Reactor network synthesis with guaranteed robust performance

In this work a systematic model-based approach for reactor network synthesis problem with guaranteed robust dynamic performance will be presented. The work is based on the superstructure approach and aims to find an optimal process flowsheet with determined connection patterns of reactors, reactor types, design parameters and operating conditions. In comparison to the classical design methods, certain specified dynamic properties are guaranteed simultaneously under parametric uncertainty. Structural alternatives in the flowsheet, i.e., how reactors are interconnected, as well as in the control system, i.e., how controlled and manipulated variables are paired, are subject to design degrees of freedom. It is allowed that idle reactors and controllers can appear in the reactor network superstructure, so that a fixed number of non-idle reactors and controllers does not have to be assumed as a priori. The optimal reactor network design in either open- or closed-loop is determined by solving...