Toward Zero Discharge

This book discusses pathways to achieve pollution prevention and waste minimization at the sources leading toward zero discharge. Coverage includes life cycle assessment, industrial ecology, eco-industrial parks, green engineering, and sustainable chemical and allied processes and products development. The pulp and paper industry is introduced as a case study in demonstrating how this industry is achieving pollution prevention goals by various techniques, and how this industry has become a minimum impact industry, moving towards achieving zero discharge status in most process areas.
Featuring a collection of expert authors, this book is essential reading for industrial ecologists and engineers, material scientists, and state and federal officials. Foreword.

Acknowledgments.

1 INTRODUCTION.

1.1 Waste as Pollution.

1.2 Defining Pollution Prevention.

1.3 The Zero Discharge Paradigm.

1.4 The Structure of the Book.

PART I: METHODOLOGY.

2 ZERO DISCHARGE INDUSTRIES.

2.1 Sustainability, Industrial Ecology and Zero Discharge.

2.2 Why Zero Discharge is Critical to Sustainability.

2.3 The New Role of Process Engineers and Engineering Firms.

2.4 Zero Discharge Methodology.

2.5 Making the Transition.

2.6 In the Full Zero Discharge Paradigm.

2.7 Separation—A Key Conversion Technology.

2.8 Constraints and challenges.

3 FUNDAMENTALS OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT.

3.1 What is Life Cycle Assessment?

3.2 Conducting LCA.

3.3 LCA and LCI Software Tools.

3.4 Evaluating the Life Cycle Environmental Performance of Two Disinfection Technologies.

3.5 Case Study: Comparison of LCA of Electricity from Biorenewables and Fossil Fuels.

4 ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS.

4.1 Health Risk Assessment.

4.2 Assessing the Risks of Some Common Pollutants.

4.3 Ecological Risk Assessment.

4.4 Risk Management.

4.5 Communicating Information on Environmental and Health Risks.

4.6 Environmental Information on the Internet.

5 ECONOMICS OF POLLUTION PREVENTION: TOWARD AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY.

5.1 Economics of Pollution Control Technology.

5.2 Best Available Control Technology: Application to Gas Turbine Power Plants.

5.3 Case Study: The North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Plan.

5.4 Sustainable Economy and The Earth.

6 SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Sustainable Production and Growth for the Chemical Process Industries.

6.3 Integrating Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainable Product Development.

6.4 Biorenewable Energy Resources.

6.5 Applying the Metrics of Sustainability to Transform Business Practices and Public Policy.

6.6 Toward a Hydrogen-based Sustainable Economy.

6.7 Bio-Based Chemicals and Engineered Materials.

6.8 Eco-Efficiency and Eco-industrial Parks.

6.9 Process Intensification and Microchannel Reaction.

PART II: TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS

7 ZERO DISCHARGE TECHNOLOGY.

7.1 Zero Water Discharge Systems.

7.2 Case Study: Gas Turbine NO_x Emissions at General Electric.

7.3 Questions of Regulatory Policy.

7.4 Smokestack Emissions.

7.5 Eco-Industrial Parks: Model Zero Discharge Communities.

8 TECHNOLOGIES FOR POLLUTION PREVENTION: AIR.

8.1 Some On-going Pollution Prevention Technologies.

8.2 Some Emerging and Innovative Processes.

9 TECHNOLOGIES FOR POLLUTION PREVENTION: WATER.

9.1 Advances in Wastewater Treatment Technologies.

9.2 Some Emerging and Innovative Processes.

9.3 Groundwater Quality.

10 TECHNOLOGIES FOR POLLUTION PREVENTION: SOLID WASTE.

10.1 Solid Waste Treatment: Some Perspectives on Recycling.

10.2 Plastic Recycling in a Developing Country: A Paradoxical Success Story.

10.3 From Waste to Energy: Catalytic Steam Gasification of Poultry Litter.

11 MINIMIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DISCHARGE THROUGH PROCESS INTEGRATION.

11.1 Energy Integration and Heat Exchange Networks.

11.2 Mass Integration.

11.3 Water Optimization and Integration.

11.4 Industrial Applications of Heat Integration and Mass Integration.

11.5 Further Reading.

11.6 Final Thoughts.

12 PROCESS POLLUTION PREVENTION IN THE PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY.

12.1 Environmental Management in the Pulp and Paper Industry.

12.2 Pollution Prevention in the Pulp and Paper Industry.

12.3 Resource Recovery and Reuse.

13 PROGRESS TOWARD ZERO DISCHARGE IN PULP AND PAPER PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES.

13.1 Three Case Studies.

13.2 Additional Concerns Addressed by Zero Discharge Technology.

13.3 Other Emission Recovery and Control Processes.

13.4 Conclusions.

Epilogue — Final Thoughts.

Index.

"Das authoritatively discusses pollution control in the industry and processes that could lead to zero discharge."
(Journal of Hazardous Materials, August 2006)

REVIEWS_EXTRACT" " Extremely interesting cases histories …could make a popular book for engineering students and our future scientists."
(Chemistry and Industry, 19th June 2006)

"…it would be useful for specialized audiences in academic or professional libraries covering the areas of engineering or environmental studies."
(E-STREAMS, May 2006)

TAPAS K. DAS, PhD, PE, DEE, is a chemical and environmental engineer working with the Department of Ecology Air Quality Program at Olympia, Washington. He is currently engaged in a state and nationwide study to evaluate air toxic emissions and other pollutants from Kraft and Sulfite pulping processes. Dr. Das holds a BSc in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, and PhD from Bradford University, Bradford, England. Dr. Das was a postdoctoral fellow at London's Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Department of Chemical Engineering, and at Princeton University. He has wide practical and theoretical experience and expertise in various areas including air toxics and aerosols, wastewater characterization and treatment, solid waste management, and combustion. New pathways for achieving pollution prevention and waste minimization at the source

With natural resource consumption and waste generation placing enormous stress on delicate ecosystems, industry is joining the research community in developing long-term perspectives and more efficient technologies and systems for production, resource conservation, and waste minimization. Zero discharge—which is simply industrial ecology applied at the manufacturing level—is a practical approach, with a concrete methodology, for redesigning processes so that they have no discharges.

Integrating environmental, social, and economic interests into effective and sustainable chemical and allied business strategies, Toward Zero Discharge: Innovative Methodology and Technologies for Process Pollution Prevention conveys the state of the art in industrial pollution prevention leading to zero discharge.

In this contributed volume, recognized experts in the field present methodology and strategies for, and evaluation and quantification of, zero discharge and process pollution prevention. This reference explores technologies and applications, and provides case studies and real-world examples. Coverage includes:

• Sustainability and sustainable development in the chemical and allied industries
• Life cycle assessment
• Industrial ecology, eco-industrial parks, and green engineering
• Case studies of the pulp and paper and other industries

By illuminating recent progress in process pollution prevention, this will be an invaluable resource for professionals in industry and research who wish to exploit available techniques to realize the ecological and economic ideal of zero discharge at the source.