ProteusLib: A Comprehensive Process Model Library for Optimizing the Design and Operation of Water Desalination Systems

Abstract:

There is a need for computational tools to aid in the design and operation of next-generation water desalination systems. Recent advances in modeling and optimization capabilities from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES) Integrated Platform greatly improve the ability to develop and solve models of complex systems composed of interdependent processes and phenomena. The IDAES Integrated Platform provides significant benefits over traditional modeling approaches because it supports equation-oriented algebraic modeling, open source and commercial solvers, libraries of process units and property packages, and a diverse set of analysis tools, all within a single fully featured programming language (Python). The platform has been demonstrated for multiple applications including power plants and the electric grid. In this work, we describe the efforts within the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Energy-Water Desalination Hub to develop ProteusLib, a water treatment model library for the IDAES Integrated Platform. We demonstrate the flexibility and effectiveness of this approach by investigating the design and operation of seawater desalination plants.