Optimal Pathways for Nitric Acid Synthesis Using P-Graph Attainable Region Technique (PART)

Abstract

Developing a chemical reaction network is considered the first and most crucial step of process synthesis. Many methods have been employed for process synthesis, such as the attainable region (AR) theory. AR states that a region of all possible configurations can be defined with all the potential products and reactants. The second method is process network synthesis (PNS), a technique used to optimise a flowsheet based on the feasible materials and energy flow. P-graph is an algorithmic framework for PNS problems. P-graph attainable region technique (PART) is introduced here as an integration of both AR and P-graph to generate optimal reaction pathways for a given process. A descriptive AR plot is also developed to represent all the possible solution structures or reaction pathways. A case study of a conventional nitric acid synthesis process was used to demonstrate this technique.