Design and Planning of Sustainable Industrial Networks: Application to a Recovery Network of Residual Products

The present work describes the integration of environmental impact/damage evaluation into an optimization model for management of industrial networks. The selected methodology of environmental evaluation, the Eco-indicator 99, is based on the life cycle impact assessment. Its implementation and suitability is studied with an emphasis being placed on the strengths and limits of the methodology. The final model, derived from the application of process system engineering methodologies, is described as a mixed-integer linear program, which, once solved, is able to suggest the optimal processing and transportation routes, while optimizing a given objective function that either meets the design and environmental constraints or minimizes the eco-indicator. Whenever the impacts/damages costs are quantifiable, the calculation may also contemplate the inclusion of the environmental costs into the economic function that evaluates the network characteristic data and costs. An example based on the implementation of an...