(752a) Greenscope Tool for Process Sustainability Assessment and Life Cycle Inventory Generation

The development of sustainable solutions for addressing the satisfaction of the human population, its material and energy needs, and simultaneously preserving the Earth systems that make human life possible has been an objective of researchers working in academia, government, and industry for decades. Commonly, new chemicals and their manufacturing processes are developed, however, some evaluation and analyses are needed for supporting the classification of these new contributions as sustainable alternatives. This contribution demonstrates the application of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s software tool, GREENSCOPE, for the assessment of process sustainability and life cycle inventory generation. GREENSCOPE is a web-based tool for evaluating sustainability of existing and new technologies by employing performance indicators for objectives in four main areas: environment, economics, energy, and efficiency. A case study demonstration using GREENSCOPE will be performed to provide users guidance on using this assessment and design tool, from data entries to sustainability evaluation outcomes and the related life cycle inventory generation. The indicator scores describe product and process performance in a sustainability measurement scale, determining whether chemical products and processes are more or less sustainable.