Sustainable Water Reuse and Wastewater Management in Industrial Processes

Abstract

Multiproduct batch plants face significant challenges due to improper production newlineschedules, leading to inefficient wastewater handling and excessive freshwater newlineconsumption. Chemical industries require enormous amounts of water for processing and newlinefrequent equipment washings. To solve this, we focus on improving production scheduling newlinealong with minimizing wastewater generation at the source. By strategically sequencing newlineproduct runs, we can enhance total production while reducing water consumption costs newlinethrough recycling and appropriate treatment. By addressing wastewater management newlinethrough scheduling, the proposed approach boosts production by 13%. The proposed newlineapproach improves operational efficiency and leads to significant water savings. newlineEfficient wastewater management extends beyond scheduling and involves proper newlinehandling and storage solutions. This study proposes the use of segregation tanks designed newlinewith predefined concentration limits to facilitate wastewater reuse. Integrating multiple newlinestorage tanks maximize the potential for recycling low-contaminated wash water before it newlinereaches the effluent treatment plant. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) newlinemodel is formulated to determine the optimal allocation of wash water, reducing newlinefreshwater demand while controlling effluent generation. We have validated this approach newlinein a commercial case study by addressing both environmental and economic concerns. newlineProposed wastewater management through scheduling, storage and optimal treatment newlineselection, reduce freshwater consumption by 58% and reduce operating costs by 57%. newlineIn addition to scheduling and storage, choosing the correct wastewater treatment approach newlineis critical for long-term water management. To improve efficiency, the suggested newlinemethodology integrates early treatment options (ETO) with end-of-pipe (EOP) treatment. newlineETO reduces pollutant loads before wastewater enters the final treatment stage, resulting newlinein optimal treatment conditions. This hybrid strategy smoothed out changes in influent newlineconcentration and