Decision-making for Petrochemical Planning Using Multiobjective and Strategic Tools

Decision-making for planning a petrochemical industry is a difficult task, particularly when decisions are required to be made under constraints and different objectives. This paper presents the application of multiobjective optimization tools for planning of a mixed-integer model of a petrochemical industry to arrive at a small set of good solutions out of the Pareto optimal solutions. The two main objectives are economic gain and risk from plant accidents. Following this optimization, an economical strategic tool is used to reach the final decision. The proposed procedure has been applied to the petrochemical industry in Kuwait and found to be successful in defining a balanced petrochemical network with acceptable risk.