Discharge of industrial wastes constitutes one of the primary threats to the environment. A sustainable approach to handling industrial wastes is the adoption of integration and monetization schemes through the concept of an eco-industrial park (EIP). An EIP involving hydrocarbons is a particular case known as a carbon–hydrogen–oxygen symbiosis network (CHOSYN). Special features of the CHOSYN involve the conversion of wastes into value-added chemicals and the ability to perform multiscale targeting that benchmarks the performance from the atomic scale to large-scale implementation. Economic and mass conservation objectives have been used to guide the design of CHOSYNs. In this work, sustainability and safety are included as part of multicriterion objectives for the design of CHOSYNs. A rigorous and universal model for the optimization of a CHOSYN is developed with economic, sustainability, and safety objectives. An economic framework is used for reconciling the multiple criteria using the safety and sustainability weighted return on investment metric. The solution of the optimization formulation determines which plants participate and the extent of participation, the chemical pathways to convert wastes into value-added chemicals, and the allocation of the products to the users. The solution also reconciles the various design objectives. Subsequently, the proposed model is applied to a case study focusing on glycerol valorization.

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The synthesis of the carbon–hydrogen–oxygen symbiosis network (CHOSYN) provides a structured framework for dealing with multiscale integration of hydrocarbon processing industries to improve resource efficiency and reduce waste generation. However, the earlier CHOSYN design approaches presumed that the networks operate in a single mode throughout the year. This may not be the case in real-world situations where the production of certain plants such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from bio-based glycerol may require multiple operational modes to accommodate the seasonal variability and availability of raw material. PHAs are biodegradable polymers produced by bacterial fermentation of carbon sources, which are the potential substitutions for petrochemical-based plastics. Hence, this work aims to propose a systematic approach to optimize multiperiod mass integration in the development of a CHOSYN. The central principle of the proposed approach is the incorporation of a storage and dispatch system into the conventional CHOSYN design for the supply of chemical species needed in the network throughout different operational periods. A case study considering glycerol valorization and other chemical plants using the devised CHOSYN model was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed design against the conventional CHOSYN in terms of sustainability metrics. The results demonstrate the advantages of the CHOSYN model with a storage and dispatch system by exhibiting a better profitability outcome than the conventional multiperiod CHOSYN through operating cost savings.

Not all infrastructures are critical. In most countries' definitions, a critical infrastructure (CI) is a collection of indispensable assets that provide an essential support for economic and social well-being, for public safety and for the functioning of key government responsibilities. CI assets can be classified into three broad categories: Physical, Cybernetic and Human. In the present era, Information and Communication Technology sector (e.g., Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things) can be regarded as the backbone of the economies of developed and the developing countries worldwide since they provide basic services to all segments of a society. Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is a concept du jour in many developed countries. The present chapter discusses the method of protecting critical infrastructures in developing countries. It observes many developing countries experiencing massive growth in Internet capacity and the use of Internet-based technologies. Attacks on the information infrastructure can severely affect the ability of a country to function effectively.