Industrial Environmental Management. Tapas K. Das

Mini‐Case Study 1.3 Recovery of Wastes from Palm Oil Extraction Yields High Return on Investment

      Recovery of wastes from agro‐industries is an extremely promising aspect of Zero Emissions. This project focuses on recovering all of the solid, liquid, gaseous, and thermal wastes from the Golden Hope Plantation in Malaysia, the largest oil palm plantation in the world. With the commitment of Meta Epsi, a large engineering group with substantial interests in palm oil plantations, operation of the pilot project for the total use of palm oil biomass commenced in the summer of 1996.

      The pilot project uses steam explosion to provide for conversion of biomass into recoverable fibers, with a goal of reusing the spent seeds, bunches, leaves, and trunks that Golden Hope used to pay to have disposed of. It costs $50 Malaysian (M$50) to produce 1 T of commercially usable fiber, which can be sold for approximately M$350. Products made from the fiber include MDF board, stuffing for car seats, and bedding for medical use. Just one of the mills built to process waste fiber generates pre‐tax profits of approximately M$12.5 million (about $3 million) (Malaysian Ringgit ~ $0.24).

1.12 Constraints and Challenges

      The implementation of Zero Emissions faces constraints and challenges, as well as new opportunities. For example, the use of dissipative materials poses a design challenge: If solvents and flocculants are no longer to be used, what would it be replaced? Chemical manufacturers need to work with design engineers to arrive at an understanding of the constraints of separation technologies so that manufacturing any material without emissions is difficult, but working with chemicals is particularly challenging because of the need to develop nontoxic materials that are also biodegradable. Two possible solutions are biological.

       Biopolymers are an outgrowth of chemurgy, the division of applied chemistry that deals with industrial utilization of organic raw materials, especially from agro‐business. These substances, complex molecules formed in biological systems, can replace toxic, dissipative materials currently used as adhesives, absorbents, lubricants, soil conditioners, cosmetics, drug delivery vehicles, and textile dissipative. Substitutes for toxic materials and mechanical processes to substitute for dissipative materials are aspects of the same principle.

       Enzymes are natural catalysts that speed up chemical reactions without being consumed in the process. They function best in mild conditions, so their use requires up to one‐third less energy than many synthetic chemicals; paradoxically, this lower need for energy can be an obstacle in a system that still rewards large‐scale energy use with reduced rates. Enzymes are especially useful in systems designed to reduce or eliminate dissipative losses.

      There is also a need for a taxonomy of environmental technologies that clarifies opportunities for fast developing, generic processes to address such recurring problem as process large streams of contaminated water from various processes and oxidation in air. Chemical engineering and related professions ought to be able to make rapid advances in such areas.

      Many of the industries in the investment recovery or “decomposer niche” are hard put to compete against large‐scale facilities that produce materials from virgin materials. More recently, however, economies of scale for resource extractors and processors, along with cheap energy supplies, have been introduced almost everywhere in the world. For example, economies of scale have enabled chemical companies to produce plastics at a price that other manufacturers, as well as the individual consumer, can afford.

      1.12.1 The Challenges in Industrial Environmental Management

      We need to educate and train current generation engineers, managers, business owners, and policy makers with the skills and knowledge they need to be our champion stewards of environmental management and expert on lean manufacturing of major industries demonstrating ZDZE operations. Engineers have always faced design constraints. Historically, these constraints were the laws of physics, availability of materials, and energy. Modern engineers still face the limitation of the laws of physics but have been granted larger amounts of energy and a wide variety of materials. Modern society has added design parameters that include safety, durability, convenience, regulatory compliance, attractiveness, and price.

      A true engineer does not view regulation as an obstruction, but rather as a design constraint like efficiency and durability. The goal has always been to develop the optimal design within given constraints, whether they are the laws of nature or society. Unfortunately, the actions of our modern society have placed undue burdens on nature. Nature's ability to absorb excessive amounts of pollutants and stressors while still providing critical services of acceptable water quality, clean air, food, and biodiversity is limited.

      Industrial ecology is Western society's response to meeting the challenge of sustainable development. To manufacturers falls the challenge of attaining Zero Emissions. They in turn pass this directive to their engineers. To engineers, the advance of technology has meant increasing degrees of freedom with regard to design. The collective body of knowledge and our harnessing of materials and energy has been the source of these freedoms. Safety was the first man‐made design constraint that society imposed under the name of social good. Engineers responded to meet the challenge. Now society recognizes the need to impose a design parameter of Zero Emissions. Engineers will meet this challenge and accept it as they have the laws of physics – as a given.

      1.12.2 Codes of Ethics in Engineering

      Codes of ethics state the moral responsibilities of engineers as seen by the profession, and as represented by a professional society. Because they express the profession's collective commitment to ethics, codes are enormously important, not only in stressing engineers' responsibilities but also the freedom to exercise them.

      Codes of ethics play at least eight essential roles: serving and protecting the public, providing guidance, offering inspiration, establishing shared standards, supporting responsible professionals, contributing to education, deterring wrongdoing, and strengthening a profession's image (also see Appendix J).

1.13 The Structure of the Book

      1.13.1 What Is in the Book?

Chapter 1: This chapter addresses why industrial environmental management is important! Environmental management is a very crucial part of human well‐being that needs to be deeply considered. Formulated design seeks to steer the development process to take advantage of opportunities, avoid hazards, mitigate problems, and prepare people for unavoidable difficulties by improving adaptability and resilience. It is a process concerned with human–environment interactions, and seeks to identify: what is environmentally desirable; what are physical, economic, social and technological constraints to achieving that process; and what are the most feasible options. Actually, there can be no concise universal definition of environmental management; however, it can be briefly summarized as supporting sustainable development; demanding multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary or even holistic approaches; it should integrate and reconcile different development viewpoints, co‐ordinate science, engineering, technology, social, policy making, and planning; state proactive processes; timescales and concerns ranging from local to global issues; and one stresses stewardship rather than exploitation while dealing with a world affected by humans.

      In other perspectives, environmental management can be explained as methods of ways when dealing issues due to the importance of the need to improve environmental stewardship by integrating ecology, policy making, planning, and social development. The goals include sustaining and (if possible) improving existing resources; preventing and overcoming environmental problems; establishing limits; founding and nurturing institutions that effectively support environmental research, monitoring, and management resources; warning of threats and identifying positive change opportunities; (where possible) improving quality of life; and finally, identifying new technology or policies that are useful.

      Chapter