Optimization of Regional Water Desalination and Supply Networks

With the increasing shortages in fresh water supplies around the world, there is a critical need to develop regional strategies for installing and managing large-scale water desalination and distribution networks. These regional networks draw from various sources, use different technologies, and provide water to several destinations and users (e.g., municipalities, industry, and agriculture). In this work, we introduce a systems-based approach to the design and decision making of desalination and distribution networks for water supply in regions (or countries). Specifically, we address the problem of fluctuating demand of water over time (seasonal and for expansion purposes). Because of the complexity of the addressed problem, a systems approach is adopted. First, a source-interception-sink representation is developed to embed potential configurations of interest. Next, the design problem is formulated as a multi-period optimization problem subject to the supply, demand, mass conservation, technical performance, and economic constraints. This approach determines the type of technologies to be selected, the location and capacity of the desalination plants, and the distribution of the desalinated water from sources to destinations. The approach also determines the operating strategies to accommodate the seasonal variations in water demand. A case study is solved to demonstrate the usefulness of the devised approach.