Optimal design of solvent blends for environmental impact minimization

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Abstract
A systematic procedure proposed here selects optimal solvent blends for nonreactive, multicomponent absorption processes accounting for plant‐wide point source environmental interactions. This approach, based on the optimal design technique for pure solvents developed in our earlier work, involves the identification of all agent‐based operations (such as gas absorption and liquid extraction) within the process of interest, the determination of a list of candidate solvent blends satisfying separation task operational and environmental constraints, and the selection of an optimal solvent blend candidate based on global plant‐wide process and environmental constraints. The procedure features new property and operational feasibility constraints, a refined task‐based problem formulation, and a new solution strategy. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the approach, and trade‐offs between cost and environmental impact objectives are discussed.