Short-Term Planning Framework for Enterprise-wide Production and Distribution Network of a Cryogenic Air Separation Industry

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2018-12, Vol.57 (49), p.16841-16861
• Main Authors: Misra, Shamik, Saxena, Divya, Kapadi, Mangesh, Gudi, Ravindra D, Srihari, R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.8b05138

In this paper, a novel mixed integer linear programming model is proposed for short-term planning of an enterprise wide production and distribution network for air separation industries. The objective is to develop a framework for the planning level, that is based on a more realistic abstraction of the scheduling level complexities, so as to evolve optimal implementable targets to the scheduling level. The approach is also oriented toward promoting a tighter coordination between the plants in an enterprise and to make intelligent use of the distribution network so as to minimize the overall production and distribution cost for the entire enterprise. The model involves intelligent formulation techniques to curtail the number of binary variables which in turn makes the model computationally efficient. A nonuniform time discretization framework is also adopted and the proposed framework is validated on a case study representative of typical industrial size production and supply chain network of air separation enterprises. Instead of rigorous modeling, the planning framework optimizes an industrial size test case to the required accuracy in stipulated time. This paper also outlines a decomposition based framework to achieve enterprise wide optimization in air separation industries.