On the flexibility of an eco-industrial park (EIP) for managing industrial water

In a recent paper, a generic model, based on a multiobjective optimization procedure, for water supply system for a single company and for an eco-industrial park was proposed and illustrated by a park involving three companies A, B and C. The best configuration was identified by simultaneously minimizing the fresh water flow rate, the regenerated water flow rate and the number of connections in the eco-industrial park. The question is now to know what the maximal increase/decrease in pollutant flow rates is, so that the eco-industrial park remains feasible, economically profitable and environmentally friendly. A preliminary study shows that the park can accept an increase of pollutant flow rates of 29% in company A, 12% in company B and only 1% in company C; beyond these limits the industrial symbiosis becomes not feasible. The proposed configuration is not flexible with a very limited number of connections. Indeed, the solution implemented for conferring some flexibility to this network is to increase the number of connections within the park. However, connections have a cost, so the increase of their number needs to remain moderate. The number of connections is augmented until the symbiosis becomes unfeasible, or until the gain for each company to participate to the park becomes lower than a given threshold. Several cases are studied by increasing the pollutant flow rates under two different scenarios: 1) in only one company, 2) in two or three companies simultaneously. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.