On the use of process integration techniques to generate optimal steam cycle configurations for the power plant industry

The integration of steam cycles in the power plant industry aims at optimizing the conversion of the available heat into mechanical power. The proposed method uses process integration techniques and a multi-objective optimisation procedure to generate optimal steam cycle configurations which can be ordered by complexity-costs and efficiency. The interest of this methods is to allow the integration of complex heat exchanger network layout, providing systematically alternative arrangements using an effective solving method.