(454a) Sustainability and Resilience in the Chemical Process Industries through Process Intensification and Modular Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector accounts for a quarter of the total U.S. energy use, and the process industries (chemicals, petroleum refining, pulp and paper, iron and steel) are the largest energy consumers in the sector. Likewise, these industries significantly impact other dimensions of sustainability including water use, climate change, clean energy, waste management, and human health. Process intensification (PI) is an often radical rethinking of chemical processes to remove bottlenecks, improving productivity and safety while reducing waste, energy consumption, production cost, and carbon footprint. PI is often a shift from the conventional “unit operations” paradigm in chemical processing to a more integrative paradigm. Modular manufacturing, a complementary concept, is an approach to building chemical plants that favors assembly of pre-fabricated, standardized modules rather than conventional “stick-built” construction. Modular manufacturing also provides opportunities for distributed chemical manufacturing that utilizes stranded resources such as waste biomass feedstocks or renewable wind and solar power. Similarly, distributed manufacturing has the potential to increase supply chain resilience by enabling flexibility in how production assets are deployed. Modular manufacturing enables a shift from the bigger-is-better paradigm in chemical production to a small, modular paradigm where economies of scale are replaced with economies of mass production. Both PI and modular manufacturing are tools that can be used to improve the sustainability and resilience of the chemical process industries, which are under pressure to change given recent shifts in supply and demand, the rise of inexpensive renewable power, and an increased need to reduce operational footprints. Our work uses research and education to promote better process technologies and to define appropriate metrics to capture the impact of these technologies on productivity and sustainability.