The analysis of the statics is another of the thermodynamics-based approaches that has allowed the synthesis of integrated processes of the reaction-separation type (Pisarenko et al., 2001b). This type of analysis is based on the principles of the topologic thermodynamics and has been widely used during the design of reactive distillation processes (Pisarenko et al., 1999; Pisarenko et al., 2001a), although it is also applicable to the synthesis of distillation trains. Thus, the analysis of the statics provides the fundamentals and tools needed for the pre­liminary design of distillation, reactive distillation, and more recently, reactive extraction and extractive fermentation processes through the development of short-cut methods based on a graphic representation that allows the visualization of the process trajectory. With the help of these methods, it is possible to specify the operating conditions and regimes corresponding to stable steady states. This information is used later during the rigorous modeling of the processes or for their simulation using commercial packages in the subsequent design steps. For this, the information on static (not varying with time) properties, not only of phase equilibrium (separation) but also of chemical equilibrium (reaction), is required. While the statics of distillation processes under infinite separability regime have been sufficiently represented through the topologic thermodynam­ics (Serafimov et al., 1971, 1973a, 1973b, 1973c), the statics of the chemical transformations are less developed. Without doubt, this approach is very useful for process design when applying the principle of integration, although its appli­cation has been mainly oriented to the basic organic chemical and petro-chem — ical industries (Cardona et al., 2000, 2002). The application of this approach to biological processes has been very limited, though it is difficult to undervalue the potential of integration in the development of innovative biotechnological processes with a high performance.

Besides the above-mentioned approaches, other types of knowledge-based pro­cess synthesis strategies are being developed as case-based reasoning, axiomatic design, and mean-end analysis (Li and Kraslawski, 2004). Case-based reasoning is supported in very specific data of prior situations and reuses previous results and experience to adjust them to the solution of new design problems. Axiomatic design is based on the principle that a good design maintains the independence of the functional requirements. This approach also applies the axiom that the information content of a good design is minimized. Finally, mean-end analysis considers that the purpose of a chemical process consists in the application of several operations in such a sequence that all the differences between the proper­ties of the feedstocks and products are eliminated. The birth of new paradigms is expected for generating designs boosted, for instance, by the development of the artificial intelligence (Barnicki and Siirola, 2004).