Comparison of methods assessing environmental friendliness of petrochemical process design

Abstract

Traditionally chemical process design has been built on the primary basis of economic viability. However with the growing concern on sustainability, the design of petrochemical plant can no longer be focused only on the techno-economic criteria. As for the environmental performance of a petrochemical process, to date the approach for environmental solutions for process facilities are mostly revolved around the concept of end-of-pipe pollution control techniques, aiming to attain waste treatment, toxicity diminution and industrial discharge volume reduction. This however is not a cost-effectiveness and sustainable approach since hazards do still present in the process, making the process inherently less environmental friendlier in the first place. This paper compared eighteen existing methods for assessing environmental friendliness of a process early starting from the design stage. The comparison of the environmental assessment methods as presented here shows that the diversity of the methods has a good balance between simplicity and complexity, depending on the aim of the particular method itself. It is found that achieving a comprehensive yet simple method is actually possible, by developing such method exclusively for specific stage of the design phase and not claiming to be applicable throughout the whole design phase, as what most of the previous works did. The review conducted in this work suggests that a deeper study associated with an assessment of petrochemical processes’ environmental impact in specific stages of process design is highly needed.