ECO-OPTIMIZATION OF RINSING AND RECYCLING NETWORKS IN METAL FINISHING

Targeting sustainable production processes is a question of achieving more cost effective and environmental friendly material balances than being only an economic and environment orientated aim. For optimization approach this means solution of multi-objective problems. Therefore, the aim of this work is developing a general applicable optimization method, which enables the design of economic and ecological better processes and provides an instrument for eco-process design. With this motivation development of an ECO-optimization method, which is based on a superstructure that can consider both ecological and economic aspects simultaneously during process synthesis, comes out to be the central question of this work. This presented work provides a tool for decision making and strategically planning in systematic analysis of process flow diagrams assessing a system's environmental relevance as well as eco-eco trade off.