Development of a C–H–O Symbiosis Network during Conceptual Design via Economic, Sustainability, and Safety Metrics

Abstract

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.

Innovative Reactive Distillation Process for the Sustainable Purification of Lactic Acid

“…PI is a design concept that offers innovative solutions for making a substantial improvement in terms of cost, energy efficiency, emission, environmental footprint, processing volume, and safety of a chemical process. Incorporation of PI principles at the conceptual design stage can pave the way for more sustainable solutions . Also, according to Schöggl et al, sustainability contributes to the circular economy environment through the measurement of both economic and green chemistry indicators.…”

“…Incorporation of PI principles at the conceptual design stage can pave the way for more sustainable solutions. 17 Also, according to Schoggl et al, 18 sustainability contributes to the circular economy environment through the measurement of both economic and green chemistry indicators. In summary, PI is a strategy that can generate sustainable designs and is therefore framed within the concept of circular economy.…”

Quantitative Sustainable Design (QSD) for the Prioritization of Research, Development, and Deployment of Technologies: A Tutorial and Review

“…In support of this integration, we reviewed existing literature on the sustainability analyses of water/wastewater and broader environmental technologies and synthesized our findings into a structured methodology -QSD. We introduced QSD as a methodology that addresses four critical challenges in sustainability analyses that had been largely overlooked in the existing literature: Finally, the results of QSD can be used to inform decision-making, including in structured methodologies such as MCDA (e.g., quantified sustainability indicators can be used to evaluate, compare, and recommend technologies based on stakeholder priorities as in 308,317 ). Tools and methods developed in the discipline of decision analysis can in turn be used in QSD for indicator selection (e.g., the MCDA Index Tool, 318 the Delphi method 319 ) and prioritization (e.g., the analytical hierarchy process [AHP], 320 the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations [PROMETHEE] approach 321 ).…”

Systematic Approach for Synthesizing Carbon–Hydrogen–Oxygen Networks Involving Detailed Process Simulations

“…Safety indices were included to formulate a mathematical model for synthesizing a CHOSYN. 30 The first attempt to the simultaneous mass and energy integration for CHOSYN was implemented by Topolski et al 31 Farouk et al 32 developed a rigorous optimization model that includes economic, sustainability, and safety objectives.…”

“…Safety indices were included to formulate a mathematical model for synthesizing a CHOSYN . The first attempt to the simultaneous mass and energy integration for CHOSYN was implemented by Topolski et al Farouk et al developed a rigorous optimization model that includes economic, sustainability, and safety objectives. Juárez-García et al involved allocation schemes for identifying fair allocation of exchangeable streams among the participants in the CHOSYN.…”