A partial enumeration algorithm for solving PNS problems

Since the combinatorial version of the process network synthesis (PNS) problem is NP-complete, it is important to have fast enumeration procedures to generate its feasible solutions or its optimal solutions. In this work, a partial enumeration procedure is presented which is based on the merging reduction. This algorithm generates such a subset of the feasible solutions which tontains all of the optimal solutions of problem considered. The power of this enumeration procedure is illustrated by an empirical analysis.