Industrial site water exchange network synthesis considering multiple quality constraints and water headers

Abstract

This work aims to extend the previous Pinch Analysis framework to the industrial site material recycling network with site headers synthesis from single quality to multiple qualities. The analysis provides guided resources management strategy in any eco-industrial park to reduce the reliance on raw resources that are extracted from the environment. The Pinch Point(s) are first identified for the overall network using the Material Recovery Pinch Diagram for all the qualities. The guideline for the cross-plant material sources transfer is then built upon the concept of the Pinch Point(s) for all the qualities to minimise the cross-plant source transfer or a number of connections. An iterative header targeting framework is then proposed to determine the flowrates and the qualities of the headers. Two case studies, which have single and multiple qualities Total Site water recycling network, are used to demonstrate the proposed framework, comparing results obtained using direct integration and centralised headers. The single quality case results in 4.1% lower fresh resource intake compared to without cross-transfer, while the multiple qualities case could have 5.3% lower fresh resources for two and three plants scenarios. This framework provides a proper analysis of the problem, which allows users to gain insights on the effective cross-plant source transfer schemes with headers constraint by resource qualities.