Optimisation of petroleum refinery water network systems retrofit incorporating reuse, regeneration and recycle strategies

The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Volume 90, Issue 1, pages 137–143, February 2012
Optimisation of petroleum refinery water network systems retrofit incorporating reuse, regeneration and recycle strategies
Cheng Seong Khor^1,2,
Nilay Shah^1,*,
n.shah@imperial.ac.uk
Shuhaimi Mahadzir²,
Ali  Elkamel^3
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.
² Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Abstract
Scarcities in freshwater supply and increasingly stringent rules on wastewater discharges are major concerns for petroleum refineries. Authors develop an optimisation framework for refinery water network systems design and retrofit integrating the complementary advantageous features of water pinch analysis (WPA).
The framework incorporates water minimisation strategies by postulating a superstructure representation that embeds all feasible flowsheet alternatives for implementing water reuse, regeneration and recycle (W3R) opportunities. A nonlinear programming (NLP) model is then formulated based on the superstructure.  Computational experiments on a real-world case study are conducted using the GAMS/CONOPT3 modelling language platform. Post-optimality analysis on the numerical results are performed to achieve the desired water reuse quality.  The result is a viable framework to aid decision-making in water network systems synthesis.
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