Cleaner manufacture of multipurpose batch chemical and biochemical plants. Scheduling and optimal choice of production recipes

This study presents an approach for cleaner management of multipurpose batch chemical or biochemical plants. Given that manufacture of most of the products could be carried out in multiple ways depending on chosen production recipes, the scheduling framework is extended by involving the choice of appropriate production recipes. Using as optimization criteria the Global or Local Environmental Impact Assessments defined in Minimum Environmental Impact Methodology, the mathematical formulation that results in multi-objective optimization problems is presented for a special class of schedules.The approach is implemented on an example from dairy industry. Production of two types of curds by selection from two available recipes for each one of them is considered. The problem is translated to a single objective. Two most reliable solutions are obtained, which differ in chosen production recipes, milkfat content and units involved for tasks implementation. Comments on the impacts on the load of Biochemical Oxygen Demand at the end of each production cycle due to simultaneous curds manufacturing and contributions of individual dairy wastes in Global Biochemical Oxygen Demand are also provided.     

The use of plate heat exchangers to improve energy efficiency in phosphoric acid production

This paper originated as a part of a comprehensive research project designed to develop ecologically sustainable, environmentally friendly, resource- and energy-saving industrial process technology for the production of a wide class of phosphorus containing substances. The essential feature of the research was designed for the replacement of tubular heat exchangers with Plate heat exchangers (PHEs) and for the installation of these units in new locations in the processes to optimally improve energy efficiency and to prevent pollution. Despite the severe operating conditions in the production of phosphoric acid PHEs of various designs find the application in these processes. For such a corrosive environment as a phosphoric acid production plant, the Hastelloy G30 alloy is used as the material for the plates and synthetic rubber EPDM is used as the material for inter-plate gaskets. The analysis of the data shows, that using mixed groupings of plates in the unit allows one to obtain optimal solutions. The simulation of barometric mixing condenser recycled water cooling with plate heat exchanger shows the possibility of an application which minimizes the waste water pollution by closing the condenser cooling water circuit. Software was developed for calculations of units working both with liquid and phase changing streams.     

Economic use of renewable resources,LCA, cleaner batch processes and minimising emissions and wastewater

This editorial introduces and provides an overview of this Special Issue dedicated to papers from the 7th conference Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction – PRES 2004. It contains 10 selected papers. The first three papers address important features of cleaner production – renewable resources, CO₂ emissions and Life Cycle Assessment. The second group of papers addresses cleaner production approaches to batch processed. The third set of papers studies reduction of emissions from industrial production including SO_x and NO_x. The last paper focuses upon minimisation of wastewater from industrial production.     

Primary prevention for worker health and safety: cleaner production and toxics use reduction in Massachusetts

Worker health and safety and environmental protection are not always considered simultaneously when attempting to reduce or eliminate hazardous materials from our environment. Cleaner Production-Pollution Prevention (CPPP), as primary prevention, has the ability to shift worker health and safety strategies from control to prevention, where exposure prevention precedes exposure control. This paper evaluates the effect of Cleaner Production-Pollution Prevention in the form of toxics use reduction (TUR) on worker health and safety at three printed wire board facilities covered under the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act. In-depth case study analysis, including an assessment of each facility’s health and safety status, explores the root causes of the worker health and safety changes attributable to the TUR interventions. By exploring the relationship between worker health and safety and environmental protection within the corporate structure; we can identify the factors driving companies to reduce toxics both inside and outside of their plants, as a single concern.While traditionally there have been divergent paths of practice for worker health and safety and environmental protection, the two are closely connected. It is important, however, to consider the implications of risk transfer/shifting between the general and work environment. In order to avoid this risk shifting, worker health and safety perspectives and goals must be more clearly incorporated into the Cleaner Production-Pollution Prevention/TUR management system. This study opens a dialog around the effects of environmental intervention programs on worker health and safety. We realize now that while CPPP/TUR reduces exposure to toxic substances in the general environment, it also offers unique opportunities to reaffirm primary prevention principles in the work environment.     

Promotion of cleaner production investments: international experience

Cleaner Production (CP) should be an essential part of any comprehensive environmental management system at an enterprise or national level. In many cases the adoption of CP improvements can reduce or even eliminate the need for end-of-pipe investments and therefore can have both environmental and economic benefits. Experience shows, that often companies having identified cost-effective and technically-feasible CP options, may still not be able to make necessary CP investment to realise the financial benefits and environmental advantages. Financing of CP projects varies among countries and types of the projects. Domestic and international efforts to strengthen environmental financing still face a number of serious obstacles, many of which are related to profound economic, political and social problems. The detailed evaluation of revolving fund establishment possibilities based on personal experience of the authors in Lithuania, Zimbabwe and Vietnam is presented in the paper.     

Environmental issues in Nepal and solving them using the cleaner production approach

Owing to rapid industrialisation, environmental problems in sectors such as water, air, waste, energy and forestry in Nepal are reaching a crisis point. Although the Nepalese government has been trying to solve these problems by various means, the main emphasis has been on end-of-pipe solutions. This paper investigates why Nepal needs to implement Cleaner Production concepts as a matter of urgency and provides several recommendations to the government as well as sectors such as waste, industry, energy and pesticide regarding the implementation of such concepts.     

Pollution prevention and cleaner production in the mining industry: an analysis of current issues

This paper examines the major pollution prevention and Cleaner production (CP) issues in the mining industry. Past problems with pollution has made waste minimization an issue of enormous importance for many mining companies. Since the advent of the first major environmental legislation circa-1970, there has been substantial improvement in environmental performance at the mine sites of these firms, including a reduction in noxious air emissions, a decrease in levels of toxic contaminants in effluent discharges, and a major upgrading in land management. All of these improvements are directly attributed to a corporate abandonment of conventional, end-of-pipe apparatuses, and subsequent integration of cleaner technologies and strategies, including highly efficient environmental equipment, heavily retrofitted control systems, and comprehensive environmental management plans. Although hundreds of mining districts have already benefited from installing systems that foster pollution prevention and CP, in select instances, these have not proven to be realistic waste management remedies. Major barriers, particularly economic, technologic, and legislative ones, have both individually and collectively impeded the implementation of pollution prevention and CP strategies in such cases. Many of these barriers appear insurmountable but improved planning, employee education, and increased government intervention would spell continued success in an industry that has already made enormous strides in the arena of environmental management.     

城镇污水处理厂清洁生产等级评价二元语义模型与方法

为解决城镇污水处理厂清洁生产等级评价问题,采用定性分析与定量计算相结合的方法,着重构建了城镇污水处理厂清洁生产等级评价指标体系及其权重确定方法;利用线性加权综合评价方法、模糊数学和二元语义概念,建立了城镇污水处理厂清洁生产等级评价模糊综合模型,并据此提出级别特征值概念,进而建立城镇污水处理厂清洁生产等级评价的二元语义模型与方法.实例计算分析说明,文中建立的清洁生产等级评价二元语义模型与方法可操作性强,等级评定结果比采用隶属度最大原则更直观、更便于解释,具有很好的应用与推广价值.     

Sustainable tourism destinations: the importance of cleaner production

“Sustainable tourism destination” is an emerging term used in recognition schemes to promote sustainable development at destinations. This concept, which is still being developed, has the potential to stimulate the implementation of sustainable development through an interdisciplinary, holistic and integrative approach which combines different aspects of existing tools. This article will discuss the following:

• •conceptual definitions for sustainable tourism destinations
• •the need to integrate different approaches and tools for developing sustainable tourism destinations
• •the role which Cleaner Production plays in terms of developing sustainable tourism destinations

Cleaner production has an important role, to ensure that “prevention” is built into the concept of sustainable tourism destinations. It contributes by providing both a general strategy and specific experiences which may enhance other existing tools, concepts and policies. These can be integrated in a synergistic manner to achieve sustainable tourism destinations.     

Resource productivity enhancement as means for promoting cleaner production: analysis of co-incineration in cement plants through a life cycle approach

The objective of this paper is to assess the environmental effectiveness of a strategic measure aimed at resource productivity enhancement. The cement industry has been identified as a relevant sector for this global issue, since the related production process enables the use of waste in partial substitution of raw materials and in substitution of traditional fuels. The analysis of the cement production sector in Italy has been here performed, investigating the recovery of energy from waste through co-incineration. In terms of air emissions, the emission performances of cement kilns appear independent from the use of alternative fuels at the percentages usually employed. However, in order to measure the cleanliness of a production system, systematic analysis with global perspective is needed. For this aim, the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have been used for a case study analysis of an Italian active plant using an amount of recovered plastics as an alternative fuel resource. The improvement on the investigated process has been quantitatively measured as a way for cleaner production, first in terms of gross energy requirement, and then through an environmental performance comparison with a sector benchmark. The analysis has highlighted the benefits on the global environmental balance for the practice of co-incineration in the cement production process.     

Toward cleaner production of hydrogen peroxide in China

Industrial production of hydrogen peroxide by anthraquinone (AO) process in China was briefly introduced. The pathways for cleaner production of hydrogen peroxide were discussed in detail from the viewpoint of process development and design, these included the replacement of Raney-Ni catalyst by highly active and highly selective Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst, the reduction of raw materials, steam and power consumption, the usage of high boiling point, low water-soluble and low toxic solvents, the regeneration of degradations, the proper treatment of waste gas, water and solids. Because of these innovations and improvements, the AO process with Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst for producing hydrogen peroxide was certified as a cleaner production technology by the Chinese government.     

Implementation of cleaner production in small and medium-sized enterprises

The aim of this article is to analyse whether it is possible for an external group to act as a catalyst when trying to make small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt a cleaner production concept. At Linköping University, Sweden, nine SMEs cooperated in a cleaner production project that uses the University and the County Administration as catalysts. This article is based on a survey that evaluated the project. The survey shows that the SMEs did modify their products and processes after taking part in the project. They were especially successful in changing their products. Why products were changed to a larger extent than processes is not fully understood. Maybe this was done as a part of introducing a preventive environmental care system. Most SMEs did, as a part of introducing an environmental care system, introduce an environmental policy and an educational programme. The SMEs also experienced lower costs and better cooperation with the authorities. A reason for this is the good cooperation between the three participants of the project. In general, the SMEs did not think that they had gained marketing benefits. This attitude could have been different if more SMEs from the same value chain (supplier-producer-wholesalers-customer) had been involved.     

浅谈非重点企业的清洁生产审核验收工作

重点企业与非重点企业由于其参与清洁生产审核的背景及初衷方面的本质差别,使其与二者相对应的审核验收也存在着较大的不同。相对于重点企业,目前对非重点企业审核验收的相关管理制度建设方面尚存在一定的空白。探索性地通过对非重点企业清洁生产审核验收工作的特点、验收管理工作原则及验收形式的分析描述,为非重点企业的审核验收工作提供参考与借鉴。     

An approach to cleaner production: from hair burning to hair saving using a lime-free unhairing system

One of the methods to decrease the pollution of tanneries' wastewater is hair saving unhairing of hides. An investigation of proteolytic activity of enzymatic preparation (EP) has shown that some EPs have high stability in strong alkaline solutions and can be used for the hair saving process.Based on this investigation, a new hair saving unhairing method using a system containing EP, sodium hydroxide, sodium sulphide, and disodium hydrophosphate was developed. The method results in a high quality pelt suitable for leather manufacturing, decreases the pollution caused by sodium sulphide and the other products of hair degradation and avoids the pollution caused by calcium compounds.     

Benchmarking to trigger cleaner production in small businesses: drycleaning case study

This paper reports on research that investigated and implemented benchmarking as a trigger for cleaner production in the drycleaning industry in Western Australia and applies this knowledge to the small business sector. The critical success factors for environmental benchmarking are: identifying cleaner production gaps in areas important to the long-term future of the businesses, promoting the drivers to close the performance gaps, and ensuring managers possess the correct skills to close these gaps. The participants accepted the benchmarks as suitable targets and committed their businesses to achieving these targets in their action plans. Economic benefits and maintaining their licence to operate were found to be the important drivers. Program participants on average reduced hazardous waste generation by 48%, perchlorethylene consumption by 30% and improved their energy efficiency by 9%. Furthermore, managers involved in the program had a significantly higher uptake of cleaner production than the general small business community in Western Australia.     

The roles of cleaner production in the sustainable development of modern societies: an introduction to this special issue

This issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production is based upon papers presented at the 1st International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production (CP) held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2007. The conference had the short-term purpose of deepening the Brazilian discussion on “The Roles of Cleaner Production in the Sustainable Development of Modern Societies”, and it had the long-term objective of providing an on-going interdisciplinary forum for knowledge development and exchange on Cleaner Production (CP) and Sustainable Development. This issue is devoted to papers covering a broad range of perspectives of CP practices and strategies. A special focus is placed upon methodological tools designed to support effective decision-making pertaining to quantitative benefits from CP.The ten papers provide insights from research designed to holistically integrate CP to help society make effective progress to sustainability. Papers cover the importance of informal knowledge, as complementary to formal knowledge, in performing effective ‘Environmental Impact Assessments.’ One paper explores the roles of radical and incremental innovation in the context of alternative automotive technologies. Benefits of Ecodesign are explored in two papers; one concerning its integration with remanufacturing to extend the life of used products and one focusing the adoption of ‘Emergy Environmental Accounting,’ as a complementary decision-making tool. The development of the Brazilian LCI database for ‘hydroelectric power generation’ and its contribution to support regionally relevant LCA studies is highlighted in one paper. The complete production chains of biodiesel and bioethanol are evaluated by using global methodologies, which help in the development of more objective and effective solutions. A “compensatory area”, calculated in terms of emergy, is proposed in order to work in a sustainable way for bamboo production. Finally, a paper about a novel approach for recycling used PET is also included.     

Regional initiatives on promoting cleaner production in China: a case of Liaoning

With the increasing environmental issues, now cleaner production has been implemented across all the regions of China. During this process, regional governments have played a leading role for promoting cleaner production. Main measures include coordinating the various stakeholders, providing financial support, stipulating appropriate policies and conducting capacity building programs. Such an innovative initiative is quite unique and should be further studied. This paper reflects such a perspective through a case study of Liaoning province. We first introduce the main initiatives for the promotion of cleaner production in Liaoning and then identify the key barriers. Our focus is to provide suggestions for future improvements. Finally we make our conclusions.     

Application of cleaner production technology in chemical industry: a near zero emission

The main objective of this study is to investigate and evaluate opportunities for implementation of pollution prevention and waste minimization in a chemical industrial company producing poly sulfonated naphthalene formaldehyde which is used as a super plasticizer for concrete. Environmental problems encountered were mainly the highly polluted wastewater and a semi-solid cake containing considerable amount of the final product. Possible modules for remedial measures and their cost estimation were investigated. The proposed remedial modules included recycling of retained water discharge in filter press, recycling of washing water of reaction vessels (reactors), closed circuit cooling system for high-pressure pump, good housekeeping through control of leakage of raw material, products and water and finally utilization of retained residual product from the solid waste. The implemented pollution control measures proved to be cost effective and have short payback periods. Also, minimization of the hydraulic and organic loads in the final effluent was achieved.     

Design of policy mechanism to promote cleaner production in China

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Toward cleaner production of hot dip galvanizing industry in China

China has now the largest annual outputs of galvanized steel and the most amount of galvanizing plants in the world. However, with obsolete technology, the hot dip galvanizing industry has been proved as one of the industries, which consume large amounts of raw materials and energy, produce numerous pollutants and causes serious contamination in China. Cleaner Production in the hot dip galvanizing industry is now the only way to achieve the sustainable development of hot dip galvanizing industry. The implementation of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) project: The Transfer of Technology and Promotion of demand: Batch hot dip galvanizing in China launched by International Zinc Association (IZA) is introduced in this paper, The Best Available Technologies of operation, energy and environmental management in the world are also introduced. With the implementation of the project, an assessment system of Cleaner Production and a training system have been developed and implementation of technical updating to the demonstration plant shows that the reduction of zinc loss, and water and fuel cost savings can be achieved. It is believed that the methodology of the project can be applied throughout China as the galvanizers see the cost benefits.