Optimisation model for a closed-loop industrial water-energy system within a ceramic industry plant

Miguel Castro Oliveira; Rita Castro Oliveira; Henrique A. Matos

Key information

Authors:

Miguel Castro Oliveira (Miguel Castro Oliveira); Rita Castro Oliveira (Rita Teresa Marmelo Castro Oliveira); Henrique A. Matos (Henrique Aníbal Santos de Matos)

Published in

07/28/2024

Abstract

The water-energy nexus, dealing with all potential interdependencies between water and energy resources, may be promoted throughout various practices, with a part of these still not being implemented or even conceptualized. In the context of end-use sectors, several types of water systems are installed. These water systems necessarily consume energy (either electricity or fuels), and in the case of open loop systems these also consume considerable quantities of water. An approach implemented for the reduction of both freshwater and hot/ cold utilities in a water system is designated as Combined Water and Energy Integration. In this work, it is presented the development of a non-linear programming (NLP) model for the minimization of water and energy in a water recirculation and treatment system installed in a ceramic plant. The model is part of the ThermWatt computational tool and is built with the Python language (using the GEKKO package). An economic and environmental viability was performed for the Engineering project encompassing the water recirculation and treatment system. A payback time of 2 years and 10 months and an emissions reduction of 1.76 kton CO2,eq/year have been estimated, demonstrating a high viability of the proposed installation in comparison to a benchmark of 2 – 3 years reasonable payback period and a maximum value of 0.722 kton CO2,eq/year reduction for similar plants.