Taguchi's parametric design approach for the selection of optimization variables in a refrigerated gas plant

▶ A systematic approach called the Taguchi method was successfully employed to select the optimization and manipulated variables of a refrigerated gas plant (RGP), which is a large plant model comprising 762 variables and 21 regulatory control loops. ▶ The significance of 7 optimization and manipulated variables as well as 2 disturbance variables affecting the RGP profit was determined via 243 experiments in a cross-orthogonal-array set up. ▶ The optimal configuration of the optimization and manipulated variables were validated, and remarkable agreements were found between the results obtained from HYSYS simulation and analysis of means (ANOM).