Life cycle assessment applied to process design: Environmental and economic analysis and optimization of a nitric acid plant
Life cycle assessment applied to process design: Environmental and economic analysis and optimization of a nitric acid plant
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应用于工艺设计的生命周期评估：硝酸厂的环境和经济分析及优化
DOI：
10.1002/ep.670150410
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发表时间：
1996
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Petrie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
G. E. Kniel;K. Delmarco;J. Petrie
生命周期评价（LC4）是一种环境审计工具，它量化了包括所有相关系统在内的活动的环境负担。过去，LCA主要应用于产品，但最近的文献表明，它也有潜力作为流程和服务的分析和设计工具。这种潜力来自于生命周期评价将过程的环境负担与其质量和能量流联系起来的独特能力。这项工作的目的是应用LCA作为一种工具，而不是一个产品评估的过程设计。硝酸厂形成的基础上，一个案例研究，其中LCA被用来量化和比较的环境性能的一些设计方案，旨在减少废物。制定了替代品的经济模型，并将其与环境模型联系起来，以实现多目标优化，明确目标是最大限度地提高经济回报，最大限度地减少环境影响。比较研究表明，从环境角度来看，一种设计方案显然具有上级优势。优化表明，操作的变化可以导致显着的环境改善，以最小的经济成本。这一领域今后的工作应侧重于分配多产出过程的环境负担，并扩大分析范围，将所有相关下游过程的环境和经济影响包括在内。
Life Cycle Assessment (LC4) is an environmental auditing tool that quantifies the environmental burdens ofan activity inclusive of all its related systems. In the past, LCA has been applied primarily to products, but recent literature suggests it also has potential as an analysis and design tool for processes and services. This potential arises from the unique ability of LCA to link the environmental burdens of a process with its mass and energy flows. The aim of this work is to apply LCA as a tool for process design rather than one for product assessment. A nitric acid plant formed the basis for a case study wherein LCA was used to quantify and compare environmental performance of a number of design alternatives aimed at waste reduction. Economic models for the alternatives were formulated and linked to the environmental models to perform a multiobjective optimization with the express aim to maximize economic returns and minimize environmental impact. The comparative study showed that one design alternative was clearly superior from an environmental point of view. The optimization demonstrated that operational changes could result in significant environmental improvement at minimal economic cost. Future work in this area should focus on the allocation of environmental burdens from multiple-output processes as well as extending the analysis to include environmental and economic impacts of all related downstream processes.