HEURISTIC AND SIMULATION TECHNIQUES FOR THE SCHEDULING OF HAZARDOUS-WASTE PROCESSING IN AN INTEGRATED TREATMENT FACILITY

The basic strategies for optimizing processing schedules of hazardous waste in an integrated hazardous waste treatment facility are analyzed . Five schedule optimization heuristics were evaluated on six simulati on models of hypothetical integrated hazardous waste treatment facilit ies. The six models represented combinations of one of three unit proc ess configurations and one of two facility operating policies. The heu ristics were evaluated with respect to their ability to minimize the a verage completion time (makespan) of a specified set of jobs. The same five heuristics were applied to a model representing the physical and chemical treatment plant of the Alberta Special Waste Management Corp oration. Operation under two operating policies for this case study wa s evaluated, and the results were compared with the hypothetical model results. Some heuristics were found to be capable of reducing makespa ns by 13-14% relative to the first in, first out heuristic.