Design and Integration of Eco-Industrial Parks for Managing Water Resources

This work is aimed at developing an optimization-based approach to the design and integration of eco-industrial parks (EIPs). Focus is given to the management of water among multiple processes in a common. EIP facility. Recycle, reuse, and separation using interception devices are considered as possible strategies for managing, wastewater. A source-interception-sink structural representation is used to embed potential configurations of interest. The representation accounts for the possibilities of direct recycle, material (waste) exchange, mixing and segregation of different streams, separation and treatment in interception units, and allocation to process users (sinks). Then, the EIP design problem is formulated as an optimization, program whose objective is to minimize cost of the EIP while determining optimal recycle and separation strategies. A case study is solved to illustrate the applicability of the devised approach. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 28: 265-272, 2009