Design and operation of water desalination supply chain using mathematical modelling approach

This study presents the retrofit of water supply chain problem through multi period mixed integer linear program (MILP) model. The major strategic decisions include the determination of optimal new facility locations and capacity expansions of water desalination supply chain infrastructure assets which consists of water desalination plants, pipelines, and storage tanks, over a long time planning horizon. Other strategic decisions deal with the optimal selection of desalination technologies for existing and new desalination plants. In addition, the model provides decisions to define the pipeline network configuration for water transportation among several sites. The operation decisions are modelled to optimize the water production from desalination plants, energy consumption, brine disposal, as well as CO2 emissions. In addition, water transportation through the pipeline network and water storage at every site are optimized to satisfy water demand at every time period, and to minimize the net present value of the supply chain network. Finally, the proposed approach is solved for a case study to illustrate the application of the proposed mathematical programming model. The results show economic and environmental benefits if one considers full site integration and water production coordination in the supply chain network through the planning time horizon.