Pollution prevention concepts

As Geiser stated (Geiser, 1998), the P2 movement differed dramatically and fundamentally from the conventional command and control, end-of-pipe, media-specific, compliance and enforcement system that was dominant in environmental protection policy during the 1980s. The P2 movement has been slow to develop the internal capacities that would promote the environmental successes that the pollution prevention concept offers. Geiser laid out five uncompleted tasks in the promotion of pollution prevention (Geiser, 1995). The current text seeks to address only one of these the chemical substitutes for existing chemicals. 

During process conception, reaction pathways, inherent process safety, general environmental impacts of products, and waste streams are studied, and pollution prevention concepts are formulated. 

Lou H, Huang Y. Profitable pollution prevention concept, fundamentals development. Plat Surf Finish 2000 87(ll) 59-66. 

In-Process Recycle This is the recycle of unreacted feed so that it will not become a waste product. It has already been established several places in this book that this is also sound economic policy, because raw materials are almost always the largest operating cost in a chemical process. Therefore, in-process recycle, along with other pollution prevention concepts, has economic as well as environmental advantages. 

Also, in the 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency began to focus on pollution prevention. The idea was to cut pollution using natural ecosystems as a model. Industrial systems should not be open-ended, dumping endless byproducts, but closed, as nature is, continuously cycling and recyling. This concept includes life cycle assessment (LCA) which considers ... 

Inherent safety is similar in concept to pollution prevention or cleaner production. 

Although inherent safety and pollution prevention are similar in concept, there are practical differences between the two that have, so far, made the adoption of inherent safety measures less attractive to industry than pollution prevention/cleaner production. 

Section I provides an introduction to green chemistry and green engineering. Section II provides examples of pollution prevention heuristics for chemical processes. Heuristics of the two most important unit operations, reactors and separators, are covered. Section III introduces readers to the concept of environmental fate and transport and prediction of environmental fate properties. Understanding of environmental fate and transport is important for exposure assessment and also is essential for evaluating environmental performance of processes and products during process development and design. 

The U.S. Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 established a national policy to prevent or reduce pollution at its source whenever feasible. It also provided an opportunity to devise creative strategies for the protection of human health and the environment, and to formulate innovative approaches to the challenge of constructing a sustainable planet. In the sections below we will review the new concepts and tools that are relevant for Pollution Prevention. 

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