Citation:

Smith, R., E. Tan, AND G. RuizMercado. Applying Environmental Release Inventories and Indicators to the Evaluation of Chemical Manufacturing Processes in Early Stage Development. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 7(12):10937-10950, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01961

Impact/Purpose:

This study develops methods for estimating environmental releases from chemical manufacturing processes. These releases may be of interest in life cycle inventories or in exposure and risk assessments. The methods expand on common chemical process technologies (e.g., reactors, columns) to include models to estimate emissions for forklifts/loaders, fugitive sources, chemical storage, boilers, and cooling towers. The cooling tower model could be of interest to EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, as it expands upon the cooling tower generic scenario by modeling emissions and wastewater flows for a chemical of interest. The other models could be valuable if forklifts/loaders or boilers emit a chemical of interest, or if fugitive or chemical storage emissions of a chemical of interest apply. The methods are implemented in two case studies for thermochemical and biochemical routes to produce biofuels. The inventories of emissions and associated resource use are employed in GREENSCOPE indicators to compare the routes for environmental, economic, efficiency, and energy sustainability.

Description:

As manufacturing processes are developed through the early stages of technology readiness, various assessments can be used to evaluate their performance. Performance indicators describe processes by transforming attributes into scores that represent desirable objectives. One type of assessment is obtained by determining the life cycle inventories of inputs and outputs for processes. For a functional unit of product, the user finds the resources used and the releases to the environment, which can be compared to results for similar processes and/or combined with other processes in the life cycle. In this work, an expanded range of process inputs and releases is modeled, including forklift/loader, fugitive, storage, boiler, and cooling tower emissions. A generic scenario approach for the cooling tower releases provides a first approximation of emission and wastewater flows. These inventory values are used in performance indicators that can be placed on a scale between fixed best- and worst-case limits with the GREENSCOPE methodology, thus allowing comparisons across various technologies. The processes of interest are two conversion pathways for producing cellulosic ethanol from biomass via thermochemical and biochemical routes. The results can be used in risk assessments, decision making, evaluation of research, and in spurring future technology development.

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