Atmospheric emissions economics

Control of atmospheric emissions from petroleum refining can be accomplished by process change, installation of control equipment, and improved housekeeping and maintenance. In many cases, recovery of the pollutants will result in economic benefits. Table 30-26 lists some of the control measures that can be used at petroleum refineries. 

The purpose of chemical processes is not to make chemicals the purpose is to make money. However, the profit must be made as part of a sustainable industrial activity. Chemical processes should be designed as part of a sustainable industrial activity that retains the capacity of ecosystems to support both industrial activity and life into the future. Sustainable industrial activity must meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. For chemical process design, this means that processes should use raw materials as efficiently as is economic and practicable, both to prevent the production of waste that can be environmentally harmful and to preserve the reserves of raw materials as much as possible. Processes should use as little energy as economic and practicable, both to prevent the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and to preserve reserves of fossil fuels. Water must also be consumed in sustainable quantities that do not cause deterioration in the quality of the water source and the long-term quantity of the reserves. Aqueous and atmospheric emissions must not be environmentally harmful, and solid waste to landfill must be avoided. 

While hexavalent chromium is reduced to its trivalent form in treatment systems mainly so that the metal can be precipitated, this also lowers its toxicity by a factor of 1000. Ferrous sulfate can be used for this reduction, but is not popular due to its inefficiency, high sludge generation rate, and expense. Sulfur dioxide gas is a far more economical reducing agent, although it is efficient only at low pH, preferably below 2. There can also be problems with atmospheric emission of S02 in this process. 

The protection of environment, technological, and ecological considerations are of increasing importance for manufacturers and consumers of dyes. Primary considerations in dye manufacture and use include personal safety, atmospheric emissions, wastewater quality, and appropriate waste disposal. These considerations are of major importance in choosing major plant sites and are sometimes economically restrictive to existing operations [7, 12]. 

Another factor is the potential economic benefit that may be realized from the utilization of both waste and virgin biomass as energy resources due to current and future environmental regulations. If carbon taxes are ever imposed on the use of fossil fuels in the United States as they have been in a few other countries to help reduce undesirable automobile and power plant emissions to the atmosphere, additional economic incentives will be available to stimulate development of new biomass energy systems. Certain tax credits and subsidies are already available for commercial use of specific types of biomass energy systems (Klass, 1995). 

Stricter regulations regarding air pollution control, water pollution control and waste management have forced companies to remove volatile organics from atmospheric emissions and workplace environments. But apart from compliance with these requirements, economic factors are decisive in solvent recovery. Reuse of solvent in production not only reduces operating cost drastically but may even allow profitable operation of a recovery system. 

On the basis of a method of an estimation of economic efficiency of the carried out nature protection actions parities for calculation of the damage put to environment by atmospheric emissions of manufacture are received. Transition to relative indicators has allowed to scale down number of the factors, which are not influencing process of clearing of gas emissions... 

When the mercury present in the atmosphere is primarily in the form of an organic mercury compound, it may be preferable to utilise an aqueous scmbber. This method is particularly useful for control of emissions from reactors and from dryers. For efficient and economical operation, an aqueous solution of caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite, or sodium sulfide is reckculated through the scmbber until the solution is saturated with the mercury compound. 

Atmospheric particulate emissions can be reduced by choosing cleaner fuels. Natural gas used as fuel emits negligible amounts of particulate matter. Oil-based processes also emit significantly fewer particulates than coal-fired combustion processes. Low-ash fossil fuels contain less noncombustible, ash-forming mineral matter and thus generate lower levels of particulate emissions. Lighter distillate oil-based combustion results in lower levels of particulate emissions than heavier residual oils. However, the choice of fuel is usually influenced by economic as well as environmental considerations. 

See also Acid Ram Air Quality, Indoor Atmosphere Automobile Performance Climatic Effects Emission Control, Vehicle Emission Control, Power Plant Environmental Economics Environmental Problems and Energy Use Gasoline and Additives Transportation, Evolution of Energy Use and Turbines, Gas. 

Other energy sector concerns are methane emissions from unburned fuel, and from natural gas leaks at various stages of natural gas production, transmission and distribution. The curtailment of venting and flaring stranded gas (remotely located natural gas sources that are not economical to produce liquefied natural gas or methanol), and more efficient use of natural gas have significantly reduced atmospheric release. But growth in natural gas production and consumption may reverse this trend. Methane has... 

Indeed, the most important factor that affects the future estimates of climate is the (anthropogenic) emissions of greenhouse gases and all kind of aerosols. The amount of these products released into the atmosphere depends upon the socio-economical and technological development of humankind. Thus, different hypotheses about these evolutions are assumed, resulting in several emission scenarios. The scenarios used in the IPCC AR4 derive from a Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) published earlier [2]. All these scenarios can be grouped in four families (storylines) that are named Al, A2, Bl, and B2. 

The environmental problem of sulfur dioxide emission, as has been pointed out, is very much associated with sulfidic sources of metals, among which a peer example is copper production. In this context, it would be beneficial to describe the past and present approaches to copper smelting. In the past, copper metallurgy was dominated by reverberatory furnaces for smelting sulfidic copper concentrate to matte, followed by the use of Pierce-Smith converters to convert the matte into blister copper. The sulfur dioxide stream from the reverberatory furnaces is continuous but not rich in sulfur dioxide (about 1%) because it contains carbon dioxide and water vapor (products of fuel combustion), nitrogen from the air (used in the combustion of that fuel), and excess air. The gas is quite dilute and unworthy of economical conversion of its sulfur content into sulfuric acid. In the past, the course chosen was to construct stacks to disperse the gas into the atmosphere in order to minimize its adverse effects on the immediate surroundings. However, this is not an en-... 

In addition, global warming is characterized by other important features that imply some difficulties in the implementation of the instruments provided by the standard economic theory of policy choice. First, we cannot determine with certainty both the dimension and the timing of climate change and the costs of the abatement of emissions. Second, the effects of GHG concentration in the atmosphere on climate are intergenerational and persistent across... 

Compare with actual load. The amount by which critical loads are exceeded and the area in which they are exceeded (using a GIS) can be also included in the calculation when the actual loads (for example, atmospheric deposition data in case of forest) are known. Furthermore, these exceedance values are used for ecological-economic optimization scenario of emission reduction. 

Liquefaction of chlorine is always incomplete, because the non-condensable impurities carry chlorine at its vapour pressure as they leave the liquefaction process. This exit gas, or tail gas, is handled in any of several different ways. It is of course an intolerable plant emission, and the contained chlorine must at least be destroyed before the gas is released to the atmosphere. There is also a powerful economic incentive for recovering much of the chlorine in some usable form - Silver s estimate of the value of the chlorine in the tail gas produced in the United States alone in 1981 was 50 million [3]. 

Possible actions could involve attempts to prevent atmospheric changes through limiting emissions. Strict economists favor doing nothing active now, assuming that resources will be used to maximize economic conditions in the future and solutions will eventually develop. Strict environmentalists favor a redistribution of resources to modify costs and incomes. 

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