Environmental sustainability assessment of an ethylene oxide production process through Cumulative Exergy Demand and ReCiPe

Ghannadzadeh, Ali; Meymivand, Alireza

doi:10.1007/s10098-019-01748-3

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This has been proven through a number of case studies, e.g. poly ether process (Ghannadzadeh 2018a), ethylene dichloride-vinyl chloride process (Ghannadzadeh 2018b), chlorine process (Ghannadzadeh and Tarighaleslami 2019), ethylene oxide process (Ghannadzadeh and Meymivand 2019), crude oil refinery (Ghannadzadeh and Raei 2018), dairy processing factory (Tarighaleslami et al 2020), glycerin production process (Ghannadzadeh and Tarighaleslami 2020), and ammonia process ). However, despite the importance of the propylene oxide production process, no case study in the literature uses exergetic LCA to improve the environmental sustainability of the entire propylene oxide process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Exergy-aided environmental life cycle assessment of propylene oxide production

Ghannadzadeh

Tarighaleslami

2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Propylene oxide (PO) is one of the useful chemicals that is predicted to experience a compound annual growth rate of 3.9% from 2020 through 2027. The environmental burdens of the current PO production process and its corresponding utility system including power generation system need to be determined quantitatively as a response to increasing demands for its environmentally sustainable production process in the energy transition period from fossil fuels towards renewable energy resources. Methods A new methodology is proposed to study the PO production process called exergy-aided environmental life cycle assessment (EELCA), using the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s database known as life cycle inventory (LCI) database. EELCA is dedicated to LCA studies of processes in the energy transition period and is aided by Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) as a tool for discernibility analysis which brings another dimension to the EELCA because MCS was often used to assess uncertainty in LCA studies. EELCA impact categories are classified into two classes: (i) emission-dependent impact categories addressed by ReCiPe and (ii) resource-dependent impact categories covered by cumulative exergy demand (CExD). The alternative energy like bioenergy is evaluated through the stepwise scenarios assisted by MCS, which are employed in openLCA with 10,000 iterations. Results and discussion The cumulative exergy depletion of the base scenario is 6.1898 MJ (CExD). The human health and ecosystem impacts are 3.65E-06 DALY and 1.58E-08 species.yr, respectively. Human health-total (2.7E-4 DALY) is the most important category, where the power generation system by residual fuel oil (33.19%) is on top of the list. By analysing statistically discernible scenarios using EELCA, it has been proven that natural gas is not a proper choice for energy mix in the energy transition period. This is because natural gas-based scenarios present more burden compared to residual fuel oil-based scenarios especially regarding human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, terrestrial acidification, and particulate matter formation. This study shows that the reduction in environmental impacts without changes in the production process technology is feasible through implementing bioenergy scenarios. Conclusions Having applied successfully EELCA, this study shows that PO production in the present configuration is not sustainable at all. The statistically discernible scenarios regarding energy mix selection help to enhance sustainability of the PO production process. Moreover, by examining the application of CExD along with LCA analysis, it is proved that by using the concept of CExD, we were able to represent the environmental impacts of the entire system with one figure, which tremendously facilitates the calculations in MCS.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Exergy-aided environmental life cycle assessment of propylene oxide production

Ghannadzadeh

Tarighaleslami

2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…Empty syringes are sterilised using ethylene oxide. The environmental impact of sterilising syringes with ethylene oxide is significant, due to the energy-intensive process (Ghannadzadeh & Meymivand, 2019).…”

Section: Sterilisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing the Environmental Impact of Syringes at the Intensive Care Unit

Honkoop,

Albayrak,

Balkenende

et al. 2023

Springer Series in Design and Innovation

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The final design is a process optimisation for batch-produced PFSS, based on circular strategies such as reduce, reuse, rethink and repurpose. Interventions include: eliminating the first sterilisation phase, reduce left-over medication and change from steam to gamma sterilisation. The proposed interventions have been evaluated by discussion.In the end, the environmental impact of syringes is reduced by optimising the filling process, which resulted in decreasing the amount of waste, material, energy and water usage, while remaining safe and without increasing the workload of the staff of the ICU.

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“…CO2 is the main byproduct, so it is necessary to maintain the ethylene conversion in a range of 10 to 15% to minimize the products that generate the combustion. The achieved selectivity of EO higher than 90%, so the resulting yield can be near 9 to 13.5% (Ghannadzadeh and Meymivand 2019). Safe and more environmentally friendly technological developments are needed, adopting sustainable alternatives to minimize CO2 formation in the process (Faria et al 2020).…”

Section: Bio-monoethylene Glycol (Bio-meg) From Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-polyethylene furanoate (Bio-PEF) from lignocellulosic biomass adapted to the circular bioeconomy

Mendieta

González

Vallejos

et al. 2022

BioRes

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There is a global trend to replace the production of conventional recyclable plastics with biobased ones, allowing a sustainable alternative adapted to the current concept of a circular bioeconomy. Forest-industrial and agricultural biomass wastes (lignocellulosic biomass waste, LCBW) produce severe problems in some developing countries because they are improperly disposed of or burned in the open air. Such wastes are attractive as a raw material to produce bioplastics due to their low cost. Furthermore, low-pollution processes can complete an economical and environmentally friendly approach. This review focuses on bio-polyethylene furanoate (PEF) production from LCBW as an alternative for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most widely used fossil-based plastic. The standpoint is based on the replacement of fossil-based monomers for the manufacture of PET, terephthalic acid (TPA), and ethylene glycol by two bio-based monomers, namely 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and bio-ethylene glycol (Bio-MEG). This study describes the processes to obtain each bio-monomer, as well as the resulting polymers’ performance aspects, biodegradability, environmental and economic considerations, and recycling.

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Environmental sustainability assessment of an ethylene oxide production process through Cumulative Exergy Demand and ReCiPe

Cited by 16 publications

References 29 publications

Exergy-aided environmental life cycle assessment of propylene oxide production

Exergy-aided environmental life cycle assessment of propylene oxide production

Reducing the Environmental Impact of Syringes at the Intensive Care Unit

Bio-polyethylene furanoate (Bio-PEF) from lignocellulosic biomass adapted to the circular bioeconomy

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