Flexibility analysis of chemical processes considering dependencies between uncertain parameters

Book chapter, 2021

Chemical processes are usually subject to varying operating conditions. Consequently, the evaluation of the flexibility of a process with respect to variations in inlet conditions is vital to identify bottlenecks in current process flowsheets or new flowsheet design proposals. The flexibility index is a well-established concept to perform flexibility analysis of chemical processes. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to incorporate knowledge regarding dependencies between input parameters when calculating the flexibility index. The aim is to achieve a more accurate indication of a process's flexibility when dependencies between input parameters are present.