17 - Process Integration concepts for Combined Energy and Water Integration

Abstract

Significant research studies on sustainability, as well as multiple continuous improvement efforts, are ongoing to adapt current production processes and design innovative technologies and pathways to provide the industrial sector with an eco-efficient and competitive future. Multiple stakeholders have increased the pressure to develop resource efficiency and emissions decarbonisation. They have also called for a deeper understanding of the associated industrial water and energy systems and their complex and sometimes hidden interrelations. All process industry sectors depend on water and energy resources to transform raw materials into many products that society demands. Most of these processes involve water and energy interactions such that changes to the energy network often impact the water network. However, this impact is seldom considered systematically by process design engineers. Due to market externalities, the economic balance between energy and water has usually been heavily inclined towards energy. With water shortages becoming more frequent throughout the world, this balance is likely to change soon. This Chapter presents the main Process Integration-based concepts of process design applications with strong energy and water interactions. Several recent research updates highlight the latest findings in Combined Water and Energy Systems Integration.