Dual-purpose desalination plants. Part I. Optimal design Original Research Article

In this paper, a methodology for optimization of a given system configuration for dual-purpose desalination plants will be presented. The whole system is represented as a non-lineal programming (NLP) model solved using general algebraic modeling system (GAMS) [1]. The rigorous model incorporates a high number of non-linear restrictions; so the achievement of the optimal solution is difficult. It is important to point out that the initialization of variables are very important, especially to guarantee the convergence and the determination of the optimal solution. The proposed methodology in this work consists on the resolution of simplified model in order to provide the initial values and critical bounds to solve the rigorous model. In this way, a procedure for the optimization of a given configuration involving the total annual cost (TAC) minimization is presented. The results obtained from one study case applying the methodology are analyzed.