17 th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering – ESCAPE17 V. Plesu and P.S. Agachi (Editors) © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1 An Automated Algorithm for Throughput Maximization Under Fixed Time Horizon in Multipurpose Batch Plants: S-Graph Approach Tibor Holczinger, a Thokozani Majozi, a,b Mate Hegyhati a and Ferenc Friedler a a Department of Computer Science, University of Pannonia, Egyetem u. 10, Veszprém, H-8200, Hungary, Friedler@dcs.vein.hu b Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa Abstract This paper presents a graph-theoretic technique for scheduling of multipurpose batch processes with the objective of maximizing throughput over a fixed time horizon. The presented technique is based on the S-graph framework which embeds the necessary scheduling information pertaining to recipes of different batches and possible resource allocation. The distinct feature of this contribution is the irrelevance of time horizon discretization which has become traditional in most mathematical programming techniques. Consequently, no presupposition of time points is required, thereby rendering the technique truly continuous in time. A comparison with time point based techniques is conducted to demonstrate the performance. Keywords: S-graph, batch plants, continuous-time, scheduling 1. Introduction In its basic form, the problem of scheduling involves the optimal allocation of tasks to limited resources. In a situation where the number of batches to be produced for each product is known a priori, the objective is usually to minimize makespan. On the other hand, it is also common in practice to have a