Disaggregation–aggregation based model reduction for refinery-wide optimization

In this paper, reduced nonlinear refinery models are developed by generating and using input–output data from a process simulator. In particular, rigorous process models of continuous catalytic reformer (CCR) and naphtha splitter units are used for generating the data. To deal with complexity associated with large amounts of data, that is usually available in the refineries, a disaggregation–aggregation based approach is presented. The data is split (disaggregation) into smaller subsets and reduced artificial neural network (ANN) models are obtained for each of the subset. These ANN models are then combined (aggregation) to obtain an ANN model which represents all the data originally generated. The disaggregation step can be carried out within a parallel computing platform. Refinery optimization studies are carried out to demonstrate the applicability and the usefulness of the proposed model reduction approach.

► Developed disaggregation-aggregation based model reduction approach. ► Developed reduced models for refinery process units. ► Used reduced models for refinery-wide optimization.