A software tool for helping in decision-making about water management in batch process industries

Due to the increasing cost associated with water use, methodologies for optimising water management in processing plants have emerged in recent years. A novel methodology for water use minimisation in batch process industries was described in (Almató, M., Sanmartí E, Espuña A., Puigjaner L. Rationalising the water use in the batch industry. Computers and Chemical Engineering 1997; 21:971–6), where not only the freshwater demand associated to a given production plan is calculated, but also the different costs involved in the water re-use system are optimised leading to the best design water re-use network that includes the best utilisation and assignment of tanks to store spent water. Next, the software package that allows a user-friendly application of the methodology and a helpful result display is presented. This paper describes a user-friendly software package which was developed to be used in conjunction with this water minimisation technology. The prototype allows for data input, process modelling, methodology application and result display.