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ANALYZING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS WITH THE WAR ALGORITHM: REVIEW AND UPDATE
Citation:
Smith*, R L. ANALYZING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS WITH THE WAR ALGORITHM: REVIEW AND UPDATE. Presented at CAPEC (COmputer Aided Process Engineering Center) Annual Meet, Lyngby, Denmark, 6/1-2/2001.
Description:
This presentation will review uses of the WAR algorithm and current developments and possible future directions. The WAR algorithm is a methodology for analyzing potential environmental impacts of 1600+ chemicals used in the chemical processing and other industries. The algorithm is employed by determining the amounts of chemicals which pass a boundary that delineates the process of interest (e.g., a chemical plant). Impact category indicators are then determined on the basis of output of impact as well as on the generation of impact in the process. These indicators are presented on the basis of total amounts and per mass of product. The categories currently employed by WAR include potential impacts for local categories of human, aquatic, and terrestrial toxicities and for regional categories of photochemical oxidation, acid rain, ozone depletion and global warming. Current and future work on the WAR algorithm is focused on improving the abilities and models of the method. One area of focus is to expand the number of chemicals that WAR can employ from 1600 to 5000. This change should make the method more appropriate in other applications. Another area gaining attention is the modeling of fate and transport of chemical releases, which will improve the ability of WAR to differentiate between specific environments. The impact categories of WAR will also be modified to include resource depletion and both acute and chronic indiators. In addition, while WAR will maintain its emphasis on category indicators, work may begin on also supplying results in the form of overall damage functions (e.g., disability adjusted life years). The use of category indicators and damage functions is an active area of research in the impact assessment community. Finally, the recent application of the WAR algorithm to fugitive emissions leads to an interest in developing emission models that apply to general pieces of process equipment (e.g reactors, compressors, etc.) In general, these improvements will expand the uses of the WAR algorithm and add substantially to the breadth and accuracy of information that the methodology provides.