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Molecularlevel decisions are increasingly recognized as an integral part of process design. Finding the optimal process performance requires the integrated optimization of process and solvent chemical structure, leading to a challenging mixedinteger nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. The formulation of such problems when using a group contribution version of the statistical associating fluid theory, SAFT螃 Mie, to predict the physical properties of the relevant mixtures reliably over process conditions is presented. To solve the challenging MINLP, a novel hierarchical methodology for integrated process and solvent design (hierarchical optimization) is presented. Reduced models of the process units are developed and used to generate a set of initial guesses for the MINLP solution. The methodology is applied to the design of a physical absorption process to separate carbon dioxide from methane, using a …