Configure a feed blend

Create feed blend

To create a feed blend, do either of the following:

• Right-click the Tabular pane at the time you wish to create the Feed Blend and choose Feed Blend from the context menu. Choose the appropriate group to target.

• Right-click the Gantt pane at the time you wish to create the Feed Blend and choose Feed Blend from the context menu.

  The Single Blend Inspector opens.

Set mode

In the toolbar at the top of the Single Blend Inspector, click either the Min/Max or the Targets label.

Set general options

At the top of the General tab you can set options such as the Name you want to give to the blend and the Mode of the destination asset this blend applies to.

From the Calculate list you can choose how the remaining parameters are calculated:

• Default: all parameters can be manually defined.

• Amount: the amount is automatically determined from the date range and rate.

• Flow rate: the flow rate is automatically determined from the date range and amount.

• Start date: the start date is automatically determined from the end date, amount and flow rate.

• End date: the end date is automatically determined from the start date, amount and flow rate.

  If you choose Start date, for example, the background in the Start Date cell becomes gray, indicating that you can no longer edit this value. The start date will instead be calculated from the other parameters.

Set target

If you have chosen the Min/Max mode:

Choose the parameter to target by clicking the Target icon () in the same cell as the parameter value, so that it shows to maximize the parameter, or to minimize it. Note that you can also target one of the destination unit parameters in the Configuration tab.

If you have chosen the Targets mode:

Go to the Constraints tab and enter target values in the Target column for the desired rates or properties.

Optionally, enter values in the Target Scale column to define the relative importance of different targets. You can type in this column only if there is an active value in the Target column on the same row.

You can enable or disable a target by selecting or clearing the check box next to the target value.

Set desired ratios and flow rates

In the Source Assets pane, enter values in the Desired Ratio and Desired Flow Rate columns to specify ratios and amounts of material fed to the blend.

Set constraints

Go to the Constraints tab and enter any minimum, maximum or fixed values for other flows or properties.

You can enable or disable individual constraints by selecting or clearing the check boxes next to the constraint values. Alternatively, you can enable or disable constraints for the whole row by selecting or clearing the check box in the Active column.

Select the check box in the Infeasibility Breaker column to associate an infeasibility breaker to the constraint.

You can also define a default set of constraints for feed blends for each mode of your process unit. To do this, change your constraints as necessary, then press the Set Constraints as Default button .

Note: The default margin for property constraints is 5·10-4, that is, 0.05%. No alert is triggered if a property value exceeds a constraint by an amount smaller than the margin. For example, a maximum constraint of 1000 has an associated margin of 1000·5·10-4=0.5. Therefore, a property value of 1000.3 will not trigger an alert, but a value of 1000.6 will.

In the General tab there are options to quickly set or clear constraints. Select one or more cells in a column with constraints and right-click. These entries are available in the context menu:

• Copy Solution To allows you to copy the solution value of the column to one of the constraint columns.

• Clear Constraints allows you to clear the values for one or all types of constraint.

  The above actions apply only to the rows for which you have selected cells.

Optimize

Click the Optimize button to attempt to calculate a matching feed blend.

Review the feed blend in the schedule

Close the Feed Blend Inspector and review the feed blend in the schedule.