Combined Water and Heat Integration in the Process Industries

About this Research Topic

Background

Water and energy are used in the process industries for various purposes. For instance, water is used for washing, cooling, steam production, and energy is used for transport of water, heating, and wastewater treatment. There are synergistic interactions between water and energy consumption in the overall process. Reduction of water consumption usually reduces energy consumption and vice versa. Understanding and systematically exploring interactions between water and energy in industrial processes is very important for minimizing water and energy consumption, wastewater generation and reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions.

The problem of water and/or energy/heat integration in the process industry has attracted the attention of many researchers over the last decades. Systematic methods based on pinch analysis, mathematical programming or their combination have been used for solving this problem. However, the majority of works have been focused on solving the water integration problem or the heat integration problem in isolation from each other. This Research Topic focuses on solving combined water and heat integration problems.

The aim of this Research Topic is to highlight the importance of considering the interactions between water and energy in order to improve water and energy efficiency of industrial processes. We welcome Original Research Papers on technologies and methods to address the problem, Mini Reviews and Reviews related to (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Synthesis and retrofit of combined water and heat exchanger networks
• Synthesis and retrofit of combined inter-plant water and energy exchangers
• Technologies, methods and solution strategies for optimal combined water and energy integration, including consideration of uncertainty
• Applications of water and energy integration models to various processes in the process industries including also the integration of renewable energy resources.

Keywords: Heat integration, water integration, water networks, heat exchanger networks, industrial symbiosis, water-waste energy nexus, water reuse, water recycling, process industry

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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