Plant-wide optimal waste management
Synthesis of optimal waste treatment policies on a plant wide level is a formidable challenge due to (i) the knowledge necessary to do selection of treatment steps and (ii) the combinatorial complexity of the resulting problem space. This paper presents a hybrid methodology for an automatic synthesis of feasible alternatives, the superstructure generation, followed by rigorous combinatorial optimization. In step one, evaluation of waste properties against regulatory limits as well as a relaxed set of technology selection criteria gives rise to a tree of feasible treatment options. In step two, rigorous integer programming techniques expose optimal waste management policies with best trade-off between different levels of environmental, ecological and logistic constraints. Results of the application of the methodology onto a case study from the pharmaceutical industry are discussed. These figures demonstrate clearly the huge degree of flexibility that can be obtained by systematic waste management using computerized methods.
synthesis waste treatment decision-making pollution prevention