Toward Sustainability

In the discussion about how we should set up our chemical process industry in the near future, the sustainability issue is of prime importance. Sustainability in the ecological sense means that we do not place an intolerable load on the ecosphere and that we maintain the natural basis for life. The complexity of the chemical industry with its numerous products has made us lose sight of the associated ecological impact of these products life cycles When you produce something, you also produce long-term effects. In economics, this concept is known as joint production [17], and we will discuss this in Section 13.6. 

The improvement of thermodynamic efficiency is frequently but erroneously considered as the only contribution to sustainability. An increase of 

Looking into this matter more carefully, we have come to the insight that the extent to which a process contributes to sustainability can be characterized by three parameters. A first parameter is the thermodynamic efficiency of the process. A second parameter needs to reflect the extent to which use has been made of renewable resources. Finally, a third parameter is needed to indicate the extent to which cycles have been closed. This has been discussed at great length in Section 13.6. 

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Anderson, AB., Ed. Alternatives to Deprestatiorv Steps Toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rain Forest Columbia University Press New York, NY, 1990. 

Sala L, Serra M (2004) Towards sustainability in water recycling. Water Sci Technol 50 1-7... 

In the 20 years since the Brunddand report, great developments have taken place in industries toward sustainable practices. As a case in point, the problem of acid rain, an issue of concern in 1987, has improved to a large extent, thanks to catalytic pollution abatement both in stationary and automotive emissions. Catalysis for Green Chemistry and Engineering will continue to have a cracial role in improving the environmental performance of industry [25-27]. Nowadays, catalytic procedures are often implemented according to the green chemistry... 

Ishida, T. and Haruta, M. (2007) Gold Catalysts Towards Sustainable Chemistry. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 46, 7154-7156. 

IDF (2005). Guide on life cycle assessment towards sustainability in the dairy chain. Bull. Int. Dairy Fed. 398,1-55. 

Sociological models developed to explain attitudes and behaviors toward sustainability... 

Fig. 2.1 Theoretical framework of factors influencing farmers sustainable agricultural attitudes and behaviors (From Karami and Mansoorabadi 2008). According to this theoretical framework, farmers action is guided by two kinds of considerations attitude toward sustainable agriculture and presence of factors that may further or hinder performance of the behavior...

Attitude toward sustainable agriculture Religious and spiritual values, quality of life, access to information, personal characteristics, and attitudes of reference group are the factors, which influence farmers belief system and contribute toward formation of sustainable agricultural beliefs. The framework assumes that religious and spiritual beliefs contribute to farmers attitudes toward sustainability, or... 

Hefner, R.A. Toward sustainable economic growth The age of energy gases. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 1995, 20, 945-948. 

Edinger, R., Kaul, S. 2000. Humankind s detour toward sustainability past, present, and future of renewable energies and eleetrie power generation. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 4 295-313. 

The research project Options for viable iimovation systems for successful substitution of hazardous substances (or SubChem, for short) was concerned with the problem of the ability to be innovative and of the direction of iimovation with regard to risk reduction by hazardous substance substitution as part of the programme Framework conditions for innovation towards sustainability funded by... 

This project was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the funding program Frameworks for Innovation towards Sustainability (RIW) (project number 07RIW) - the authors assume sole responsibility for the contents of this report. 

Mansvelt, J. D. and J. A. Mulder (1992). Basics and perfromances of organic agrcultural production and the IFOAMprogram evaluation and accridation system. Paper on the International Conference Towards Sustainable and Competitive Agriculture in Europe, June 22-24. ... 

Process and product models are commonly used for performing LCAs of the environmental impacts of materials and products through different stages of fabrication, use, and end-of-life options. In a recent article, it was shown that these models can be represented as process flow diagrams or as matrices of process interactions. Matrix representations are advantageous if application cost, feedback flow, or speed of analysis is important. They are also useful in conjunction with comprehensive, general equilibrium models in which the system boundary of the problem (e.g., an LCA of a product) being analyzed is on the level of the national economy (Hendrickson et al., 1998). Rich communities bear a responsibility to pioneer a path toward sustainable consumption (Myers, 1997). 

The macro-trend towards sustainable environmental protection and social responsibility, also on a legislative level, offers ChemKitgood prospects for a steady business success. However, in the first years the business model depends strongly on subsidies from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW). Any unforeseen short-term loss of these subsidies would have an extremely detrimental effect on the revenue situation of ChemKit. 

Macro-trend towards sustainable environmental protection and social responsibility opens up, e. g., opportunities for marketing reaching companies participating in Chemical Leasing Increasing tightening of European chemicals policy (REACH)... 

Toward sustainable nanoproducts an overview of nanomanufacturing methods./. Ind. Ecol., 12 (3),... 

A similar method proposed by Hoffmann [26] involves analyzing process alternatives based on two indices. The total armuabzed profit per service unit (TAPPS) and material intensity per service unit (MIPS) are calculated as economic and environmental factors, respectively. TAPPS is used to calculate the maximum profit per unit of product produced. MIPS is used to calculate the number of input and output streams in a process. MIPS was used based on the knowledge that a global reduction in material streams (solvents, reactants,) is necessary to lead toward sustainable development. TAPPS and MIPS are determined for several process alternatives, which are analyzed using a Pareto Chart for their feasibihty within a plant. However, MIPS does not account for the release of toxic solvents and reagents into the environment. Therefore it has been noted that it should be used in conjunction with LCA and other methods to avoid the use of highly toxic solvents and other raw materials [26]. 

The use of C02 in the synthesis of carboxylates (including acrylates), esters and lactones, carbonates, carbamates, and polymers may help to solve substantial problems encountered in the chemical industry, and hopefully advance towards sustainability. In all such cases, the new processes based on C02 would replace old energy- and material-intensive technologies that employed either the use of toxic compounds (e.g., phosgene) or were characterized by a high E-factor [6]. 

The case of sustainable development or, as some prefer, the development toward sustainability is illustrative for the general observation that there is a conflict between short-term and long-term values. To quote the famous sociobiologist Wilson [17],... 

Ayres, R.U. Kneese, A.V. Externalities Economics and thermodynamics. In Economics and Ecology Towards Sustainable Development, Archibugi and Nijkamp (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1989. 

Kiss, A.A., Dimian, A.C. and Rofhenberg, G. (2006) Solid add catalysts for biodiesel production — towards sustainable energy. Adv. Synth. Catal., 348, 75. 

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