Industrial Environmental Management. Tapas K. Das

1.5, and 1.6 are then used to compile basic overview of the company's resources and needs. From this information, design engineers and process specialists can attempt to modify the manufacturing process so that it can become a Zero Emissions system.

      Extracting raw materials and processing them imposes significant environmental burdens. An analysis of the industrial metabolism of the product (i.e. its input, materials use, and life cycle expectancy) will help determine the path of least environmental impact. Some materials choices will yield better throughput or by‐products that are more suited for use as an input for another industry.

      Additional audits and inventories may be needed to determine manufacturing efficiency by percentage of input wasted, to quantify amounts of waste landfill by type of material, to account for amounts of materials collected for recycling, and to identify major emissions of waste heat and the site and amounts of wastewater discharges. Analysis of these outputs may reveal the most effective ways to reuse these outputs and help to determine which industries could use the wastes as raw materials. For example, at the Namibian brewery, spent grain, excess heat, and wastewater all have potential uses in producing food items.

      1.10.3 Build Industrial Clusters

      In sectors that cannot achieve Zero Emissions unilaterally, it may be necessary to build industrial clusters. The input–output analysis leads directly into development of clusters of industries that can use each other's outputs. Developing effective clusters calls for executives look beyond single industries and make innovative connections among seemingly unrelated potential partners in new industrial clusters. Companies are loathe to implement such changes, however. In addition to concerns about antitrust regulations, and the need to rely on single vendors for supply, there is fear that relinquishing information about waste stream composition will allow their competitors to deduce proprietary secrets.

      Also critical is the geographic location of the client's potential partners, as transportation is a key factor in optimizing waste exchange and use of conversion technologies. The most obvious link in the search for industrial cluster partners will be obtaining industrial input data for other industrial sectors and determining if the client's waste flows could serve (in some converted form) as a material input to another sector. The second place to look for candidate industrial clusters is the historical records of waste exchanges. These material flows will demonstrate which materials being discarded by a sector are of a volume and quality desirable to another sector.

Industries that buy process wastes are taking in nonvirgin material of a grade that may fall short of the purchasers' specification. This is an opportunity for materials blending. For example, plastics can be recycled to make a lumber‐like product, but the grade of such recycled products is not always acceptable as a direct input. If a contaminated waste flow is not of sufficient volume, however, blending in virgin plastics can bring both quality and volume up to manufacturing specifications.

      Once the potential partners have been identified, the industrial cluster should be designed and developed. Kalundborg (Grann 1994) is an excellent example of a cluster that includes heavy industries, while Tsumeb's cluster is based primarily around food production and processing. Elsewhere in the world, industrial cluster is yet to be developed.

      India and China are industrializing nations that have abundant and cheap supplies of coal, but burning it to generate electricity produces CO₂, SO _x , and NO _x . The key to sustainability for industrializing countries will therefore be development of industrial clusters that link energy, agriculture, and sewage treatment, in the fundamental format for Zero Emission communities. The most effective incentive to develop such clusters is economics, and, unlike conventional SO _x and NO _x treatments, the system for the electron beam/ammonia conversation of these pollutant has a financial payback of 10–15 years. Section 9.2.3 treats this technology in more detail.

      1.10.4 Develop Conversion Technologies

      The easiest connections for industrial clusters are through a simple, direct waste exchange. The next easiest route is to develop an intermediary process that will take one industry's current waste stream, convert it to a usable form, and transfer it to a purchasing industry. Now we consider briefly the pivotal function of conversion technologies as illustrated by the problems encountered in the paper recycling industry as it works toward attaining Zero Emissions in the United States (see also Chapters 7 and 9).

      Paper recycling is quintessentially “green.” But current processes used to de‐ink paper remove only 70–80% of the ink particles, leaving recycled papers an unattractive gray. The wastes are a toxic mix of ink, short fibers, coating chemicals, and paper fillers that requires both primary and secondary treatment before disposal. De‐inking is both inefficient and expensive, and results in a product that is often higher priced and lower quality.

      Under the auspices of ZD industries, a conversion technology is being developed that results in 100% removal of ink and 3 viable outputs. The recaptured ink could be reused in printing or for making pencils (as is already done with ink from photocopiers). The long fibers could be made into paper again or used in cardboard. The remaining sludgy mixture of short fibers and residues could be dried and used as acoustic insulation inside building walls or as ceiling tiles. The sludge could be used to make shock‐absorbent packaging such as egg cartons or replacements for corrugated cardboard.

      The industrial cluster built around paper recycling thus includes recapturing ink, making new paper, and making building and packaging materials. Canada, Latvia, and Italy have tested this conversion technology, the steam explosion system. Many cities, states, and national governments, however, require that recycled paper be used in newspapers, and where these regulations are in force, a system that produces a grade of paper better than that needed by newspapers is not likely to be implemented.

      1.10.5 Designer Wastes

      So‐called designer wastes can serve as direct feedstock to another sector, or, if properly processed through a conversion technology, as processed feedstock. If the beer industry for example, used a sugar‐based cleanser instead of a caustic cleanser for its bottle‐washing process, the discharge water could serve as a direct feed to fish ponds, without needing any conversion. Yet other solutions will require installation assistance in adjusting or adapting material flows within the client's processes so that its waste output is in an acceptable form.

      Building industrial clusters may involve working upstream within a facility to modify its production process so that the waste is produced in an acceptable “designer” form for conversion. Or, perhaps downstream, working with the purchaser industry, to help it modify its processes so that it can accept the converted waste.

      This means that the involved engineering consultants must become familiar with the products and materials provided by suppliers to the producer and the materials needed by the purchaser of the designer wastes. All parties must have access to a database of specific information about the level of impurities acceptable in each final product. For example, companies that produce basic material inputs (such as plastics, oils, lubricants, and papers) deal in high volumes and some manufacturing processes can tolerate impurities. These companies are already experienced in their own refining processes and may also be knowledgeable about the manufacturing requirements of their customers, but their expertise may not extend to particular impurities present in the producer's waste stream. The database can provide the information necessary to complete the connections.

      1.10.6 Reinvent Regulatory Policies

Experienced professionals are probably already aware of how government policies inadvertently inhibit creativity in reuse of wastes. These policies can also inhibit formation of effective industrial clusters. For example, breweries are regulated