design and construction has taken about fifteen years, and our thoughts are with all our colleagues who sadly could not see its final realisation. We acknowledge the support of ANPCyT, Argentina; Yerevan Physics Institute, Armenia; ARC and DEST, Australia; Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Austria; National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan; State Committee on Science & Technologies of the Republic of Belarus; CNPq and FINEP, Brazil; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CERN; CONICYT, Chile; NSFC, China; COLCIENCIAS, Colombia; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, and Committee for Collaboration of the Czech Republic with CERN; Danish Natural Science Research Council and the Lundbeck Foundation; European Commission, through the ARTEMIS Research Training Network; IN2P3-CNRS and Dapnia-CEA, France; Georgian Academy of Sciences; BMBF, HGF, DFG and MPG, Germany; Ministry of Education and Religion, through the EPEAEK program PYTHAGORAS II and GSRT, Greece; ISF, MINERVA, GIF, DIP, and Benoziyo Center, Israel; INFN, Italy; MEXT, Japan; CNRST, Morocco; FOM and NWO, Netherlands; The Research Council of Norway; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland; GRICES and FCT, Portugal; Ministry of Education and Research, Romania; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom”; JINR; Ministry of Science, Serbia; Department of International Science and Technology Cooperation, Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic; Slovenian Research Agency, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Slovenia; Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain; The Swedish Research Council, The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; State Secretariat for Education and Science, Swiss National Science Foundation, and Cantons of Bern and Geneva, Switzerland; National Science Council, Taiwan; TAEK, Turkey; The Science and Technology Facilities Council and The Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom; DOE and NSF, United States of America.Peer reviewe

A hybrid simulation-optimization approach for the design of internally heat-integrated distillation columns

Paper submitted to AIChE 2012 Annual Meeting: Energy Efficiency by Process Intensification, Pittsburgh, PA, October 28-November 2, 2012.This work introduces a systematic method for the optimal and rigorous design of internally heat-integrated distillation columns (HIDiC). The total number of intermediate heat exchanger and their optimal location are determined. The number of trays of each section can be optimised in an outer loop providing the method a great flexibility. The commercial process simulator Hysys® has been used to implement the process and solve the rigorous VLE using the available thermodynamic models such as NRTL, and MatLab® to implement the optimization algorithm. (AIChE 2012 Annual Meeting: Energy Efficiency by Process Intensification (paper 488e: https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2012/webprogram/Paper267732.html)University of Alicant

Zonificación de suelos vitícolas en Villanueva de Alcardete (Toledo, La Mancha, España) utilizando elementos traza.

Se realiza un estudio de suelos en el término municipal de Villanueva de Alcardete (Toledo, España) con la finalidad de señalar zonas homogéneas para el cultivo del viñedo. Se practicaron 15 calicatas en lugares representativos y se realizaron análisis físico químicos y clasificaciones edafológicas. También se consultaron fuentes clásicas de información pero se apunta como novedosa herramienta para la zonificación la composición geoquímica de los suelos. Se determinaron para cada perfil 11 elementos mayoritarios (Al, Ca, Fe, K, Na, Mg, Mn, P, S, Si, Ti) y 27 elementos traza (As, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Hf, La, Mo, Nb, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sc, Sn, Sr, Ta, Th, U, V, W, Y, Zn, Zr). Una vez estudiadas las fuentes de información y los datos obtenidos, el mapa de distribución del Estroncio (Sr) representa bastante bien las distintas zonas de suelos del área estudiada y puede ser utilizado (con las debidas comprobaciones y correcciones) para establecer lotes de suelos homogéneos

Estudio de las propiedades de retención de humedad de suelos vitícolas en Castilla-La Mancha (España)

En el presente trabajo se estudió la relación entre las principales características del suelo que influyen en la retención de humedad (densidad aparente y porcentajes de arena, limo, arcilla, materia orgánica y carbonato cálcico) y la humedad gravimétrica a capacidad de campo (CC), punto de marchitez permanente (PMP) y capacidad de retención de agua disponible (CRAD) o agua útil de los horizontes superficiales de 101 suelos vitícolas de Castilla-La Mancha (España). Los suelos se describieron morfológicamente y se realizaron los análisis pertinentes de establecimiento de las principales propiedades de los mismos. La CC y PMP se determinaron con el método de placas Richards (aplicando -33 KPa y -1500 KPa, respectivamente) y la CRAD fue deducida por diferencia (CC-PMP). Del Análisis de Componentes Principales se deduce que dos componentes explican el 61,76% de la variabilidad de los datos (porcentaje de contenido en arena y densidad aparente). Las propiedades que mostraron una mayor relación lineal, estadísticamente significativa, con CC, PMP y CRAD fueron el porcentaje de arena (R= -0,68, -0,68 y -0,47) y de limo (0,5, 0,49 y 0,37) respectivamente. Se utilizóel programa Surfer para la elaboración de mapas de distribución espacial de propiedades del suelo