Synthesis of waste treatment systems by implicit enumeration

The effective synthesis of waste treatment systems is a challenging engineering task. The term synthesis refers to the specification of both a system structure?the choice and arrangement of unit processes and operations ?and the design of the individual units within that structure so that a set of design objectives is fulfilled. Although the primary goal may be the treatment of liquid wastes, decisions regarding sludge handling and dis posal can have significant impacts on total system performance, in both an economic and environmental sense. Uncoordinated planning of these subsystems can produce a weak overall design.