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INCORPORATING INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY INTO HIERARCHICAL CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN
Citation:
Smith*, R L. INCORPORATING INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY INTO HIERARCHICAL CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN. Presented at AIChE, Indianapolis, IN, November 03 - 08, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Incorporating Industrial Ecology into Hierarchical Chemical Process Design: Determining Targets for the Exchange of Waste
The exchange of waste to be used as a recycled feed has long been encouraged by practitioners of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology is a field that includes a number of methodologies: life cycle assessment, design for the environment, material and energy flow analysis, industrial symbiosis, etc. These methodologies are similar in that they all take a systems view. To consider a product or process, like that of recycling waste into feeds, from a systems view means to look beyond the immediate effects, to consider how flows indirectly effect the environment, and to consider these effects in total.
In this work, aspects of exchanging wastes, in particular chemical wastes, will be reviewed and a methodology for establishing targets for additional exchanges of waste through the hierarchical design of waste processes will be proposed with a general example. The review will encompass the pertinent aspects of industrial ecology, exchanging waste, waste exchanges, and eco-industrial parks. This review will set the stage for the proposed methodology to increase the exchange of wastes, which could develop from a knowledge of economic and environmental benefits (i.e., targets) for specific exchanges.