Synthesis and Design of Integrated Process and Water Networks

This work presents the development of a systematic framework for a simultaneous synthesis and design of process and water networks using the superstructure-based optimization approach. In this framework, a new superstructure combining both networks is developed by attempting to consider all possible options with respect to the topology of the process and water networks, leading to Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP) problem.

A solution strategy to solve the multi-network problem accounts explicitly the interactions between the networks by selecting suitable technologies in order to transform raw materials into products and produce clean water to be reused in the process at the early stage of design. Since the connection between the process network and the wastewater treatment network is not a straight forward connection, a new converter interval is introduced in order to convert the values of contaminants in the wastewater stream into wastewater characterizations.

The systematic approach is used to manage the complexity of the problem by solving simultaneously process synthesis and water synthesis network problems with respect to environment, economics and sustainability. The applicability of the systematic approach is demonstrated using a conceptual case study to test the features of the solution approach under different scenarios depending on the design-synthesis problem.