Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

www.elsevier.nl/locate/wasman

Synthesis of an optimal wastewater reuse network

Y.H. Yang, H.H. Lou, Y.L. Huang*
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA
Accepted 1 September 1999

Abstract
Process and manufacturing plants usually consume huge amounts of water in various cleaning and rinsing operations. Wastewater contains pollutants that are frequently environmentally regulated. An eective way to minimize wastewater is to design a
wastewater reuse network (WWRN) such that the used water can be reused to a maximum extent in the same plant. In this paper, a
mathematical approach is introduced to design an optimal network when multiple pollutants are contained in water streams. The
approach is general, systematic, and easy to use. Its applicability is demonstrated by designing WWRN's for both papermaking and
electroplating processes. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Wastewater minimization has been a primary concern
for pollution prevention in the process and manufacturing industries. Wastewater streams, if generated
from cleaning and rinsing processes, usually contain
various hazardous or toxic pollutants that need be
strictly controlled. Over the past decades, numerous
wastewater reduction and treatment technologies have
been developed and practiced in the industries [1].
Among available wastewater reduction technologies,
one type is process design oriented. It targets the
improvement of the design of each cleaning and rinsing
process such that water can be most eciently used.
Huang and associates [25] have developed a knowledge- and model-based hybrid approach for designing
cleaning and rinsing processes in electroplating plants.
The approach has led to signicant reduction of water
and chemical solvent consumption, and of sludge generation in electroplating lines. Dierent from Huang's
approach, Smith and associates [610] have developed
the water pinch technology. The technology utilizes the
pinch analysis technology that was invented originally
for heat integration [11] and then successfully extended
to mass integration for pollution prevention [1215].
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-313-577-3771; fax: +1-313-5773810.
E-mail address: yhuang@chem1.eng.wayne.edu (Y.L. Huang).

The focal point of the water pinch technology is to

maximize water re-use and pollutant concentrations in
euent streams. It can be used to identify the bottleneck
of a design problem and to predict the minimum
amount of water required prior to process owsheet
development. The design of a system, however, is basically experience based. Moreover, it is dicult to use
when multiple pollutants are encountered in design.
In this paper, we introduce an optimization-based
approach for designing a wastewater reuse network
(WWRN). The basic element of the approach is the
modeling of an elementary wastewater reuse system
(EWWRS) for a single cleaning or rinsing process. This
unit-based modeling facilitates the modeling of a
WWRN in which a number of EWWRS's are connected, possibly in a complicated manner. The system
model formulates a superstructure of a WWRN. An
optimization problem is then dened and solved by a
nonlinear programming method. Resultant WWRN's
feature the minimum amount of freshwater consumption
while cleaning and rinsing requirement is satisfactory.
2. Elementary wastewater reuse
A typical wastewater reuse system for a cleaning and
rinsing process is depicted in Fig. 1. In the process,
water is consumed to remove M types of pollutants. In
the inlet of the system, fresh water at ow rate W f

0956-053X/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0956-053X(99)00298-6

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Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

mixes with two types of recycle streams, namely internal

and external recycle streams. The internal one comes
from the outlet of the same process (with ow rate W ir
and concentrations Cout
(i 1, 2, ..., M) of M pollui
tants, while the external one is from other process(es)
(with ow rate W er and concentrations Cer
i (i=1, 2, ...,
M). The mixed water stream enters the process at ow
rate Win and concentration C in
i (i=1, 2, ..., M). After a
cleaning or rinsing operation (i.e. to remove certain
amounts (qi , i=1, 2, ..., M) of pollutants), pollutant
(i 1, 2,
concentrations in water are increased to C out
i
..., M). In process design, the objective is to minimize
fresh water consumption. Thus, an optimization problem for it can be dened below.
min W f

subject to:
(i) mass balance for stream mixing before entering the
process,
W f W ir W er W in

in in
W er C er
W ir C out
i
i W Ci

i 1; 2; :::; M

(ii) mass balance for the process,

W in C in
qi W out C out
i
i

i 1; 2; :::; M

(iii) mass balance for stream splitting after leaving the

process,
W out W ir W w

(iv) process constraints,

in
C in
i 4C i;max
out
C out
i 4C i;max

i 1; 2; :::; M
i 1; 2; :::; M

6
7

out
where C in
i;max and C i;max are the maximum permissible
concentrations of pollutant i in the inlet and outlet of
the process, respectively. These concentrations are
usually determined based on the minimum driving force
of mass transfer between a process stream and a water
stream. It is always reasonable to assume that cleaning
or rinsing water ow rate is maintained through the
process, since the amount of pollutants is negligible, as
compared to water ow (i.e. W in W out ).

3. Modeling for a wastewater reuse network

Usually, a process plant contains a number of production lines, each of which has a number of cleaning
and rinsing steps. A wastewater reuse system in Fig. 1 is
just one of the many. A wastewater reuse system is
essentially a network where water and wastewater are
distributed in various ways. Thus, to minimize wastewater, it is crucial that a wastewater reuse network
(WWRN) is optimally designed. A general WWRN is
sketched in Fig. 2. It consists of N EWWRS's, each of
which is of the structure in Fig. 1. The output water
stream from any EWWRS can be partially or entirely
reused by other EWWRS's. This is a superstructure of
the network containing all possible water reuse options.
The N EWWRS's are linked in a complicated conguration. As an extreme case, Fig. 3(a) depicts a network
where fresh water ows through N processes in parallel,
which indicates no water reuse. This is certainly undesirable. Fig. 3(b), however, demonstrates another
extreme case where EWWRS's are linked in series.
Fresh water only enters the rst process, and the used
water in a process is completely reused by the succeeding one, except for the last process. This is usually not
realistic. A practical strategy is to identify cost-eective
water reuse options from the superstructure in Fig. 2.
In formulation, it is assumed that no chemical reaction occurs in water, and all water streams can be
mixed. Needless to say, the pollutant concentrations at
the inlets and outlets of processes must not violate the
minimum driving force requirement when mass transfer
of pollutants is considered.
3.1. Problem specication
For a given cleaning or rinsing process that consists of
N sub-processes, M pollutants (qi;j ; i 2 N; j 2 M)
should be removed from products by water. In the
water stream of each sub-process Pi , the maximum

permissible
pollutant concentrations, C in
and
i;j


C out
i;j

Fig. 1. General water reuse system for a single cleaning or rinsing

process.

max

max

(i 2 N; j 2 M), are specied. It is necessary

to determine the optimal conguration of a WWRN that

consumes the minimum amount of fresh water (W f ),
while the cleaning or rinsing quality can be ensured.

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

(ii) mass balances for stream splitting,

3.2. Optimization model

To minimize fresh water consumption is equivalent to
minimizing wastewater generation i 2 N; j 2 M. This
principle can be converted to such a design strategy that
used water is to be reused to the maximum extent. This
gives rise to an optimization model shown below.
N
X
W fi
min

i1

W out
Ww
i
i

N
X
W ri;j

i 1; 2; :::; N

10

j1

(iii) component mass balances in each water reuse

process,
in
C in
i;k W i

N
X
r
C out
j;k W j;i
j1

11

i 1; 2; :::; N; k 1; 2; :::; M

subject to:
(i) mass balances for stream mixing,
W in
i

313

N
X
W fi
W rj;i
j1

i 1; 2; :::; N

out
in in
qi;k W out
i C i;k W i C i;k

i 1; 2; :::; N; k 1; 2; :::; M

Fig. 2. Superstructure of a wastewater reuse network (WWRN).

12

314

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

(iv) process and environmental constraints,

out

C i;k max 5C out
i;k 50

i 1; 2; :::; N;
13

k 1; 2; :::; M
in

C i;k max 5C in
i;k 50

i 1; 2; :::; N;
14

k 1; 2; :::; M
f
W in
i ; W i 50

W ri;j 50

i 1; 2; :::; N

i 1; 2; :::; N;

j 1; 2; :::; N

15
16

In the above formulation, if subscripts i j, then W ri;j

refers to the internal recycle stream; otherwise, W ri;j
refers to the external recycle stream of the elementary
process.
Note that the capital cost of a WWRN is only for a
few pumps (if necessary) and water pipes. This cost is
nearly negligible as compared with the operating cost
for most cases. Thus, the model does not take the capital cost into account explicitly. Certainly, unnecessary
water reuse options should be avoided in system development. It must be pointed out that, in optimization, it
is possible to obtain a mathematically optimal solution
that contains a number of water reuse connections with
very low ow rates, as compared to other recycled
streams. Such water reuse options should be discarded
in practice. Hence, the following constraint should also
be included.
W ri;j 0;

if W ri;j < aW out

or W ri;j < bW in
i
j

17

where a and b are percentages assigned by a designer.

The optimization problem can be solved by many nonlinear programming methods [16]. Note that this optimization formulation does not lead to a mixed integer
nonlinear program problem, since the number of process units is xed in a given process. Moreover, fresh
water owrate has no upper limit since it is usually sufciently available. In the applications followed, we use a
Newton method for solution search. This model can be
readily programmed using a Microsoft Excel Solver for
nonlinear optimization problems. Note that a global
optimal solution can not be guaranteed in general.
Therefore, a starting point and a searching scale should
be carefully chosen in order to obtain a best possible
solution.
4. Applications
The system model described in Eqs. (8)(17) has been
successfully used to design various WWRN's. To illustrate the eectiveness of the design strategy, three
industrial problems are tackled in this section. Note that
the rst two problems are simplied through discussions
with plant engineers. Practical applications should be
more complicated than these.
4.1. Design of a WWRN for single pollutant removal in
a papermaking process

Fig. 3. Water reuse schemes derived from the superstructure of

the WWRN: (a) Sub-processes in parallel with no water reuse,
(b) Sub-processes in series with complete water reuse.

A pulp and paper plant is one of the major water

consumers and wastewater generators in industries. A
papermaking process consumes a huge amount of water
to remove pollutants from paper sheets. In this study,
four major sub-processes of a papermaking process are
considered, in which total suspended solids (TSS) is

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

considered a key pollutant aecting paper quality [17].

This example is provided by a local plant, with various
simplications [18]. The simplication facilitates the
demonstration of the design strategy. Table 1 lists the
limiting inlet and outlet concentrations and the quantity
of TSS to be removed in dierent shower processes. For
the base case shown in the second column of Table 2,
the sub-processes are in parallel with no water reuse, as
illustrated in Fig. 3(a). The superstructure of the network is the same as that in Fig. 2, where the number of
sub-processes N is set to 4 and the number of pollutants
M is 1. The optimization model in Eqs. (8)(17) is used
to determine the most desirable water reuse options.
The optimal solution of the WWRN is obtained as
shown in Fig. 4, where the used water from the head
box (P1 ) and trim squirt (P4 ) are entirely reused, and
about 84% of euent water from the breast roll process
(P2 ) is also reused. These three water streams are mixed
with fresh water and enter the knocko process (P3 ).
This network consumes 146.2 t/h of fresh water. As a
comparison, Table 2 lists the fresh water consumption
before and after optimization. The overall fresh water
reduction is 21.4%, while the rinsing quality is maintained.
4.2. Design of a WWRN for multiple pollutant removal
in a papermaking process
In this case, seven sub-processes are considered in a
papermaking system. In addition to TSS, the removal of
dissolved chemicals (DC) is also considered to ensure
the paper quality. The maximum allowable pollutant
Table 1
Maximum permissible concentrations and quantity of total suspended
solids for a papermaking process
Process

Cin
max
(ppm)

Cout
max
(ppm)

Quantity q
(kg/h)

Head box (P1 )

Breast roll (P2 )
Knocko (P3 )
Trim squirt (P4 )

0
100
200
0

200
500
650
200

7000
22,400
62,550
2000

315

concentrations in the inlet and outlet of each sub-process and the quantity of pollutants to be removed are
listed in Table 3 [17,18]. Again, this example is a simplied version of a real papermaking process that facilitates the demonstration of the optimization modelbased design approach to a multiple component system
problem.
The superstructure of the network is also the same as
that in Fig. 2, but there exist seven sub-processes
(N 7). In the process, TSS and DC are the two pollutants (M 2) to be considered. By solving the optimization model, an optimal solution is obtained as shown
in Fig. 5. The used water in sub-processes P1 , and P4
through P7 is all reused for sub-processes P2 and P3 ,
and partially for P5 . The fresh water consumption in
this network is 192.7 t/h, which counts 33.4% of fresh
water reduction, as compared to the base case where
no water reuse is contained in these sub-processes
(Table 4).
4.3. Improvement of a WWRN for multiple pollutant
removal in an electroplating process
There are over 8000 electroplating plants nationwide,
who are generating huge amounts of wastewater daily.
Thus, how to eectively reduce wastewater is a major
environmental issue for the industry. A typical electroplating line is sketched in Fig. 6. Parts need be cleaned
and rinsed several times before plating. After plating,
parts need be rinsed twice. Fresh water is distributed
into a number of rinsing systems. Except for the third
sub-system (R3;1 ), each of other sub-systems has two
rinsing tanks (Ri;1 and Ri;2 ) in series. This process has
some partial water reuse. For instance, the used water
from the second sub-system (R2;2 ) is completely reused
by the third sub-system (R3;1 ). Fig. 7 depicts all four
rinsing sub-processes in the plating line.
In operation, when parts are withdrawn from a
cleaning, rinsing, or plating tank, some solution on the

Table 2
Comparison of fresh water consumption in the papermaking process
with and without water reuse
Fresh water ow rate (t/h)
Process

Symbol

Without water
reuse

Optimal

Head box (P1 )

Breast roll (P2 )
Knocko (P3 )
Trim squirt (P4 )
Total fresh water
Water reduction

W f1
W f2
W f3
f
W
P4

35.0
44.8
96.2
10.0
186.0

36.5
44.8
54.9
10.0
146.2
21.4%

4
f
i1 W i

Fig. 4. Optimal design of the WWRN for TSS removal in a papermaking process.

316

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

parts surface is always carried out (called drag-out

solution) and enters the next tank (called drag-in solution). The drag-in/drag-out solutions may contain different pollutants with dierent quantities. In this case,
the quantity of drag-out (Dout
i;j ) of every sub-process is
equal to that of its drag-in (Din
i;j ). Table 5 lists the ow
)
and
drag-in (Din
rates of water (W fi and W w
i
i;j ), the pollutant input concentrations (65013,000 ppm, depending on the type of pollutant), and the maximum
permissible pollutant concentrations (30 ppm).
To modify this network, the superstructure of the
WWRN is developed rst. It contains all water reuse

options, including those from and to the intermediate

used water streams. For instance, it includes the option
of reusing part of the intermediate stream after R4;1 for
R1;2 . Dierent from the preceding two examples, the
formulation for this example should also include the
drag-in and drag-out streams, and qi;k in Eq. (12)
should be replaced by the quantity of drag-in times its
pollutant concentration. With these modications, the
optimization formulation is derived below.
min

4
X
i1

W fi

18

Table 3
Maximum permissible concentrations and quantities of total suspended solids and dissolved chemicals for a papermaking process
TSS

DC

Process

Cin
max

Cout
max

(ppm)

Quantity q
(kg/h)

Cin
max
(ppm)

Cout
max
(ppm)

Quantity q
(kg/h)

Head box (P1 )

Breast roll (P2 )
Knocko (P3 )
Trim squirt (P4 )
Wire pit (P5 )
Cooling water (P6 )
Vacuum pumps (P7 )

0
100
200
0
50
50
50

200
500
650
200
300
200
300

7000
22,400
62,550
2000
8750
1050
13,200

0
100
220
50
50
50
50

200
600
500
300
350
250
200

7000
28,000
38,920
2500
10,500
1400
13,200

(ppm)

Fig. 5. Optimal design of the WWRN for TSS and DC removal in a papermaking process.

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

subject to
(i) mass balances for stream mixing,
W fi

4
X
j1

W rj;Ri;1 W in
Ri;1

in
out
out
W in
Ri;1 Di;1 W Ri;1 Di;1

W out
R1;1
W in
Ri;2

4
X

W rj;Ri;2 W in
Ri;2

W ri;j W ri;Rj;1 W ri;Rj;2

i 1; 2; :::; 4

24

i 1; 2; :::; 4

i 1; 2; :::; 4

19
20

21

(iii) mass balances for each component in each rinsing

process,
4
X
in
C kj W rj;Ri;1 C in
Ri;1 ;k W Ri;1

i 1; 2; :::; 4;

j1

25

k P; H; Z; N

W out
Ri;2

Dout
i;2

i 1; 2; :::; 4

22

(ii) mass balances for stream splitting,

W out
R1;2

i 1; 2; :::; 4;

j 1; 2; :::; 4

j1

Din
i;2

317

4
X
W ri;j W out
i

i 1; 2; :::; 4



in
d
in
out
out
out
C in
Ri;1 ;k W Ri;1 C Ri;1 ;k Di;1 C Ri;1 ;k W Ri;1 Di;1
i 1; 2; :::; 4;

23

j1

out
C out
Ri;1 ;k W Ri;1

Table 4
Comparison of fresh water consumption in the papermaking process
with and without water reuse
Fresh water ow rate (t/h)
Process

Symbol

Without
water reuse

Optimal

Head box (P1 )

Breast roll (P2 )
Knocko (P3 )
Trim squirt (P4 )
Wire pit (P5 )
Cooling water (P6 )
Vacuum pumps (P7 )
Total fresh water
Water reduction

Wf1
Wf2
Wf3
Wf4
Wf5
Wf6
f
W
P7

35.0
46.7
96.2
10.0
30.0
5.6
66.0
289.5

40.3
32.7
3.5
10.0
26.8
13.4
66.0
192.7
33.4%

7
f
i1 Wi

k P; H; Z; N

4
X
in
C kj W rj;Ri;2 C in
Ri;2 ;k W Ri;2
j1

i 1; 2; :::; 4;

27

k P; H; Z; N



in
d
in
out
out
out
W

C
D

C
W

D
C in
Ri;2 ;k
Ri;2
Ri;2 ;k i;2
Ri;2 ;k
Ri;2
i;2
i 1; 2; :::; 4;

26

k P; H; Z; N

28

(iv) concentration requirements,

C out
Ri;2 ;k 430

i 1; 2; 4;

C out
R3;1 ;k 430

k P; H; Z; N

Fig. 6. Sketch of a typical electroplating process.

k P; H; Z; N

29
30

318

C ki ;

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

C in
Ri;j ;k 50

j 1; 2; :::; 4;

W ri;Rj;1 50

i 1; 2; :::; 4;
31

k P; H; Z; N

i 1; 2; :::; 4;

j 1; 2; :::; 4;

32

l 1; 2

The optimal solution is obtained with the minimum

water usage of 11.52 GPM. This is 21.15% of fresh
water reduction, as compared with the water consumption in the original rinsing process (14.61 GPM). This is
mainly due to the reuse of euent water from rinsing
tank R4,2 entirely, and partial reuse of the water from
R3,1. Table 6 lists the water ow rates and stream pollutant concentrations for the original and modied
WWRN's. The process modication is so simple that it
only needs to add two additional water reusing streams
to the original process, as shown in Fig. 8.

Table 6
Comparison of fresh water consumption between the original and
modied WWRN's for an electroplating process
Water stream

Fresh water 1
Fresh water 2
Fresh water 3
Fresh water 4
Wastewater 1
Wastewater 2
Wastewater 3
Wastewater 4
Total fresh water
Water reduction

Flow rate (GPM)

Symbol

Original

Modied

Wf1
Wf2
Wf3
Wf4
Ww
1
Ww
2
Ww
3
Ww
P44
f
i1 Wi

5.84
5.68
0
3.09
5.84
0
5.68
3.09
14.61

3.86
5.79
0
1.87
8.78
0
2.74
0
11.52
21.15%

Fig. 7. Original WWRN for multiple pollutants removal in the electroplating process.
Table 5
Process data and constrains in an existing electroplating water reuse
system
Pollutant concentration (ppm)
Symbol

Flow rate
(GPM)

Din
1;2
Din
2;2
Din
3;1
Din
4;2
Wf1
Wf2
Wf3
Wf4
Ww
1
Ww
2
Ww
3
Ww
4

0.45
0.28
0.26
0.17
5.84
5.68
0
3.09
5.84
0
5.68
3.09

2500
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
430
430
430
430

0
650
0
0
0
0
0
0
430
430
430
430

0
0
13,000
0
0
0
0
0
430
430
430
430

0
0
0
10,500
0
0
0
0
430
430
430
430

Fig. 8. Optimal WWRN for multiple pollutants removal in an electroplating process.

Y.H. Yang et al. / Waste Management 20 (2000) 311319

5. Concluding remarks
The design of an optimal WWRN is always a key for
eective wastewater reduction in a process or manufacturing plant. A major diculty encountered in design
is how to develop a process owsheet such that water
streams can be eectively allocated while process cleaning and rinsing qualities are also maintained. The optimization-based design approach developed in this work
can be used to design a cost-eective and structurally
optimal WWRN, as it is derived from its superstructure.
While the applications shown in this work contain various simplications, the design approach is general and
applicable to any cleaning and rinsing system where
multiple pollutants exist in water streams. This
approach can be readily implemented using the Microsoft Excel Solver in solution identication. Currently,
the design approach is being used to design various
WWRN's for an electroplating process, a papermaking
process, and a semiconductor manufacturing process.
Acknowledgements
This work is in part supported by NSF (CTS9525127), EPA (R-824732-01), AESF (Proj. No. 96),
and the Institute of Manufacturing Research of Wayne
State University.
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