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SYSTEMATIC PROCEDURE FOR DESIGNING PROCESSES WITH MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES
Citation:
Kim**, K. J. AND R L. Smith*. SYSTEMATIC PROCEDURE FOR DESIGNING PROCESSES WITH MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES. J. Schnoor (ed.), ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 39(7):2394-2405, (2005).
Description:
Evaluation of multiple objectives is very important in designing environmentally benign processes. It requires a systematic procedure for solving multiobjective decision-making problems, due to the complex nature of the problems, the need for complex assessments, and complicated analysis of multi-dimensional results. In this article we present a novel systematic procedure for designing processes with multiple environmental objectives. This procedure has four steps: initialization, screening, evaluation and visualization. The first two steps are used for systematic problem formulation based on mass and energy estimation and order of magnitude analysis. In the third step, an efficient parallel multi-objective steady-state genetic algorithm is applied to design environmentally benign and economically reliable processes and to provide more accurate and uniform Pareto optimal solutions. In the last step a new visualization technique for illustrating multiple objectives and their design parameters on the same diagram is developed. Through these integrated steps the decision-maker can easily determine design alternatives with respect to his or her preferences. Most importantly, this technique is independent of the number of objectives and design parameters. As a case study, acetic acid recovery from aqueous waste mixtures is investigated by minimizing eight potential environmental impacts and maximizing total profit. After applying the systematic procedure, the most preferred design alternatives and their design parameters are easily identified.