Robust resource targeting in continuous and batch process

Abstract

Water is considered a significant resource in process industries. It is essential for planners to target and optimize the use of water as an external resource for industrial operations. Such optimization problems account for uncertainties related to internal resources and must be handled to provide solutions for real plants of industrial relevance. In this paper, these parametric uncertainties are addressed, while targeting resources for continuous and flexible schedule batch process. The proposed robust counterpart formulations include resource minimization constraints for continuous and batch processes to satisfy the demand. Three different robust optimization methodologies are adapted and extended to handle parametric uncertainties associated with internal resources. Assuming bounded and known uncertainty, the resultant formulations are then implemented to literature examples and the results are compared with the deterministic formulation. The results show that the formulation proposed by Bertsimas and Sim is the most appropriate model for the defined problem because it preserves the linearity and provides a mechanism to control the degree of conservatism, guaranteeing feasibility. This model will assist the planner to decide the resource requirement under uncertain conditions. Thus, immune the process against uncertainties to satisfy demands.