Process Synthesis Methodology for Sustainability Projects

Abstract

Projects to establish sustainable infrastructure for remote communities face daunting challenges from the lack of a connection to a large-scale electrical grid and waste management infrastructures. These projects can potentially struggle through selection of a large number of options and potential technologies. In the quest for low “ecological footprint”, a large number of interrelated factors are in play. Possible outcomes from these projects include high-capital solutions, overly complex infrastructure, reproduction of the existing non-sustainable solutions, non-optimal balance of solutions at different levels, unwanted by-products and trendy technologies with poor reliability. For practitioners involved in sustainability design projects, Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming provides a foundation for thinking through process synthesis options.