Publication
The growing desire to improve resource efficiency and environmental impact of industrial processes is directly linked to optimal management of heat, mass and power flows. The concept of industrial symbiosis tackles this issue by proposing interplant heat recovery and resource transfer which can bring economical and environmental benefits to each party. A comprehensive methodology is required which can easily be incorporated in the planning of industrial clusters. Therefore, a generic hybrid mixed integer linear programming superstructure has been developed to address simultaneous heat, water, and power optimization in interplant operations. Additional concepts are included in the previously-proposed water network superstructure (Kermani et al., 2017) to account for the issues related to interplant heat and mass exchange. A cold utility superstructure is included in the water network while a steam network superstructure is modified to better represent the feedwater heaters and heat recovery opportunities. The proposed methodology is applied to an industrial case study. Results exhibit a large potential for synergies among industrial sites, even in disparate sectors, and emphasize the importance of a generic approach.