Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jose R. Alvarez
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering UNIVERSITY OF OVIEDO
Systematic technique for analyzing water networks and reducing water costs for processes. Aims to identify and select the best water re-use, regeneration and effluent treatment opportunities. Avoid End-Of-Pipe solutions May be applied to almost any industrial water system where there are users of fresh water and producers of waste water. It can also analyze small systems. More restrictions = less scope for water savings. Good solutions: save water reduce capital investment recover valuable raw materials
Applicability
The savings achieved depend greatly on the project objectives. Capital cost savings often play a major role in the deliverables of a water pinch study. Identifying and deploying the best water re-use systems is a challenge.
Water Reduction 25 % 25 %
Oil refining
Chemicals Paper mill Coal chemicals Polymers (batch) Military Base
30 %
40 % 20 % 50 % 60 % 40 %
PROCESS 1
RAW WATER RAW WATER TREATMENT FRESH WATER PROCESS 2 WASTE WATER
PROCESS 3
BFW TREATMENT Steam STEAM SYSTEM Condensate loss
Boiler blowdown
Ion exchange regeneration
Begin with the assumption that the existing concentrations are the maximum limits.
This normally identifies a few small re-use opportunities. To achieve further savings we must challenge the assumptions made for concentration limits.
Identify projects where large water savings are possible by increasing the upper concentration limits to selected sinks. This will normally identify a few large re-use opportunities.
Key tools for identifying these opportunities are contaminant sensitivity analysis and marginal costs.
Streams are segregated into categories and treated appropriately before mixing with other streams. Several small scale treatment units are used that operate on undiluted effluent streams rather than one large unit operating on very dilute effluent. The resulting system can offer better removal efficiency at reduced cost.
Method 1: UMIST
based on contaminant generation and concentration limitations which give limiting profiles and targets
CPROC, OUT
CPROC, OUT
CW, IN
m C C
(CW, OUT)max (CW, IN) max
Limiting Water Profile
Process
Process
TW, OUT
CPROC, OUT
TW, IN
CW, IN
DH
DT = 1/CP DH
DC = 1/Q Dm
UMIST approach
Maximum use of water Maximum water inlet concentration Maximum water outlet concentration Restrictions: Minimum driving force for mass transfer Solubility limits Scaling and deposit formation Corrosion limits Minimum flow to avoid sedimentation of suspended solids
Process
(CW, OUT)max
Limiting Water Profile
PROCESS 3
m
PROCESS 4
C
CW, OUT
PROCESS 3
m
PROCESS 4
Process 4
400
800
10
Sum: 41 kg/h
Data Analysis
Processing Unit Process 1 Process 2 Process 3 Process 4
PROCESS 1
500 400
PROCESS 2
Process 1
C (ppm)
Process 2
C (ppm)
10
10
PROCESS 3 m (kg/h)
1000 800
PROCESS 4 m (kg/h)
1000 800
50 t/h
FRESH WATER 112.5 t/h PROCESS 2
Process 3
C (ppm)
Process 4
37.5 t/h
PROCESS 3
C (ppm)
5 t/h
PROCESS 4
Pinch Analysis
Composite Curves
800 700 600
C (ppm) C (ppm)
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40
PINCH
2 5
20
Pinch Analysis
Composite Curves
Concentration interval, ppm Process 1, kg/h Process 2, kg/h Process 3, kg/h Process 4, kg/h Total , kg/h Accumulated, kg/h
0 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 400 400 - 800 Total
2
12 16 4 4
8
12 20 41
9
21 41
30
Pinch Analysis
Composite Curves
800 700 600
C (ppm) C (ppm)
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40
PINCH
2 5
20
1 8
12
20
Pinch Analysis
Composite Curves
800 700 600
C (ppm)
Limiting Water Profile
(CW, OUT)max
1 8
12
20
Pinch Analysis
Composite Curves
90 t/h
800 700 600
C (ppm) C (ppm)
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40 0 10 20 m (kg/h) 30 40
PINCH
2 5
20
1 8
12
20
Water distribution
Water distribution
90 ton/h 0 ppm 20 ton/h 0 ppm 70 ton/h 0 ppm 2 kg/h P1 50 ton/h 0 ppm 20 ton/h 0 ppm
P2
16 kg/h P3 14 kg/h
4 kg/h P4
Water distribution
Concentration interval, ppm Process 1, kg/h Process 2, kg/h Process 3, kg/h Process 4, kg/h Total , kg/h Accumulated, kg/h
0 - 50
1 (1)
50 - 100
100 - 400 400 - 800 Total
1 (1)
5 (5)
2 (2)
12 (6) (6) 16 (8) (8) 4 (4) 4 (4)
8
12 20 41
9
21 41
2 (2)
5 (5)
30(16)(14)
Process 4
400
800
10
Sum: 41 kg/h
Water distribution
Process 3
20 t/h
Process 2
Process 1
20 t/h 70 t/h
Water 90 t/h
Possible designs
CPINCH C0
CPINCH
mPINCH
Minimum Regeneration
Water distribution
46.2ton/h 0 ppm 20 ton/h 0 ppm 26.2 ton/h 0 ppm 19 ton/h 6.1 ton/h 100 ppm 100 ppm P1 P2 2 kg/h 20 ton/h 100 ppm 2.62 kg/h 26.2 ton/h 100 ppm 25.1 ton/h 5 ppm 21.1 ton/h 5 ppm 4 kg/h P4 46.2ton/h 100 ppm
REGENERATION
2.38 kg/h 25.1 ton/h P2 100 ppm 16.7 kg/h 21.1 ton/h P3 800 ppm
46.2ton/h 5 ppm
P3
Water distribution
Concentration interval, ppm Process 1, kg/h Process 2, kg/h Process 3, kg/h Process 4, kg/h Total , kg/h Accumulated, kg/h
0 - 50
1 (1)
50 - 100
100 - 400
1 (1)
5 (2.62) (2.38)
2 (2)
12 (6.3) (5.7)
8
12
9
21
400 - 800
Total 2 (2) 5 (2.62) (2.38)
16 (8.4) (7.6)
30 (16.7) (13.8)
4 (4)
4 (4)
20
41
41
Minimum Regeneration
Water distribution
20 ton/h 0 ppm 2 kg/h P1 18.9 ton/h 100 ppm 33.7 ton/h 100 ppm
REGENERATION
28 ton/h 5.7 ton/h REGENERATION 100 ppm 100 ppm 4 kg/h REGENERATION P4
flow rates and contaminant levels flow rates and contaminant levels
Process. Water flow rates are fixed. Utility. Water flow rates can be changed (i.e., city water). May have minimum and maximum flow limits together with two cost terms: fixed cost and variable cost.
Sink: The point at which water is consumed. Source: The point at which a supply of water is available. Unit Operation: A piece of equipment or processing unit that acts as both a sink and source for water (takes water in and sends water out).
Process 4
400
800
10
SOURCES
Project Targets
Waste Minimization: Meeting new environmental regulations. Minimizing the cost of fresh material / waste disposal. Site Expansion. Likely to need additional fresh water and waste P3 water capacity. P1 S1
RC
RA A B
P3
C
RA
RB
Avoiding new waste treatment or disposal facilities. Overcoming fresh water availability problems. Avoiding high fees for fresh water / waste disposal.
P2
S2
P1 P2
RB
S1 S2
A B
Debottlenecking. Water systems can be a bottleneck for the overall production process: P3 P1 Cooling tower throughput. S1 S2 P2 Batch vessel washing. Pump capacity.
RA A B RB
RA
P1 P2
P3 S1 S2
A B
RB
Water flows. Key contaminant concentrations. Start with existing concentration values. For sinks, if you can identify the maximum allowable concentrations, consider these. Utility costs. For each utility to be considered: cost of fresh water, cost of discharge, operating cost of existing treatments. Environmental Limits.
Geographical data. Physical location of sources and sinks within the system, together with capital and operating cost terms based on distance and flow (to get simpler network designs). Cost data. Fixed cost and variable cost terms for utility items and connections Treatment and Regeneration specifications: performance characteristics for the equipment together with cost information. Bounds for selected variables.
Additional data:
A key contaminant is "Any property that prevents the direct re-use of a waste water stream.
color, temperature, suspended solids, and others. often the plant operators have valuable contributions. Anywhere between 3 and 15 contaminants simultaneously in a study. Good results by considering only 2-5 contaminants for particular sub-sections of a study. Select 1, 2 or 3 contaminants to make the analysis easy (particularly if you are new to this technology). If you have too many contaminants defined you may make the analysis difficult and your data collection will take longer and cost more.
How many?
Will re-use of water containing this contaminant cause a problem with the process? If it does not cause a problem, you do not need to consider it. Can high levels of the contaminant go to waste? If not, you will need to consider it when looking at the final effluent. Is the contaminant a problem downstream? Watch out for product quality issues downstream. Is the contaminant a problem in just one part of the system? If this is the case, you could exclude it from the selected contaminants, and use bounds to prevent reuse of the contaminated water to that part of the system.
Recommended Procedures
COD (chemical oxygen demand), TOC (total organic content) Suspended solids, Dissolved salts, conductivity. Organics, Alcohols and others!
Check existing sources of data: Ideally, the concentration levels should not be difficult or expensive to obtain:
Math-Derived Limitations
Contaminants do not react with each other when streams are blended. This limits the scope for representing chemical reactions that increase or reduce contaminant load. Contaminants blend linearly. Whenever two or more streams are mixed, each contaminant is assumed to obey the standard rules of mass balance (conservation of mass, etc.), without interacting with other contaminants. Contaminants have linear units of measure. Nonlinear measurements such as pH cannot be easily represented.
Steams that contribute significantly to the contaminant load Streams with significant flow rates.
Steam and Condensate. There are two types of steam users to consider:
Steam users that return clean condensate to be re-used are often excluded Steam users that do not return condensate for re-use are included
Streams to exclude:
Aqueous "Process streams" that cannot be changed (example: product from reactor A to reactor B) Atmospheric losses from cooling towers, vents, etc. Feed, product, or intermediate streams that contain water.
Utility: source, sink or unit operation whose water flow rates can be changed during the water pinch analysis. Typical utilities for a water pinch study include:
Utility Sources Town / city water Demineralized water Well water Utility Sinks Final effluent discharge Road / rail / ship disposal Utility Unit Operations Filters Reverse osmosis Biological treatment
For each utility you should know realistic costs on a consistent basis. For new treatment equipment, the cost might also be chosen to reflect the technological risk of untried or unproven technologies.
Source/demand chart
Optimization approaches
min Z f ( x , y ) s.t . g( x , y ) 0
n L U
x X , y Y X { x | x R , x x x , Bx b} Y { y | y {0,1} , Ay a}
m
Branch and Bound Beale (1958), Balas (1962), Dakin (1965) Cutting planes Gomory (1959), Balas et al (1993) Branch and cut Johnson, Nemhauser & Savelsbergh (2000) Branch and Bound method Ravindran and Gupta (1985) Tawarmalani,Sahinidis (2002) Generalized Benders Decomposition Geoffrion (1972) Outer-Approximation Duran & Grossmann (1986), Fletcher & Leyffer (1994)
Summary
Water management demanded by: environmental limits water availability and price reduced effluents (amount, concentrations) energy consumption and price Some reductions in fresh water consumption can be achieved by heuristics and pinch technology analysis Bigger reductions / total closure demands internal cleaning Water allocation and energy demand interact with each other: analyze simultaneously?.
Jose R. Alvarez