References Environmental impact analysis

The final reference in this category is the Australian Government Gazette (Ref. G9) which includes information regarding industrial effluent limits, as demanded by the Environmental Protection Authority (in Australia). These data are quoted in the Environmental Impact Analysis (Section 5.4.7). 

This part of an application contains a precise description of the composition, methods of manufacture, specifications, and control procedures for the drug substance and the drug product. It also includes an environmental impact analysis statement for the manufacturing process and for the ultimate use of the drug. (Refer to the Guideline for the Format and Content of the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls Section of an Application and 21 CFR 314.50(d)(1), which set forth specific data requirements for this section.)... 

FIGURE 21.3 System boundary for the cradle-to-gate environmental impact analysis of lithium-ion batteries, which includes the materials production and battery assembly stages. (For color version of this figure, the reader is referred to the online version of this book.)... 

Although in principle stationary and transport-specific energy chains can be analysed, here the assessment of the latter is explained in more detail, and is then referred to as well-to-wheel (WTW) analysis. The primary focus of WTW analysis in Europe is on global environmental impact, i.e., greenhouse-gas emissions expressed as C02-equivalents. Other issues of interest are (a) primary energy demand (which equals resource utilisation), (b) local pollutant emissions and (c) full energy or fuel supply costs. Well-to-wheel analysis covers the entire fuel supply chain from feedstock extraction, feedstock transportation, fuel manufacturing and fuel distribution to fuel use in a vehicle. 

The terms LCA and cradle-to-grave analysis indicate that it is not the products per se that are analyzed, but in fact product systems in the sense of the production-consnmption-waste treatment systems (Bousead and Hancock, 1989). However, the function of the product as it is used remains the point of reference to which the environmental impacts are attributed. LCAs assist in evaluating proposed changes to product or process designs so that a tradeoff can be identified. 

Fatty alcohols, by which the author means those in the range C and above, are split into two classes, petrochemical and oleochemical, or, as they are more usually referred to, synthetic and natural. The discussion of the relative merits of synthetic vs natural products has been at the forefront of surfactant technology for many years and has produced a wealth of literature. It is beyond the scope of this work to discuss whether oleochemicals have an inherent environmental benefit over petrochemicals. A good deal of scientific study on life cycle analysis and macro environmental impact is available but social and ethical arguments, as well as the perceptions of the end consumer, also play a part. On a strictly scientific basis, the author sees no inherent advantage in either source. The performance of a surfactant based on synthetic materials may differ from a naturally derived one but neither is intrinsically better than the other. In terms of impact on humans and the environment, there is also no clear evidence to suggest a difference between the two sources of hydrophobe. 

Life cycle assessment of SOFC technology is still uncommon due to the relatively early stage in technical development. However, several studies have been performed since the end of the 1990s. Since there is a lack of standard commercial equipment that could serve as a basis and reference point for analysis, LCA studies mostly refer to hypothetical concepts and/or extrapolate from laboratory and early market prototypes to commercial units. While the first studies had only little access to operation data at aU (for the fuel cell system itself but also for production processes), the main effort was set in the assessment of inventory data using assumptions, simplifications, and correlations [79, 80]. The main outcomes of these studies were the identification of weak points and the setting of benchmarks for further development. With more information about fuel cells available today and a simultaneous advancement in LCA methodology, the studies became more reliable and detailed, regarding system description [81] as well as the assessment of environmental impacts coimected with inputs and outputs [82]. Especially the extensive data of these two studies found their way to commercial databases for LCA [83] and thereby became available to LCA practitioners. In 2005, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)... 

Process design engineers should be concerned not only about the enviroiunental impacts that are directly generated in the designed process, but also consider the environmental impacts that are associated with the provision of the raw materials and services they specify as inputs to their processes. In recent years, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been given a lot of attention as an environmental indicator of chemical processes [24], LCA is a comprehensive technique that covers both upstream and downstream effects of the activity or product under examination, thus often being referred to as cradle-to-grave analysis [25]. 

The LCA analysis first performs an inventory analysis that involves data collection and calculation procedures to quantify relevant inputs and outputs of the entire system defined within the system boundaries. This inventory is followed by an environmental impact assessment, which quantifies and categorises the inventory analysis results into environmental impacts. For demonstration purposes. Table 1 shows a list of the inventory emissions to air and the impact analysis of these emissions. The impact analysis step converts the inventory results into equivalents of a selected reference substance for each impact category such as emitting 1kg of methane is equivalent to 11kg of CO2 for global warming potential and 1kg of HF is equivalent to 1.6kg of SO2 for acidification. 

The constructor will be required to provide a site safety manual which will address, for example, fire protection, accident reporting and analysis, work planning and training of construction personnel. The manual will also include what constitutes an environmental impact statement for the plant construction. Safety audits and inspections will be undertaken during construction. The emphasis will be on a leading indicator approach to the management of safety. The selected constmctor will comply with the CDM regulations (Reference 9.9). 

The note 2 refers already to the problem with random hardware faults and systematic failures. The cause of an error in a system is never only related to random hardware faults, the cause for a random hardware fault is often already a systematic fault such as wrong selection of the part, wrong estimation of environmental impacts, production errors etc. That means all quantitative methods rely on systematic analysis, where the quantification could only consider as an indication or as a metric for comparison or balancing of the architecture or design. In other standards those approaches are considered also as semi-quantitative analysis. Furthermore, the question is if these methods are only the kind of representation of the result of the analysis rather than the indication for the analysis itself. 

An unpublished cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis (LCA) study subcontracted to Vito (Mol, Belgium) tried to identify environmental bottlenecks of rhamnolipid and sophorolipid production and compare them with those of market reference surfactants according to the ISO 1404x series. Experimental data for the pilot plant scale were complemented with LCA data from the Vito database as well as literature data for the upscaled production scenario. In order to compare the environmental profile of these biosurfactants with market reference surfactants data were used from Zah and Hischier [18]. The Eco-Indicator 99 methodology [19] was used to determine environmental impacts. 

The environmental burden covers all impacts on the environment and includes extraction of raw materials, emission of hazardous and toxic materials, land use, and disposal. In certain cases, the analysis only takes into account the burden up to the "gate" of the producing facility and, in other cases, the analysis takes into account the actual disposal of the product. In the former case, the analysis is termed a "cradle-to-gate" analysis, while in the latter case it is referred to as a "cradle-to-grave" analysis. 

---