Online parallel coordinates tool for optimal utility design in the dairy industry

Despite commonly reported potentials for emission reduction and efficiency increase, industrial heat pumps have yet to reach wide-scale employment in non-refrigeration appli- cations. The bottlenecks are identified as a general scepticism from process operator side, little incentives from politics, and lack of knowledge of optimal placement and integration techniques. This work addresses these challenges from an environmental and economic (envi- ronomic) standpoint, thereby bridging the gap between problem-specific optimization based studies and broader potential studies. Results from the former are usually too dependent on case-specific input data, to allow generalization of the conclusions, while during the latter heat pump placement is often addressed in a coarse manner. The methodology presented in this work provides guidelines for the generation of a database of optimal solutions which are independent from most volatile input data. A parallel coordinate decision making tool is presented which grants access to the publicly available database encompassing detailed utility design.