Abstract
Conservation of different resources is an important prerequisite toward overall sustainable development. Pinch Analysis has evolved over the years to address resource conservations in various resource allocation networks (RANs). Segregated targeting problems are a special kind of structurally different, but mathematically challenging, RANs that consist of multiple sets of demands called zones and a set of common internal sources. These problems can be observed in interplant water integration networks, carbon-constrained energy sector planning, integrated iron and steel mill, etc. In the literature, these problems are addressed for resource optimality, cost optimality, and multiple objectives. Recently, these problems are also optimised for multiple objectives with the inclusion of external resources. In addition to the constraints inherited in the segregated targeting problems, allocation of some sources to specific demands may be forbidden in industrial practices due to corrosion and safety issues, operability and controllability issues, topological issues, etc. In literature, such source-sink problems with forbidden matches were addressed mainly by using different mathematical programming approaches. However, constrained segregated targeting problems are not addressed for the inclusion of forbidden matches to date. This work optimises such problems with forbidden matches using the Pinch Analysis approach and illustrated through an example from the water conservation network and a case study from carbon-constrained energy sector planning. It aims to exploit the physical structure of the problem through the analysis of the overall waste generation. The scope to generalise these problems for future perspectives is also discussed.
