Optimization-aided material and energy flow analysis for a low carbon industry

Abstract Many industrial companies use material and energy flow analysis as a tool to improve the resource efficiency and in particular the climate impact of their production plants. As material flow models of industrial production systems are typically large and complex, optimal operating conditions or designs are hard to find without computational support. To overcome this shortcoming an integrated approach that combines material and energy flow analysis with mathematical optimization has recently been proposed. This paper presents a prototypic optimization tool for material flow based optimization via mathematical programming. A particularly interesting area of application arises from using the optimization tool already during the model building process. Such an optimization-aided material and energy flow analysis facilitates the systematic exploration of the decision-makers action space and thus supports the construction of valid optimization models. It furthermore helps to find adequate compromises, when there are conflicts between objectives like costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The optimization tool as well as these conceptual aspects are illustrated by applying it to a production plant from the technology metals sector.