(440b) Optimal Design of Water Distribution Networks Involving Power Production and Seawater Desalination

Water scarcity has led to an increase in the extraction of fresh water from aquifers, dams and lakes. In certain regions, where water availability is low, it has yield to serious problems of overexploitation of groundwater and surface water resources. The population growth and the increase in water demands from industry, agriculture and households have intensified the water scarcity. This challenge is becoming steeper as demands increase, especially in developing countries, where agriculture, industry and urban development are evolving quickly. In this project, a new mathematical programming model for designing water distribution networks in a macroscopic systems is proposed; this model considers that the water demand can be satisfied by supplying water from dams, rivers, aquifers or storage tanks, also the model considers the installation new power-desalination plants in order to satisfy water and electricity demands. The model accounts for the variation of the water demands through the year, for domestic, agricultural and industrial users, this for a system that involves several cities in a water-stressed scheme. The model considers the installation and operating costs of the new power-desalination plans, the installation of new storage tanks, and pumping and piping costs. The design problems consists of finding the optimal water distribution network to satisfy the electricity and fresh water demands in a complex macroscopic system, considering the seasonal water and electricity changing demands, the optimal capacity and location of the new power-desalination plants and the location for the new storage tanks. The model is applied to a case study involving to desertic region from Mexico with a sever water scarcity problem. The results show that the designed network yields attractive solutions for the economic and sustainability points of view, as well as that these solutions can contribute to the remediation of overexploited resources in the region. Additionally, the results have shown that the total annual cost is mainly influenced by the operating cost of the new power-desalination plant and the pumping cost.