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An approach to potential environmental impact reduction in chemical reaction processes

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Abstract

An approach to identify environmental impact reduction alternatives is presented for chemical reaction processes. The primary tools used in this approach are potential environmental impact (PEI) reaction scheme and PEI change due to reaction. A PEI reaction scheme can be used to visualize the transformation relationships among different types of PEI, and can be applied to aid in identifying the sources of environmental impacts and generating alternatives for reducing the impacts. PEI change due to reaction can be used to indicate the change in PEI when this reaction proceeds by one mole of reaction. With the aid of the PEI reaction scheme and the PEI change due to reaction as well as some heuristics, the chemicals and reactions responsible for the potential impacts in the various impact categories can be identified and environmental impact reduction alternatives for a reaction process can be derived. The environmental performance of each alternative is evaluated by doing a quantitative PEI balance. In the case study, the alternatives, which can reduce the output of PEI and the magnitudes of the fresh feeds as well as increase the selectivity of the product, are obtained by using the approach.

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Abbreviations

A to F:

chlorine, propylene, allyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, 1,3-dichloropropene and 1,2-dichloropropane, respectively

c A, c B, etc.:

concentrations of chemical A, B, etc. (mol/L)

c A,0, c B,0, etc.:

initial concentrations of chemical A, B, etc. (mol/L)

c B,out, c c,out, etc.:

outlet concentrations of chemical B and C, etc. (mol/L)

F A, F B, etc.:

molar flow rates of chemical A, B, etc. (mol/s)

F A,in, F B,in, etc.:

molar flow rates of the fresh feeds of materials A and B (mol/s)

\(\dot{I}_{{{{\rm gen}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact generation rate (PEI/s)

\(\dot{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm gen}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact generation rate of non-products (PEI/s)

\(\hat{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm gen}}}}\) :

specific potential environmental impact generation from non products within a chemical process (PEI/kg)

\(\dot{I}_{{{{\rm in}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact input rate (PEI/s)

\(\dot{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm in}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact input rate of non-products (PEI/s)

\(\hat{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm in}}}}\) :

specific input of potential environmental impact due to non-products (PEI/kg)

\(\dot{I}_{{{{\rm out}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact output rate (PEI/s)

\(\dot{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm out}}}}\) :

potential environmental impact output rate of non-products(PEI/s)

\(\hat{I}^{{{{\rm NP}}}}_{{{{\rm out}}}}\) :

specific output of potential environmental impact due to non-products (PEI/kg)

\(\dot{m}_{j}\) :

mass flow rate of stream j into a process (kg/s)

\(\dot{m}_{p}\) :

mass flow rate of desired product p (kg/s)

M k :

molecular weight of chemical k (kg/mol)

P :

pressure (MPa)

r :

reaction rate [mole of reaction/(L s)]

s k :

stoichiometric coefficient of species k (mol k/mole of reaction)

S C :

selectivity towards the desired product C

T :

reaction temperature (°C)

x kj :

mass fraction of chemical k in stream j

ΔPEI:

potential environmental impact change due to reaction (PEI/mole of reaction)

ΔPEI l,I :

change in impact category l for reaction i in a certain reaction system (PEI/mole of reaction)

α l :

weighting factor for impact category l

ψs kl :

the specific PEI of chemical k for environmental impact category l (PEI/kg of chemical k)

ψ k :

the overall PEI of chemical k (PEI/ kg of chemical k)

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Acknowledgments

Financial support provided by the Support Program for the Young backbones of the College Teachers in Henan Province under Grant No. [2005]461 are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Zhongyuan Institute of Technology, 41 Zhongyuan Road West, Zhengzhou, 450007, Henan province, People’s Republic of China

    Qishi Chen & Wenzhuo Li

  2. Department of Material and Chemical Engineering, Zhongyuan Institute of Technology, 41 Zhongyuan Road West, Zhengzhou, 450007, Henan province, People’s Republic of China

    Wenzhuo Li

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  1. Qishi Chen
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  2. Wenzhuo Li
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Correspondence to Qishi Chen.

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Chen, Q., Li, W. An approach to potential environmental impact reduction in chemical reaction processes. Clean Techn Environ Policy 10, 97–105 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-007-0097-4

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