The objective of this investigation was to utilise water pinch analysis as a tool for the optimisation of fresh water use in an integrated pulp and paper mill. The investigation was carried out at Mondi Paper in Merebank, south of Durban. The pulp and paper manufacturing process is a large consumer of fresh water and minimising the amount of fresh water used in the processes is beneficial from both a cost and environmental point of view. There are examples of mills which have "closed" their water systems to the extent that fresh water make up is minimal and most of the water is recycled and reused in a closed loop. These examples provide guidance on the basis of proven methods for reducing water consumption in the pulp and paper industry and can be used as a reference for mills wishing to reduce water consumption by making use of tried and tested methods. This investigation sought to provide an alternative method to identifying potential savings in fresh water consumption by making use of water pinch analysis. This was done at Mondi Paper by analysing individual parts of the mill and then a larger section of the mill which included both pulp and paper production. Flow rates of water streams and fibre content in those streams were obtained from plant data, where available, and this data was used to produce.a mass balance using the Linnhoff-March software, Water Tracker. The balance produced using Water Tracker provided the missing flow and fibre content data and this data was used as the input for the Linnhoff-March software, Water Pinch , to perform the water pinch analysis. The results achieved when analysing the individual parts of the mill did not demonstrate potential for significant savings in fresh water consumption, however the analysis of the integrated section of the mill identified a potential reduction in fresh water. It was found that the application of a single contaminant analysis to the larger section of the mill identified a possible reduction in the freshwater requirement of 8.1% and a reduction in effluent generated of 5.4%. This is a savings of R1 548 593 per annum based on 2003 costs of fresh water and effluent disposal. This analysis was conducted using the most simplified representation possible to produce meaningful results in order to evaluate the effectiveness of water pinch analysis in optimising the fresh water consumption in an integrated pulp and paper mill. It is demonstrated that water pinch analysis is potentially a useful tool in determining the minimum fresh water requirement of a site. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Pinch Analysis, in the broadest sense, is concerned with the optimal use of resources (material or energy) in a multi-process system. Pinch Analysis based techniques have emerged for water systems over the past decade. A major assumption that has been made in applying these techniques is that a process system can be segregated into a set of process streams and a set of water streams. With this distinction in place, only the water streams are considered in the Pinch Analysis with the process streams represented implicitly. This approach has obvious limitations in situations where a clear distinction between process streams and water streams cannot be made. The chlor-alkali process is an example of a system in which the clear distinction between process streams and water streams cannot be made. Water is intrinsically involved in the process, serving as a carrier medium for raw materials and eventually becoming part of the products produced by the complex. Hydrochloric acid and caustic soda are reagents which are both used within and produced by the complex. These reagents are required by the process at a range of concentrations and the concentrated reagent is diluted to the required concentrations using demineralised water. Within the chlor-alkali complex, a number of effluents containing the reagent species are available and are typically sent to drain. It is conceivable that these effluents might be recovered and used for dilution purposes instead of demineralised water. This would bring about a reduction in the amount of water and concentrated reagent used and the amount of effluent produced by the complex. Given the economic value of these reagents relative to water, their recovery, if feasible, is likely to dominate the optimal water-use and effluent generation strategy. Current Water Pinch Analysis theory relies on the distinction being made between process streams and water streams and does not consider the recovery of reagents or the presence of desirable species within the system. In addition, the assumption is made that species are non-reactive; reactive species such as hydrogen chloride and sodium hydroxide, fall outside the scope of the current theory. The objectives of this study have included the development of an approach which is able to address these limitations of the existing theory. This approach, termed Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis seeks to identify optimal use strategies for raw materials and reagents, in addition to water-use and effluent generation. The approach combines mathematical programming with conceptual insights from Water Pinch Analysis. The approach is based on the optimisation of a superstructure which represents the set of all possible flow configurations for water, reagents and raw materials between the various operations within the process system; this problem is solved as a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem using standard optimisation tools. The application of the developed approach to the Sasol Polymers chlor-alkali complex at Umbogintwini, south of Durban, has been a further objective of this study. Given the variety of process operations present within the complex, which differ both in terms of their physical structure and function, individual process models for these operations were required. These models were described in terms of four basic functional elements, namely, mixing, flow separation, component separation and reaction, and incorporated into the superstructure. Given the complexity of the problem, the process system was divided into three subsystems which were optimised in isolation from each other. These results were subsequently integrated to reflect the performance of the subsystems in combination with each other. The results showed a potential reduction of 14% in water-use and 42% in effluent production by the complex, relative to the existing operating configuration. Amongst other savings in material use, the results indicated a 0.2% reduction in the use of salt, a 1.6% reduction caustic soda use and an 8.3% reduction in the use of hydrochloric acid. Economically, the potential saving identified was R 945 727 per annum, based on operating costs in the year 2000. The final objective of this study was the interpretation of the pinch as it relates to the Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis problem. A general definition of the pinch was proposed; according to this definition, the pinch corresponds to that constraint or set of constraints which limits the performance of the system, that is, prevents it from further improvement. For the Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis problem, this performance is measured in terms of the operating cost. This definition is thus a departure from its usual thermodynamic interpretation of the pinch; in addition, the pinch is defined in terms of a constraint or a set of constraints instead of a point. These constraints are identified by an analysis of the marginal values provided by the optimisation algorithm. Marginal values are also used as a means of identifying process interventions which may be effected such that the performance of the system may be improved further. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of Natal, 1989.

AECI Bioproducts (Bioproducts) is part of an industrial complex located at Umbogintwini, approximately 26 km south of Durban, Kwazulu-Natal. This system was selected for water pinch investigation, as it is one of the major users of freshwater on the complex and hence discharges a related quantity of wastewater, amounting to approximately 400 ML per annum. Bioproducts is a manufacturer of l-lysine, which is an animal feed additive. Water stream flowrate and purity data, as well as operating cost information, were obtained from plant records at AECI Bioproducts. Limiting flowrate and purity conditions for the water-using operations were established from a mass balance over the entire system using the Linnhoff-March software, WaterTracker. Subject to the specified constraints and operating costs, the problem was to determine the design of the water-using subsystem. No treatment plants were included in the study, as none exist at the facility. Three scenarios were investigated, which examined the operating variability of one of the evaporators on the site (the AS evaporator), which produces a condensate source of variable purity. The operating cost target and network design for each scenario was determined using the Linnhoff-March software, WaterPinch. Alterations from current operating practice were identified and associated savings (water-using network operating cost and freshwater flowrate) were highlighted. A robust optimal design was identified, with a recycle, which was consistent for all scenarios investigated. The degree of reuse of the AS evaporator condensate source was determined to be dependent on the purity of the source. The limiting constraint was identified at the sea pipeline, for suspended solids (SS): a prohibitively low discharge concentration constraint was identified as posing the major obstacle for saving. The potential for saving was investigated by incrementing the SS concentration constraint and subsequently the free and saline ammonia (FSA) constraint and allowing for the broth effluent to be discharged via the sea pipeline (which was previously disallowed by an effluent exemption). Although relatively small savings were identified through process integration (from 0.61% to 1.56% of the water-using network operating cost), the analysis identified a potential saving of over 70% of the water-using network operating cost, with relaxation of the sea pipeline SS and FSA constraint. / Theses (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

La thèse étudie théoriquement et empiriquement la gestion des services écosystémiques par les agriculteurs sous le prisme économique. La thèse se divise en deux parties. Dans la première partie, je m'intéresse à l'offre et à la demande de services écosystémiques productifs en analysant le comportement des agriculteurs. J'introduis des indicateurs de biodiversité dépendants des assolements dans des modèles existants issus de l'économie de production. Ma principale contribution à la littérature est de prouver, à partir de l'analyse des comportements observés des agriculteurs, que les agriculteurs gèrent consciemment les services écosystémiques productifs. J'apporte d'autres éléments à la littérature, comme e.g. des nouveaux éléments sur la technologie agricole ou en montrant que la gestion collective des services écosystémiques productifs ne peut que rarement émergée spontanément dans des paysages réels.Dans la deuxième partie, j’étudie la demande de services écosystémiques non-productifs fournis par les agriculteurs. J’applique plusieurs cadres d’analyse développés en économie de l’environnement aux spécificités de l’agriculture, i.e. le service environnemental influe le plus souvent sur la fourniture de multiple biens publics, biens publics présentant des distributions spatiales de la demande différentes. Je contribue à la littérature en montrant que, bien que la plupart de la demande pour les services environnementaux fournis par les agriculteurs soit capturée localement (à l’échelle de la municipalité) ; une partie de la demande s’exprime à des échelles plus importantes / The thesis studies both theoretically and empirically the management of ecosystem services by farmers in two parts. In the first part, I study the supply and demand for productive ecosystem services by analyzing farmers’ behavior. I introduce biodiversity indicators that depend on acreage into existing models from production economics. My main contribution to the literature is to prove, from the analysis of farmers' observed behavior that farmers consciously manage productive ecosystem services. I bring other elements to the literature, such as new elements on the agricultural technology or showing that the collective management of ecosystem services rarely arises spontaneously in real landscapes.In the second part, I study the demand for non- productive ecosystem services. I apply several analytical frameworks developed in environmental economics to the specificities of agriculture, i.e. the environmental service influences the supply of multiple public goods with different spatial distribution of the demand. I contribute to the literature by showing that while most of the demand for environmental services provided by farmers is captured locally (at the municipal level), a part of the demand is expressed at larger scales. This has implications for agri-environmental policies, which I explore through two examples: the pesticide savings and the maintenance of agricultural wetlands

Phosphor (P) ist ein für alles Leben notwendiges essentielles Nährelement. Die heutige globalisierte und intensivierte agrarische Produktion benötigt daher die Anwendung großer Mengen Phosphatgesteins, welches eine endliche Ressource darstellt. Gleichzeitig ist der intensive P Gebrauch mit der Eutrophierung von Gewässern verbunden. Es besteht daher Forschungsbedarf um die landwirtschaftliche Produktion zu erhalten. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die in der Region Berlin-Brandenburg nach Ansatzpunkten für ein verbessertes P Management zu suchen. Hierfür wurde für 2011 eine Substanzflussanalyse (SFA) für P erstellt und Pflanzenproduktion der Jahre 2005-2012 genauer untersucht. Mit Hilfe einer Briefumfrage wurde Daten von 119 Bauernhöfen ausgewertet und mit dem pflanzenverfügbaren P Gehalt (PVP) der landwirtschaftlichen Nutzfläche abgeglichen (LNF). Im Ergebnis zeigt sich für die Region eine negative P Bilanz der LNF(-3.617 t P) und ein hohes Recyclingpotential in Abfall (933 t P) und Abwasser (3.921 t P). P in mineralischen Düngemitteln belief sich auf 4.447 t. Der Gesamtentzug über die Ernte ohne Stroh betrug 15.283 t P und war vergleichbar zu 2006, das Jahr des geringsten P-Entzugs. P-Entzug durch die Ernte schwankte um 7.069 t P/a von 2005 bis 2013, abhängig vom Ertrag der Hauptfeldfrüchte, welche durch die Wetter- und Bodenbedingungen bestimmt wurde. Hieraus ergeben sich mögliche Konsequenzen für P-Flüsse in Bezug auf den Klimawandel, die an den Wasserhaushalt und die Temperatur gekoppelt sind. Die Analyse der Umfrage ergab, dass die kleinen und mittgroßen Einzelunternehmen höhere PVP Werte in der LNF aufwiesen. Die größeren Unternehmensformen regierten empfindlich auf Faktoren, die niedrige PVP-Werte begünstigten. Pacht, Grünland, extensive Rinderhaltung, und viehlose ökologische Landwirtschaft waren mit niedrigen PVP-Werten assoziiert. Biogasanlagen und intensive Tierhaltung, zum Teil auch in Kombination miteinander standen im Zusammenhang mit hohen PVP-Werten. / Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for all life on earth and it is thus needed in agricultural production. Today’s globalized and intensified agricultural production has led to the dependency on P inputs which are fed by phosphate rock, being a finite resource. In contrast, excessive P is a major driver in eutrophication. To sustain agricultural production, there is a need to address this problem. The aim of this thesis was to identify points at which P management could be improved for the region Berlin-Brandenburg. To analyze the system and screen for improvement, a substance flow analysis (SFA) for P for the year 2011 was compiled and for crop production the years 2005-2012 were analyzed. Also, data from 119 farms was obtained by a letter survey and relations between farm structural factors and soil test P (STP) were drawn. The results showed a negative balance for agricultural soils (-3,617 t P) and a considerable recycling potential in waste (933 t P) and wastewater (3,921 t P). Mineral fertilizer inputs amounted to 4,447 t P. P removal by crops was 15,283 t without straw and residues, being almost as low as in 2006; the year with the lowest removal by main crops. P removal by harvest varied significantly (7,069 t P/yr from 2005 to 2013) and depended on the performance of main crops which in turn is influenced by weather and soil. As a result of this, climate change may interact significantly with P flows in agriculture. Here, important variables are connected to conditions in P uptake and plant growth in general (e.g. water supply and temperature). The analyses of farms in the region showed that individual farms of small to medium size had more land with (very) high STP. Larger partnerships and companies/cooperatives were susceptible to factors causing low STP. Tenancy, grassland, extensive cattle and stockless organic farming had a lowering effect on STP. Biogas plants and intensive (cattle) farming, partly combined, were connected to a rise in STP.