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GREENSCOPE: Sustainable Process Modeling
Citation:
SMITH, R. L., M. GONZALEZ, AND G. Ruiz-Mercado. GREENSCOPE: Sustainable Process Modeling. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/F-11/020, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
to inform the public
Description:
EPA researchers are responding to environmental problems by incorporating sustainability into process design and evaluation. EPA researchers are also developing a tool that allows users to assess modifications to existing and new chemical processes to determine whether changes in critical sub-processes or substances will make the overall process more or less sustainable. The GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness for Environmental Sustainability of Chemistries with a multi-Objective Process Evaluator) research project focuses on developing a systematic methodology and software tool that can assist researchers from industry, academia, and government agencies in developing more sustainable processes. In the project, the sustainability of a process is measured in terms of Environmental, Efficiency, Energy and Economic indicators (the 4 E’s), with each indicator being mathematically defined. The indicators express diverse aspects of performance in a format that is easily understood, supporting realistic usage. The indicators enable and demonstrate the effectiveness of the application of green chemistry and green engineering principles in the sustainability context.