(229c) Incorporation of Inherent Safety and Environmental Aspects in Process Design and Supply Chain Optimization

ABSTRACT

The integration of inherently safer design and environmental aspects at the early phases of supply chain selection and process design provides significant benefits. It allows the highest ability to positively influence lifecycle safety, environment and cost of the project and it reduces subsequent engineering rework and modifications in the supply chain and process design. It is crucial to have a simple but effective approach to evaluate and compare the design alternatives based on the safety and environmental design aspects at the early stage of the project when available engineering information is limited.

This study proposes a framework to incorporating life-cycle safety measures for supply chain design and the use of safety metrics along with other objectives (e.g., economic, environmental) to assess and screen process technologies included in the supply chain. Top level quantitative risk assessment and environmental impact benchmarking approaches are used to evaluate designs alternatives, identify design improvement and guide decision making. It also takes into account the multiple geographic manufacturing network and its implications to transportation.

To demonstrate the approach, a case study is solved for a conceptual design of a high density polyethylene supply chain from shale gas.