(587b) An Integrated Tool for Rapid Assessment of Chemical Manufacturing Process Emissions, Treatment and Sustainability Performance

The design and assessment of chemical manufacturing processes have been aided by a variety of tools that enable the comprehensive analysis and performance testing of both the steady and transient responses of processes with different levels of complexity. However, comprehensive tools that encompass the evaluation of process emissions, treatment simulation, and sustainability assessment of chemical plant performance are yet to be presented.

In this contribution, the tools developed by the co-authors for simulating Pollution Control Units (PCUs) [1] and performing sustainability assessment with GREENSCOPE [2] are combined for the first time. The PCUs allow for the simulation of several unit operations associated with emission treatment of gas, liquid and solid streams [1], while GREENSCOPE enables sustainability analysis considering four categories: Environmental, Mass, Energy, and Economic Efficiency. Each category has several unique metrics called indicators which provide insight into the sustainability performance of any chemical process. The new integrated tool thus allows for the analysis of scenarios including the impact of current and future models of unit operations on process economics, environmental sustainability, and emissions.

This work therefore presents a unified software framework that provides the opportunity to simulate and perform emission control analysis, pollution control unit sizing and sustainability assessment that could be used to support risk evaluation for different chemical manufacturing scenarios. The developed tool is illustrated via appropriate sections of a biomass/coal gasification process for syngas production with the end goal of acetic acid manufacturing.

References

1. Li S, Feliachi Y, Agbleze S, Ruiz-Mercado GJ ,Smith RL, Meyer DE, Gonzalez MA, Lima FV. A process systems framework for rapid generation of life cycle inventories for pollution control and sustainability evaluation. Clean Technol. Envir., 20(7):1543-1561, 2018.
2. Ruiz-Mercado GJ, Gonzalez MA, Smith RL. Sustainability indicators for chemical processes: III. biodiesel case study. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2013;52(20):6747–60.