Optimizing the Placement of New Industrial Facilities Dynamically with Watershed Sustainability Considerations

This chapter introduces a novel dynamic approach for the best possible synthesis of water treatment networks that takes sustainability limitations into account in addition to environmental constraints, considering the surrounding watershed. Using a disjunctive formulation, the presented model considers the best site for future industrial facilities to integrate their wastewater discharges into the environment dynamically. Along with other discharges to the watershed (such as residential, sanitary, industrial, and extractions), natural phenomena that alter the watershed's composition (such as evaporation, filtration, etc.), and chemical reactions occurring in the rivers, the pollutants released from the new plants are monitored concurrently. The time intervals during which the watershed conditions are crucial for sustainability can be determined thanks to dynamic optimization. The objective function is to minimize the total annual cost of the wastewater treatment and the installation of the new plant, which includes the transportation of raw materials, goods, and services in addition to the cost of the land. The use of the presented methodology is demonstrated with the help of an example problem.