A novel mathematical model for simultaneous optimization of desalination plant location and water distribution...

In recent decades, water scarcity has turned into a serious problem spanning many countries, now even capable of causing or inflaming ethnic and national conflicts. While our planet has very limited freshwater resources, it has huge amounts of saltwater in seas and oceans. There is a very limited number of ways that can make saltwater drinkable, the most important of them is desalination. This study aimed to provide a method for the simultaneous optimization of desalination plant location and its water distribution network based on mathematical modeling. For this purpose, the authors formulated a non-linear mathematical model with the objective of minimizing the costs of water production and transmission. A genetic algorithm was also developed for solving the proposed nonlinear model. The method was used in a case study of Sistan and Baluchestan, which is one of Iran's most water stressed provinces. The proposed genetic algorithm managed to provide an acceptable solution for this problem in 3.74 s. The best solution was found to be constructing a desalination facility with a capacity of 394,052 cubic meters per day in a single location, that is, the city of Chabahar. The water transmission lines needed for transporting water to other parts of the province and their capacities were also determined.