Pollution prevention

These three case smdies are only a few among hundreds. Pollution prevention, as one of the pillars of green chanistry, is an essential component of the sustainability pathway. 

Having defined the process products and emission (Chapters 3 and 4), pollution prevention is the operational guideline for refinery operators, process engineers, process chemists, and for that matter, anyone who handles petroleum and/or petroleum products. It is in this area that environmental analysis plays a major role (EPA, 2004). 

Pollution prevention is, simply, reduction or elimination of discharges or emissions to the environment. The limits of pollutants emitted to the atmosphere, the land, and water are defined by various pieces of legislation that have been put into place over the past four decades (Chapter 5) (Speight, 1996 Woodside, 1999). This includes all pollutants, such as hazardous and nonhazardous wastes and regulated and unregulated chemicals from all sources. 

Pollution associated with petroleum refining typically includes volatile organic compounds (volatile organic compounds), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides (SO c), nitrogen oxides (NO ), particulates, ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), metals, spent acids, and numerous toxic organic compounds (Hydrocarbon Processing, 2003). Sulfur and metals result from the impurities in crude oil. The other wastes represent losses of feedstock and petroleum products. 

These pollutants may be discharged as air emissions, wastewater, or solid waste. All of these wastes are treated. However, air emissions are more difficult to capture than wastewater or solid waste. Thus, air emissions are the largest source of untreated wastes released to the enviromnent. 

The purpose of this chapter is to present a description of the methods by which petroleum products-effluents-emissions are treated in an attempt to ensure that pollution does not occur and products-effluents-emissions fall within legislative specifications. Indeed, as already noted, enviromnental analysis is the major 

Following the flow of materials in our industrial economy, from raw material acquisition to product and waste disposal, provides perspective that is essential for pollution prevention. Such studies can help to identify whether materials currently regarded as wastes in one industrial sector could be viewed as raw materials by another sector. These studies also reveal what types of processes and products are responsible for waste generation, and identification of the source of a waste is the first step toward prevention. 

This section will examine pollution prevention at the macroscale level from three perspectives. First, an overview of waste generation and management will be presented. This inventory of wastes helps to identify 

Waste audits examine macroscale pollution prevention from this perspective. 

1992 North American Conference on Industrial Recycling and Waste Exchange Proceedings 

Clean Production Strategies Devetoping Preventive Environmental Management in the Industrial Economy 

Multiple authors present a cross-disciplinary look at waste minimization. Topics covered include principles of dean production, profiting from pollution prevention, product lifecycle assessment, risk reduction and chemical control, economic policy and environmental assurance, and liability for the environment 

Environmental Protection Agency, Government Institutes, Inc., 1992, ISBN 0-86587-314-3, 143pages, 34. 

This EPA guide covers the Initial assessment phase for pollution prevention, technical and economic feasibility analysis, and implementation. 

222-235 AD Alexander VI of the Roman Empire called a ball of quicklime and asphalt automatic fire which spontaneously ignited on coming into contact with water. 

940 The Chinese invented the Fire Ball which is made of an 

1040 The Chinese built a blackpowder plant in Pein King. 

1249 Roger Bacon first made blackpowder in England. 

1627 The Hungarian, Kaspar Weindl used blackpowder in blasting. 

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Pollution Pollution control Pollutionmomtoring Pollution prevention... 

This article has been reviewed by the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and approved for publication. Approval does not... 

S. C. DeVito, ia S. C. DeVito and R. L. Garrett, eds.. Designing Safer Chemicals Green Chemistry for Pollution Prevention, American Chemical Society Symposium Series 640, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., pp. 194—223. 

Pollution Prevention. Procedures haven been developed for recovery of composite ammonium perchlorate propellant from rocket motors, and the treatment of scrap and recovered propellant to reclaim ingredients. These include the use of high pressure water jets or compounds such as ammonia, which form fluids under pressure at elevated temperature, to remove the propellant from the motor, extraction of the ammonium perchlorate with solvents such as water or ammonia as a critical fluid, recrystalli2ation of the perchlorate and reuse in composite propellant or in slurry explosives or conversion to perchloric acid (166,167). 

The identification of pollution prevention options has become a maintenance requirement. In addition to these requirements, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) performed its first investigation of indoor air quahty. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has also begun to research air quahty. 

D. C. Busby and co-workers. Supercritical Fluid Spray Application Technology A Pollution Prevention Technologyfor the Futures PP- 218—239 Proceedings of the 17th Water-Borne and High-Solid Coating Symposiums New Orleans, La., 1990. 

Emissions Control. From the combustion chemistry standpoint, lean mixtures produce the least amount of emissions. Hence, one pollution prevention alternative would be to use lean premixed flames. However, lean mixtures are difficult to ignite and form unstable flames. Furthermore, thek combustion rates are very low and can seldom be appHed dkectly without additional measures being taken. Consequently the use of lean mixtures is not practical. 

A number of states such as New Jersey have passed into law the "Pollution Prevention Act" which requires industry to reduce and eventually eliminate toxic waste in the 1990s (295). Cooperation between industry government academia and private environmental groups to implement these pollution prevention acts have begun in earnest (296—302). 

There are a number of papers and patents on recycling dye and textile industry wastewater for reuse of dye, textile auxiUaries, and water (99,102,120,306—311). Recycling is considered a part of pollution prevention. 

Besides the above federal laws, all 50 U.S. states have also passed environmental laws. As previously mentioned, both the United States and the state of New Jersey have passed Pollution Prevention Acts (295). 

Pollution Prevention Mews, Office of Pollution Prevention, USEPA, Washington, D.C., Api. 1990, p. 2 Pollution Prevention Guidance Manualfor the Dye Manufacturingindustry, USEPA/ETAD, Washington, D.C., 1992. 

B. Smith, "Identification and Reduction of Pollution Souices on Textile West Piocessing," A WorkbookforPollution Prevention by Source Reduction in Textile Wet Processing Pollution Prevention Piogiam, Noith Caiolina Depaitment of Enviionment, Health, and Natuial Resouices, Raleigh, N.C., 1986,1988. 

R. L. Berglund and C. T. Lawson, "Pollution Prevention in the Chemical Process Industries," Chem. Eng. (Sept. 1991). 

Louis Theodore/ Sc D / Professor of Chemical Engineering, Manhattan College Member, Air and Waste Management Association. (Section Coeditor Pollution Prevention)... 

P Pollution prevention pays MACT Maximum achievable control technology... 

CAA Clean Air Act PIES Pollution prevention information exchange systems... 

CFR Code of federal regulations PPIC Pollution prevention information clearinghouse... 

Regulatory Direction There is no doubt that pollution prevention continues to be the regulatoiy direction. The development of new and more efficient processes and waste minimization technologies will be essential to support this effort. 

There are profound opportunities for both industiy and the individual to prevent the generation of waste indeed, pollution prevention is today primarily stimulated by economics, legislation, liabihty concerns, and the enhanced environmental benefit of managing waste at the source. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has estabhshed pollution prevention as a national policy, declaring that waste should be prevented or reduced at the source wherever feasible, while pollu-... 

Table 25-8 provides a rough timetable demonstrating the United States approach to waste management. Note how waste management has begun to shift from pollution control-driven activities to pollution prevention activities. 

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

Formal pollution prevention programs (Pollution Prevention Act)... 

The TCP approach is relatively simple and can be easily applied to studies involving comparisons of different equipments, different processes, or even parts of processes. CCP has now emerged as the most realistic approach that can be employed in economic project analyses. It is the recommended procedure for pollution-prevention studies. The LCC approach is usually applied to the life-cycle analysis (LCA) of a product or seiwice. It has found occasional application in projec t analysis. 

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