Reducing the Cost of Operational Water in Military Water Systems: A Data-Driven Modeling and Optimization Study

摘要

Military water systems are tasked to provide safe and clean water to support soldiers, their families and mission related activities. Due to the historic low price and relative abundance of water, there has been little motivation to ensure that water systems minimize water waste after treatment. Currently, water is treated for disinfection as needed to meet demand. The concentrations of common disinfecting agents (chloramines or chlorine) begin to exponentially decay the moment they are placed in the water. A system that treats water without rigorously considering unique demand data and the temperature dependent nature of chloramine decay will inevitably waste water. Waste is created when excess water is treated and placed into the system that exceeds demand. The volume that exceeds demand resides in the system long enough to run out of 'lifetime', where the concentration of chlorine in the treated water decays below the legal safe threshold. This water must be flushed, or wasted, in order to ensure a safe water source. Embedded in the water waste is the energy and cost required to pump and disinfect that volume of water. A system that is not optimized to account for chlorine decay could cause thousands of gallons of water wasted on a monthly basis, not to mention the embedded energy and cost.