Environmentally Conscious Chemical Process Design

Abstract

▪ Abstract The environment has emerged as an important determinant of the performance of the modern chemical industry. This paper reviews approaches for incorporating environmental issues into the design of new processes and manufacturing facilities. The organizational framework is the design process itself, which includes framing the problem and generating, analyzing, and evaluating alternatives. A historical perspective on the chemical process synthesis problem illustrates how both performance objectives and the context of the design have evolved to the point where environmental issues must be considered throughout the production chain. In particular, the review illustrates the need to view environmental issues as part of the design objectives rather than as constraints on operations. A concluding section identifies gaps in the literature and opportunities for additional research.

Incorporating sustainable development in the design of mineral processing operations – Review and analysis of current approaches

“…These methodologies aim to compare the impacts of different processing alternatives by determining indicators of the potential for process flows to impact on the environment [43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Cano-Ruiz and McRae [20] offer a very comprehensive review of current practices in process plant DfE. However, as this review indicates, the majority of design methodologies look solely at the environmental aspects of sustainability, rather than considering the triple bottom line.…”

“…In practice, activities which could fall under the DfS definition have been viewed as a secondary element of operations design, with the main focus being typically on how to design an operation that will effectively extract the target minerals at the lowest possible capital cost and lowest risk. Sustainability issues within the minerals industry have historically been viewed from a ''compliance'' perspective, with very little importance placed on their integration into design [20,21]. Furthermore, it is apparent that little experience and systematic implementation of a completed DfS methodology has been undertaken [21].…”

Design Support for VOC Control in SMEs by Simulation-Based Life-Cycle Engineering Part 2: Case Study of Metal Cleaning Process

“…The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) requires the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle in the product supply chain (UNEP, 2012). As public concern has increased over the environmental and health-related impacts associated with industrial activity, possible risks associated with the use of chemicals in manufacturing processes need to be evaluated and reduced through appropriate process design (Cano-Ruiz and McRae, 1998;Chen and Shonnard, 2004).…”

Integrated waste management in batch chemical industry based on multi-objective optimization

“…The importance of this challenge was already depicted in the "Green Chemistry" methodology (Anastas and Warner, 1998), where the first principle is the prevention of the waste generation, and received some attention in the engineering field with the development of the "Green Engineering" concept (Garcia-Serna et al, 2007). In general, the integration of the waste problem in the development of chemical processes is relatively recent (Cano-Ruiz and McRae, 1998), including, for example, methodologies like the "Waste Reduction" (WAR) algorithm (Hilaly and Sikdar, 1994;Hilaly and Sikdar, 1995), the synthesis of mass-exchange networks (ElHalwagi and Manousiouthakis, 1989), and expert systems like ENVOP (Halim and Srinivasan, 2002). However, despite the clear benefits of these waste minimization approaches in process design, waste generation is often not negligible.…”