ABSTRACT
Global consumption of natural resources has been significantly increased over recent decades. Consequently, the research regarding sustainable utilization of natural resources, including water and energy, has received considerable attention throughout academia and industry. The main goals have been to find promising solutions, with reduced water and energy consumption within different sectors (i.e., domestic, agricultural, and industrial). Those solutions are also beneficial from the aspects of wastewater and emission minimization and protection of the environment. The focus of this chapter is on optimization of water consumption within the industrial sector, including process industries (i.e., chemical, food, petrochemical, pulp, and paper). This chapter first briefly presents the global water consumption and water usages within the process industries. Then, a concept of process water networks involving wastewater reuse, wastewater regeneration, and reuse/recycling is explained, followed by a brief description of systematic methods, based on water-pinch analysis and mathematical programming. An illustrative large-scale case study of the total water network, including multiple contaminants, is used to demonstrate a superstructure-based optimization approach. The results of the optimal water network show that significant savings of freshwater consumption and wastewater generation can be obtained when compared with a conventional water network design.
