An intelligent approach to conceptual design automation of chemical processes

The authors present the problem definitions, methodologies, and implementation of conceptual design automation of chemical processes. The problems and difficulties existing in conceptual design automation of chemical processes are first identified. Then, a general problem-solving strategy and control structure of the software is proposed. The authors describe an integrated distributed intelligent system (Meta-COOP) to accomplish the conceptual design of chemical processes. Meta-COOP employs object-oriented programming techniques, is based on the concepts of the metasystem and integrated distributed artificial intelligence, and integrates symbolic reasoning, various knowledge representations, numerical computation programs, commercial software packages, and computer graphics