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In this article, the water source diagram (WSD) ( Gomes et al., 2007 ) is extended to the design of water networks involving both fixed flowrate and fixed contaminant load, as well as water loss/gain operations. The algorithm targets minimum external water consumption while simultaneously synthesizing the corresponding water system structure. In addition, it is shown that the WSD can be applied to water allocation problems (WAP) based only on water sources and sinks, maintaining its good performance. To illustrate the methodology, case studies handling hybrid water system are presented, including a zero wastewater discharge discussion and data from a Brazilian pulp mill.

In this paper, we address the strategic planning of integrated bioethanol–sugar supply chains (SC) under uncertainty in the demand. The design task is formulated as a multi-scenario mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem that decides on the capacity expansions of the production and storage facilities of the network over time along with the associated planning decisions (i.e., production rates, sales, etc.). The MILP model seeks to optimize the expected performance of the SC under several financial risk mitigation options. This consideration gives a rise to a multi-objective formulation, whose solution is given by a set of network designs that respond in different ways to the actual realization of the demand (the uncertain parameter). The capabilities of our approach are demonstrated through a case study based on the Argentinean sugarcane industry. Results include the investment strategy for the optimal SC configuration along with an analysis of the effect of demand uncertainty on the economic performance of several biofuels SC structures.

This paper addresses the optimum design of water utilization systems when a single contaminant is present. The application of the necessary conditions of optimality allows an LP or MILP formulation depending on the objective function of choice. Several examples are presented to illustrate the proposed methodology and to point out that several alternative solutions are available.