A software tool for helping in decision-making about water management in batch process industries

Due to the increasing cost associated with water use, methodologies for opt imising water management in processing plants have emerged in recent years. A novel methodology for water use minimisation in batch process industries was described in (Almato, M., Sanmarti E, Espuna A., Puigjaner I,. Rationa lising the water use in the batch industry. Computers and Chemical Engineer ing 1997; 21:971-6), where not only the freshwater demand associated to a g iven production plan is calculated, but also the different costs involved i n the water re-use system are optimised leading to the best design water re -use network that includes the best utilisation and assignment of tanks to store spent water. Next, the software package that allows a user-friendly a pplication of the methodology and a helpful result display is presented. Th is paper describes a user-friendly software package which was developed to be used in conjunction with this water minimisation technology. The prototy pe allows for data input, process modelling, methodology application and re sult display. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.