Optimal Synthesis of Refinery Property-Based Water Networks with Electrocoagulation Treatment Systems

This paper presents an optimization approach to the incorporation of electrocoagulation in the design of integrated water networks for oil refineries. A disjunctive programming formulation is developed to minimize the cost of the water-management system while including the characteristics of process water streams, recycle, reuse, and treatment of wastewater streams, performance of candidate technologies, and composition and property constraints for the process units and the environmental discharges. The performance of electrocoagulation was related to temperature pH and the concentration of phenols and sodium chloride. Ancillary units including pH adjustment, reverse osmosis, and heat exchangers were used to support the electrocoagulation unit. Two case studies are presented to show the applicability of the proposed model and the feasibility of using electrocoagulation as part of an integrated water management scheme for oil refineries.