Visualization of multi-objective decisions for the optimal design of a pressure swing adsorption system

Abstract

Optimization based process design tools are most useful when combined with the human engineer's insight. Further insight can be gained through the use of these tools by encouraging the exploration of the design space. Visualization is one technique which makes it easier for an engineer to understand the designs identified by an optimization tool. There are many visualization techniques but most are for individual process designs or for understanding the behavior a design space when a single design objective is considered. Most design problems, however, are multi-objective. This paper presents a multi-objective visualization method and applies it to the industrially relevant design of pressure swing adsorption systems. •We propose a new visualization aided method of multi-objective optimization•The set of Pareto optimal decisions is visualized in parallel to the Pareto front•The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by an application to the solution of a challenging design problem.