The optimal design of a membrane gas separation process requires minimizing several objective functions subject to nonlinear relationships among the optimizing variables. This article describes a novel software product, named Optimal Membrane-Process Design (OMPD), for the optimal design of membrane gas separation processes. The product generates several potential process design configurations and then searches the process design parameters and operating conditions spaces to arrive at optimal design specifications and operating conditions. It is able to consider every type and any number of operational, compositional, and economical objective functions in a computationally cost-effective manner. It calculates all Pareto optimal solutions in a single trial. It can optimize any number of membrane units arranged in multi-step and/or multi-stage configurations. It optimally places pairs of adjacent membrane units, either two-step or two-stage, while simultaneously considering several membrane types.

膜气体分离过程的最佳设计需要使几个目标函数最小化，这些目标函数会受到优化变量之间的非线性关系的影响。本文介绍了一种新颖的软件产品，称为“最佳膜过程设计（OMPD）”，用于膜气体分离过程的最佳设计。该产品生成几种潜在的过程设计配置，然后搜索过程设计参数和操作条件空间，以获得最佳的设计规格和操作条件。它能够以计算上具有成本效益的方式考虑每种类型以及任何数量的操作，组成和经济目标函数。它可以在一次试验中计算所有帕累托最优解。它可以优化以多步和/或多步配置排列的任意数量的膜单元。它可以最佳地放置成对的两步或两步相邻的膜单元，同时考虑几种膜类型。