The analytical target cascading (ATC) optimization technique for hierarchical systems demonstrates convergence properties only under assumptions of convexity and continuity. Many practical engineering design problems, however, involve a combination of continuous and discrete variables resulting in the development of mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) formulations. While ATC has been ap...

We consider a production planning problem where the production process creates a mixture of desirable products and undesirable byproducts. In this production process, at any point in time the fraction of the mixture that is an undesirable byproduct increases monotonically as a function of the cumulative mixture production up to that time. The mathematical formulation of this continuous-time pro...

Aircraft conflict avoidance is a critical issue in Air Traffic Management, which can be addressed, among others, by means of Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) techniques. In this work we introduce a new approach to address, via velocity regulation, the problem of avoiding conflict for a set of aircraft flying in an air sector at cruise flight. Speed variations for all aircraft are to...

Simultaneous synthesis and design of reaction–separation–recycle processes using rigorous models is highly desirable to improve process efficiency. However, it often leads a large-scale challenging optimization problem. In this work, we propose computationally efficient framework for the The reactor separator networks are modeled generalized disjunctive programming, which reformulated into nonc...

The improvement of water and energy use in the industrial sector is an important concern to improve overall techno-economic performance single plants. most recent EU strategy for system integration has been treating these issues redaction its first pillar, which based on relations between promotion circular economy efficiency it as specific objectives waste heat recovery from wastewater. Althou...

For the separation of azeotropic mixtures with distillation usually a number of conceptual design alternatives are generated. Instead of evaluating the economic viability of the different alternatives by repetitive simulation studies, a combination of shortcut calculations and rigorous MINLP optimization is proposed. In this two step process the shortcut calculations are used to screen and rank...

In this study, a flexible optimization approach is introduced to design an optimal biocompatible solvent for an extractive fermentation process with cell-recycling. The optimal process/solvent design problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model in which performance requirements of the compounds are reflected in the objectives and the constraints. A flexible or fuzzy opti...

Varicol is a continuous chromatographic separation process which is based on the simulated moving bed principle with an asynchronous commutation of the inlet and outlet streams. The objective of this work is to develop a systematic procedure to optimize the operating conditions of the Varicol process, including the commutation sequence and the internal flow rates. To this end, the continuous dy...

A model for designing the network of a new entrant supply chain under inelastic demand and in the presence of pre-existing competing chains is proposed. These supply chains provide an identical product for a market area. The model considers the location of distribution centres and retail outlets on a discrete set of potential locations. The assumptions of the model are: (1) static competition b...