Shared and practical approach to conserve utilities in eco-industrial parks

Abstract Conserving utilities in an eco-industrial park (EIP) by exploiting the synergistic heating/cooling needs of its inhabitants can have significant economic and environmental benefits. However, a successful implementation of an EIP-wide heat integration involves much more than the simple minimization of utility usage. Like any collaborative endeavour involving independent and diverse profit-making enterprises, an EIP-wide heat integration faces several real and practical challenges such as exchanger locations, stream transports over long distances, etc. In this work, we propose a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model (MINLP) for configuring an EIP-wide multi-enterprise heat exchanger network (HEN). We propose a practical and rational strategy that (1) considers all the major capital and operating costs, and utility savings, (2) selects an optimum HEN location with the highest net present value, (3) uses a third-party logistics provider for managing and operating the HEN, and (4) ensures an identical rate of return on investment for all participating enterprises.