An Engineering Scale-Up Approach using Multi-Objective Optimization

In science and engineering, researchers are often challenged with the need to replicate the innovative results obtained with an equipment of a given size in another equipment of a different dimension. In practice, this often involves passing from laboratory or prototype dimensions to industrial level. The process is known as scale-up and consists in ensuring that the values of the criteria that describe the process characteristics at a given scale are preserved at different scales. Typically, this might involve a chemical reaction rate and/or conversion, a total residence time, specific flow and/or heat transfer characteristics, a certain degree of mixing, etc. Available scale-up rules are often based on oversimplified process analyses and generate unsatisfactory results. Scale-up can also be understood as an optimization process where various objectives are to be satisfied simultaneously, i.e., the performance at the two scales must be as similar as possible. For that purpose, the adoption of a multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed. The technique is illustrated with an example from polymer engineering.