Abstract
The synthesis of Heat-Integrated Water Networks (HIWNs) has been a very active research area over the last twenty-five years. Systematic methods based on Pinch Analysis (PA), Mathematical Programming (MP) and their combinations (PA-MP) have been developed and applied to HIWN case studies with varying levels of complexity. There have also been some attempts to apply alternative optimisation tools for the synthesis of HIWNs, such as Process Graph (P-Graph). However, most recent works have applied MP primarily to solve large-scale problems, including single and multiple freshwater sources and single and multiple contaminants in water streams. The synthesis of combined Water-Using Networks (WUNs), Wastewater Treatment Networks (WTNs) and Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) has proven to be a challenging task for researchers to find a global solution or even good local and practical solutions. In a previous work, a comprehensive review of papers in this field was given for the period from 1997 to 2015 (Ahmetovic et al., 2015). The goal of this work is to provide a review of recent progress in the synthesis of HIWNs after this period, discuss case studies solved in the literature, identify research gaps and provide suggestions that can be a driving force for future research and improvements in this field.
