Pharmaceutical waste management under uncertainty

Due to seasonal differences in production demands, effluent streams from ba tch manufacturing sites may exhibit considerable variations in number, amou nt as well as composition. Pharmaceutical and fine chemical production dist inguishes itself also in recycling practices since stringent purity require ment often prohibit direct reuse of raw materials in the next batch. Furthe r complications stem from ever changing production campaigns, where each ma y last only for a few months. In such a dynamic environment, selection of r ecovery and treatment options as well as assessments of their benefits and tests constitutes a formidable task. Designing plant-wide waste management policies assuming perfect information may not be satisfactory given the var iability of the production campaigns. Therefore, this article addresses the problem of finding optimal waste management policies for entire manufactur ing sites in the presence of uncertainty. It will offer a mathematical prog ramming framework for implementing three contrasting strategies, Small ease studies exemplify the impact of different perspectives on the structural d esign decisions in the overall plant design. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.