Pollution prevention targets through integrated design and operation

Pollution prevention is one of most pressing objectives for the process industries. In order to set realistic targets for reducing industrial wastes, it is necessary to establish targets for most achievable extent of pollution prevention. In this paper we present a mass-integrated systematic procedure for identifying pollution prevention targets of a process. These targets account for the plant data and anticipated disturbances. A combination of design and operational degrees of freedom are employed to prevent pollution. Species propagation and process performance are tracked via path equations. Mass integration tools along with inclusion isotonicity of interval arithmetic are employed to establish the targets. Several classes of problems are addressed. These include instantaneous and averaged targets for pollution prevention with sink/generator manipulation and targets for material utilities and feedstocks with recycle and interception. The identified targets are global regardless of the non-linearity and non-convexity characteristics of the system. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.