Industrial Environmental Management. Tapas K. Das

words, all consumers expect that the products and services they buy will meet their requirements. These requirements define fitness for use.

      Quality or fitness for use is determined through the interaction of quality of design and quality of conformance. Quality of design for environment and other aspects is defined by the different grades or levels of performance, reliability, serviceability, and function that are the result of deliberate engineering and environmental management decisions. By quality of conformance, we mean systematic reduction of variability and elimination of defects until every unit, batch, and product produced is identical in physical and chemical properties (zero defect and zero effect).

Chapter 9: The rate of industrial hazardous waste generation in the United States is approximately 750 million T/Y. Once these materials are designated as hazardous, the costs of managing, treating, storing, and disposing of them increase dramatically. This chapter describes some specific industrial waste minimization processes and technologies that have been successfully operating and provides other methodologies including industrial ecology, eco‐industrial park, manufacturing process intensification, and integration. The wastes (in air, water, or as solid) or by‐products generated during manufacturing process are recovered. The materials and energy recovered from waste streams either are reused in the plant or are sold to another plant as feedstock. It is possible in practice, as well as in theory, to isolate some industrial facilities almost completely from the environment by recycling all wastes into materials that can then be manufactured into consumer products. An example of such a facility is a coal‐fired power plant. An electron beam–ammonia conversion unit adds ammonia to the effluent gases, which then irradiates electronically, producing ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate that are sold as feedstock to fertilizer manufacturing; there is enhanced recovery of mercury from flue gas by adsorption and mercury recovery is complete. The details of these two processes are given as case studies later in Sections 9.2 and 9.4. Also, two separate case studies have been presented that highlight a profitable “waste‐to‐energy” recovery generating electricity and heat, and making chemicals and energy from gasification of black liquor as by‐products of pulping process.

      Our goal is to modify industrial processes so that services and manufactured goods can be produced without waste. But it is important to understand that some manufacturing processes inherently produce wastes, even after all reasonable efforts at pollution prevention. Thus, in some cases the use of a conversion technology may be more appropriate than a program of pollution prevention: many industrial wastes can be processed to render them viable as material inputs to another industry or to part of an industrial cluster of several connected industries – as part of the movement of “industrial ecology.”

      Chapter 10: Engineers play an important role in global sustainable manufacturing and development by designing production systems for materials: minerals, chemicals, energy, water, electricity generation and distribution, transportation, buildings plus other structures, and consumer products. These designs have impact on the environment, economics, and societal benefits at scales that vary from local to global and temporal scales that vary from minutes to decades. As engineers create designs, they do not only evaluate their designs at multiple use and sustainability index (scale), they also embed their designs in complex systems.

      The field of transportation provides an illustration of the multiple layers of systems in which engineers create designs. Among the most visible products designed by engineers are automobiles. Engineers design engines, and improvements to the design of a fossil fuel–powered engine for an automobile can increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impacts of emissions associated with burning fuels, while simultaneously reducing the cost of operating the vehicle. The size, power, and fuel efficiency of the engine must be balanced with the weight of the vehicle. The use of materials and fuels by automobiles are embedded in complex fuel and material supply systems. Developing systems to recycle the materials that make up the automobile at the end of its useful life might improve the environmental and economic performance of global materials flows. Use of alternative power sources, such as electricity or biofuels can impact flows of fuels, which, in turn, might impact global flows of materials such as water. Finally, the design of cities that reduce the need for personal transportation could dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of transportation systems and would also transform social structures.

      In this chapter, sustainable design is very much emphasized and lays a foundation. Sustainable engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical while minimizing both the generation of pollution at the source and the risk to human health and the environment. The discipline embraces the concept that decisions to protect human health and the environment can have the greatest impact and cost effectiveness when applied early in the “design and development phase of a process or product.” Sustainable engineering transforms existing engineering disciplines and practices to those that promote sustainability. This new discipline incorporates the development and implementation of technologically and economically viable products, processes, and systems that promote human welfare while protecting human health and elevating the protection of the biosphere as a criterion in engineering solutions. To fully implement sustainable green engineering solutions, engineers use numerous principles and tools that are described in this chapter.

Problems

      1  1.1 State why industrial environmental management is a critically important part of human well‐being and sustainable development?

      2 1.2 Define waste as pollution.

      3 1.3 Explain the difference between pollution prevention and minimization of waste.

      4 1.4 What is the key point of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990?

      5 1.5 Define sustainability. Explain why the concept of “Zero Discharge and Zero Waste” in manufacturing are the keys to sustainability.

      6 1.6 What are the basic environmental challenges that must be met to meet world demands for (a) clean air, (b) clean water, and (c) arable land?

      7 1.7 Using Zero Waste, Zero Defect and Zero Effect, and Zero Discharge, (a) what conversion technologies need to be developed? [Hint: Check out Figures 1.7 and 1.8.] (b) What are the investment management points of view when manipulating the profit margins? (c) What are the constraints and challenges that must be met to meet regulatory requirements?

      8 1.8 Fifteen fields of environmental management are introduced in this chapter. Answer the following: (a) Choose seven fields that work closely together and explain the commonality that the eight remaining fields have in common. (b) How is consensus methodology achieved between groups? (c) Which field of environmental management requires global support for human health?

      9 1.9 Does ISO support industrial environmental management system, and if it does, how?

      10 1.10 What are the key elements of an environmentally conscious manufacturing strategy?

      11 1.11 As chemical process and product design engineers, as well as construction, industrial, and environmental engineers, how you can play a pivotal role as industries move toward the Zero Emissions or Zero Discharge paradigm.

References

      1 Allen, D.T. and Behmanish, N. (1994). Wastes as raw materials. In: The Greening of Ecosystems (eds. B. Allenby and D. Richards). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

      2 Allen, D.T. and Rosselot, K.S. (1997). Pollution Prevention for Chemical Processes, 19–32. New York, NY, Chapter 2: Wiley.

      3 Allen, D.T. and Shonnard, D.R. (2012). Sustainable Engineering: Concepts, Design, and Case Studies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

      4 Allenby, B.R. and Richards, D.J. (1994). The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

      5 Ayres,