Supply Chain Integration at Industrial Zones: Energy Integration

Process systems must interact with other systems by exchanging materials and utilities such as steam and electricity in order to attain production goals; such exchange of materials among different processes that may belong to different companies makeup the supply chain for a particular product. The integration of different process systems for improvement of financial and environmental performance is one of the most important issues in the industrial supply chain. A systematic approach to identify the synergy for improving financial and environmental performance among different process systems has been developed. This approach is composed of three steps; the first step is the generation of models for process units. The process unit models are developed using fundamentals of thermodynamics, mass and energy conservation and existing process data. The second step is the development of an MILP model for each process system that is a collection of process units. The last step is the identification of financial and environmental improvements if the process systems are integrated through material and energy exchanges. The approach is illustrated with an example that is a simplified version of a real problem. It is shown that important improvements in the cost and release of environmentally harmful chemicals can be accomplished by integration of different process systems at an industrial zone.