Sustainable development waste

A newly emerging concern of chemistry is sustainable development, the economical utilization and renewal of resources coupled with hazardous waste reduction and concern for the environment. This sensitive approach to the environment and our planetary inheritance is known colloquially as green chemistry. Where we s think it appropriate to draw your attention to this important development, we dis- I ( play the small icon shown here in the margin. 

Die Natur der Chemie, FUTURE (Hoechst Magazin), August 1996 Vision of large-scale production in shoebox-sized plants nature and plant ceUs as model for micro reactors sustainable development central role of catalysis general advantages of micro flow use of clean raw materials minimization of waste the next step in the sequence acetylene-to-efhylene chemistry ethane chemistry renewable resources combinatorial chemistry intelligent and creative solutions [229]. 

Resource efficient syntheses and production processes of fine chemicals contribute significantly to sustainable development. This has also been pointed out in Agenda 21 Promote efficient use of materials and resources, taking into account the life cycles of products, in order to realize the economic and environmental benefits of using resources more efficiently and producing fewer wastes (Agenda 21, Chapter 9.18). 

Zero emission plants, environmentally benign or green chemistry, and sustainable development have become the catch phrases of the 1990s (Anastas and Farris, 1994 Anastas and Warner, 1998 Anastas and Williamson, 1998 Clark, 1995). Consequently, traditional concepts of process efficiency are changing from an exclusive focus on chemical yields to one that assigns economic value to eliminating waste and avoiding the use of toxic and/or... 

Within the broad framework of sustainable development, we should strive to maximize resource efficiency through activities such as energy and nonrenewable resource conservation, risk minimization, pollution prevention, minimization of waste at all stages of a product life-cycle, and the development of products that are durable and can be re-used and recycled. Sustainable chemistry strives to accomplish these ends through the design, manufacture and use of efficient and effective, more environmentally benign chemical products and processes". 

Keywords chemical terrorism cleaner production fuel liquid waste market economy rocket utilization sustainable development... 

In the 21st century, the chemical industry will be increasingly influenced by environmental concerns with respect to waste treatment. Consequently, one of the aims of green chemistry is the replacement of hazardous materials (solvents, reagents) by less hazardous substances [1-3]. In order to comply with the requirements of a sustainable development, modern state-of-the-art chemistry should comprise ... 

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization [39-41] and Ausubel and Sladovich [4] emphasize the importance of cleaner production, pollution prevention, waste minimization, sustainable development, zero emission, materials substimtion, dematerialization, decarbonization, functional economic analysis, and IE indicators. These ways and means for analysis and design of industrial ecology are described separately herein. 

The relatively new field of industrial ecology provides a useful organizing framework for DEE (Lowe, 1993). Design for Environment (DEE) is the terminology for the third component of the LCA life-cycle improvement assessment. The principle of sustainable development suggests that companies or individuals should try both to minimize the consumption of virgin natural resources and to minimize the generation of waste material that has no productive use. 

The current reality is that most chemical companies are looking at Responsible Care, ecoefficiency, and waste reduction as their response to sustainability. The key to sustainable development is in balancing the economic concerns with the environmental and social issues. 

Clean air is an important prerequisite for sustainable development and is a basic requirement for human health and welfare. In addition, air pollutants contribute to atmospheric problems such as acidification and global climate change, which have impacts on crop productivity, forest growth, biodiversity, buildings, and cultural monuments. The benefits from the progress made in the areas of waste gas treatment and environmental legislation are partially offset by industrialization, an increase in the number of private cars in use, and overpopulation. 

The CEA has sponsored the ATALANTE conferences to provide an international forum for presentation and discussion of the advances for future fuel cycles and waste management that are needed for sustainable development of nuclear energy. Abstracts of the papers from the Avignon (2000) and Nimes (2004) conferences are available on the web at www-atalante2004.cea.fr. They demonstrate that centrifugal contactors are being used for flowsheets covering various nuclear processes. 

Ecological Part (Planet). The ecological part has to do with the impact of human action on nature. Mainly this means all the known environmental problems and processes that disrupt the ecosystems (ozone depletion, acidification, greenhouse effect, destruction of species, wastes, etc.). In a sustainable world all those known problems must be minimized or avoided. In addition, for as far as possible, sustainable development must have the power to avoid new problems. The precautionary principle is therefore adopted. 

The book is meant for the practicing engineer and anybody else who is interested or engaged in the transition from a fossil-based, non-sustainable industry to a sustainable, low-waste industry based on renewable energy and resources. Thus, it is hoped, the book itself will contribute to the development of a sustainable society. 

Transmaterialisation is a more fundamental approach to the problem, which, with the goal of sustainable development, would ultimately switch consumption to only those resources that are renewable on a short timescale. Clearly petroleum, which takes millions of years to form, is not an example of such a sustainable resource. For the method to be truly effective, the wastes associated with the conversion and consumption of such resources must also be environmentally compatible on a short timescale. The use of polyolefin plastic bags for example, which have lifetimes in the environment of hundreds of years, is not consistent with this (no matter how they compare with alternative packaging materials at other stages in their lifecycle), nor is the use of some hazardous process auxiliaries which are likely to cause rapid environmental damage on release into the environment. 

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