Cost of waste

Table 5. Estimated U.S. Processing Costs of Waste Disposal Method ...

Copper etchants do not directly influence the electroless plating process, but are used merely to remove unwanted copper, and should not affect the deposit properties. The costs of waste treatment and disposal have led to disuse of throw-away systems such as chromic—sulfuric acid, ferric chloride, and ammonium persulfate. Newer types of regenerable etchants include cupric chloride, stabilized peroxide, and proprietary ammoniacal etchant baths. 

Avoidance of rising costs of waste treatment and/or disposal... 

Over the years the trend has been toward an increasing use of the more expensive elastomers. Concern has been expressed about the cost of waste compound when using a multicavity mold and injection molding, primarily due to the amount of elastomeric compound in the runner system. There are three approaches to overcome the problem ... 

Water is historically thought to be free, and is still so cheap that its wastage is not felt to raise a serious cost. This commonly leads to pointless waste. It is unusual for a works to meter the water usage of different operations on one site, and so the cost of waste is not made clear to those who are immediately responsible for it. Occasional spot estimates of water usage (which may be possible... 

Processing Costs of Waste Materials in a Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator, Report TNO-MEP R96/248, TNO-MEP, Apeldoom, the Netherlands, 1996. 

Overall, the money the company invested in process development was paid back in less than one year through reduced material costs, lower energy charges and reduced cost of waste. 

Operating costs can be estimated based on statistical analysis of operating costs in existing plants. Costs of waste disposal can be evaluated in the same way as costs for any chemical process since procedures for disposal include, in fact, unit chemical processes and operations. Costs of utilities and maintenance are best assessed based on the company data banks. Typical utility figures per m capacity of reactors in MPPs are 800-1100 kg steam/h, 60-80 kW power, and 7,000-8,000 kJ/h refrigeration capacity. 

In the U.S. about 8% of the energy is provided by biomass and almost 90% of this comes from the combustion of wood and wood residues. The use of biomass increased from an installed capacity of 200 megawatts in 1980 to over 7,700 megawatts in 1990. The search for cleaner fuels and landfill restraints are the main reasons for increased biomass utilization. The cost of waste disposal has soared and landfill sites are closing faster than new ones are opening up. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that between 1978 and 1988, 70% of the nation s landfills, about 14,000 sites closed. 

That is, compared to conventional (small molecnle) drng prodnct mannfactnre, biopharmacentical mannfac-turing necessitates an even higher state of PAT for robnst process nnderstanding and control. Not only are the processes more complex but the cost of waste is often mnch higher. 

Researchers concluded that ion exchange removal of nitrate was cost prohibitive at the Livermore site because of the high cost of waste disposal. The perchlorate-only alternative with nitrate removal using another technology was the most cost-effective solution. Perchlorate disposal costs under this option were 350/year, and minimal maintenance of the treatment unit would be required (D20493D, p. 12). The cost estimates are summarized in Table 1. 

J.S. Ilirschhorn (Congressional Office of Technology Assessment) as early as 1988 presented a scholarly summary of waste reduction as the ultimate key to pollution abatement, Waste reduction is the only way to save industry some of tire escalating costs of the current waste-management system. The direct costs of waste disposal have increased some 50 times just over the past few years. Hirschhorn listed six steps to waste reduction ... 

Costs of waste processing (less waste generated in process-intensive plants)... 

The first and second major drivers for pollution prevention, as described above, are regulations and laws and the cost of waste treatment. Extrapolation of the two curves in Fig. 6 would imply that future laws and regulations will be even more stringent and, if solved by end-of-pipe treatment, even more costly. 

One of the most powerful ways to drive home all of these points is by keeping track of waste. This can be done by several methods. Doxsee and Hutchison (2004) suggest performing an economic analysis of the entire process. For an economic analysis, students calculate all of the costs of reagents and solvents per gram of product obtained. This figure can be determined with or without the cost of waste disposal. Students are amazed to find that factoring in waste can often double the cost of production. 

Estimate the cost of waste disposal, as well as the treatment of volatile organic components (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and any other materials forbidden by the environmental regulations. 

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