A superstructure-based model for the evolution of park-wide water infrastructure

Abstract

Industrial parks are crucial to improve material efficiency, economic growth, as well as environmental protection. The increasing demand of freshwater poses a significant challenge for the sustainable development for industrial parks. This work reviews the evolution process of park-wide water infrastructure. A superstructure-based model was used to address the trade-off between water reuse and its impact on the wastewater treatment for the evolutionary state of water infrastructure. In the evolution process of park-wide water infrastructure, five scenarios were defined based on the evolution process of water infrastructure. For wastewater treatment system, centralized or decentralized wastewater treatment plants were deployed according to the evolutionary process of park-wide water infrastructure. The relationship among freshwater consumption, wastewater treatment, and discharge quality were investigated by optimizing the configuration of park-wide water infrastructure. The results indicate that the cost of park-wide water infrastructure with centralized wastewater treatment plant is lower than that with decentralized wastewater treatment plants. Improving the effluent standards for centralized wastewater treatment increases the total cost. For regeneration and reuse, improving the effluent standard for centralized wastewater treatment does not necessarily increase the total cost. The findings indicate that improvement in the discharge standard of centralized wastewater treatment depends on the specifications of the centralized wastewater treatment.