Incorporating Timesharing Scheme in Ecoindustrial Multiperiod Chilled and Cooling Water Network Design

Chilled/cooling water is a common utility widely used in office or commercial buildings for air conditioning. It is also used in various industries such as semiconductor fabrication and the food industries for process cooling. Previous studies focused on the synthesis of chilled/cooling water networks within individual plants. The establishment of an ecoindustrial park (EIP) that originates from the concept of industrial symbiosis allows individual plants to cooperate with each other so as to achieve greater water and energy recovery through interplant chilled/cooling water reuse/recycle. However, periodical circumstances such as variation of market demands and plant shutdown schedules, which are common in different business operations, have not been well considered in designing an EIP. Thus, there is a need to study explicitly the effect of such periodical operations due to the high level of connectivity within an EIP. This paper presents a design methodology to develop a robust EIP by integrating a set of multiperiod chilled and cooling water networks. The proposed design methodology AIDS in developing an EIP, taking into account network flexibility in multiple period operations. An example is presented to demonstrate the proposed design methodology.