Creating functional group alternatives in integrated industrial wastewater recycling system: A case study of Toos Industrial Park (Iran)

Abstract

Integrated industrial wastewater recycling has become an important issue in recent years especially in developing countries, which can be obtained by comprising three aspects of collection system, treatment processes, and reuse target, jointly called “functional group”. The main aim of this study is proposing a framework for creating industrial wastewater recycling functional groups as the alternatives for future sustainability assessment, especially for developing countries. For this purpose, SWOT method (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), PESTEL method (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors), and decision tree tool are combined with expert ideas and their scoring, and then the methodology is applied to a real case in Iran (Toos Industrial Park, Khorasan Razavi Province). The proposed methodology tries to tackle challenges such as lack of exact data and insufficient experience, which are required to create possible options by other complex tools, such as multi-criteria decision-making processes or optimization procedures.