MILP approach for then design of vertical vapor-liquid separation vessels-comparison with heuristics

Abstract

In this article we compare results from different heuristics approaches for the design of VLE separation vessels. In addition, we present an MILP approach that embeds the aforementioned heuristics and considers the discrete nature of the geometric variables. We show that different heuristics render different results and, while results from heuristics and MILP often coincide, significant departures occur.