title: Optimization-based methodology for the development of wastewater facilities for energy and nutrient recovery.
abstract: A paradigm shift is currently underway from an attitude that considers wastewater streams as a waste to be treated, to a proactive interest in recovering materials and energy from these streams. This paper is concerned with the development and application of a systematic, model-based methodology for the development of wastewater resource recovery systems that are both economically attractive and sustainable. With the array of available treatment and recovery options growing steadily, a superstructure modeling approach based on rigorous mathematical optimization appears to be a natural approach for tackling these problems. The development of reliable, yet simple, performance and cost models is a key issue with this approach in order to allow for a reliable solution based on global optimization. We argue that commercial wastewater simulators can be used to derive such models, and we illustrate this approach with a simple resource recovery system. The results show that the proposed methodology is computationally tractable, thereby supporting its application as a decision support system for selection of promising resource recovery systems whose development is worth pursuing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Electronic address: channarong.puchongkawarin10@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Puchongkawarin
authors.affiliation: Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Electronic address: carlos.gomez-mont10@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gomez-Mont
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Electronic address: d.stuckey@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Stuckey
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Electronic address: b.chachuat@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chachuat
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D062065:Wastewater / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Biological treatment; Biorefining; Energy recovery; Nutrient recovery; Superstructure optimization; Wastewater treatment