Optimisation of water use in batch process industries

The water management in the batch process industries has been optimised con sidering the reuse of water effluents in the same plant through storage tan ks. For a given production plan, the characterisation of the water streams associated to the different production tasks is established. The connection s between the available tanks and the water streams have been determined ta rgeting different aspects: freshwater demand, water cost, utility demand of water streams and water reuse network costs. The water reuse system has be en modelled, simulated and optimised. A software tool has been developed th at permits an easy application of the methodology. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.