Thermodynamical Material Networks for Modeling, Planning and Control of Circular Material Flows

Waste production, carbon dioxide atmospheric accumulation and dependence on finite natural resources are expressions of the unsustainability of the current industrial networks that supply fuels, energy and manufacturing products. In particular, circular manufacturing supply chains and carbon control networks are urgently needed. To model and design these and, in general, any material networks, we propose to generalize the approach used for traditional networks such as water and thermal power systems by using compartmental dynamical thermodynamics, graph theory and the force-voltage analogy. The key idea is that the compartments and their connections can be added, removed or modified as needed to achieve a circular flow. The generalized modeling methodology is explained and demonstrated using a biomethane supply chain as an example. We also designed a nonlinear controller and evaluated its effect on the network. Finally challenges and future research directions are discussed. The paper source code is publicly available.