Towards sustainable production networks

With the advent of more advanced process models and computational power, process integration technologies have gained in importance in improving production networks to a more sustainable production. The pinch analysis approach from the chemical engineering field in connection with multi-criteria analysis provides a consistent assessment method for different mass and energy flows within a company, an industry park or even throughout a supply chain network. It consequently strives for a more comprehensive approach to optimize the system's performance as opposed to focusing on single operational units. The advantage of the pinch analysis can be seen in the determination of the theoretical optimum for a given set of heat and material streams. The approach is illustrated in this by a case study on a bicycle company in China, where target values were identified for heat integration, water management and solvents recovery. A subsequent multi-criteria analysis facilitates the selection of a preferred option by combining the different target values and investigating the overall optimization potential of different process design options.