Automated targeting technique for concentration- and property-based total resource conservation network

Resource conservation networks (RCNs) are among the most effective systems for reducing the consumption of fresh materials and the discharge of waste streams. A typical RCN involves multiple elements of resource pre-treatment, material reuse/recycle, regeneration/interception, and waste treatment for final discharge. Due to the close interactions among these individual elements, simultaneous synthesis of a total RCN is necessary. This paper presents an optimisation-based procedure known as automated targeting technique to locate the minimum resource usage or total cost of a concentration- or property-based total RCNs. This optimisation-based approach provides the same benefits as conventional pinch analysis techniques in yielding various network targets prior to detailed design. Additionally, this approach offers more advantages than the conventional pinch-based techniques through its flexibility in setting an objective function and the ability to handle different impurities/properties for reuse/recycle and waste treatment networks. Furthermore, the concentration-based RCN is treated as the special case of property integration, and solved by the same model. Literature examples are solved to illustrate the proposed approach.