Application of GREENSCOPE as a sustainability assessment tool for chemical processes: A case study

Abstract

The high demand of resources and consumption rates to satisfy the societal needs are beyond the capacity that nature can provide. Thus, sustainability assessment has become an important task in process systems engineering. In this context, the application of sustainability metrics can define procedures to optimize the use of resources and to minimize releases in the current industries and also the design of sustainable new ones. In particular, chemical industry represents a sector with high energy and resources consumption that is associated to potential human health and environmental issues. GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness for the ENvironmental Sustainability of Chemistries with a multi-Objective Process Evaluator) methodology proposed by United States Environmental Protection Agency covers 140 sustainability indicators to evaluate the process performance within the main areas of Environment, Efficiency, Energy, and Economics (four E's). In this study, simulation of the cyclohexanone synthesis by phenol hydrogenation was performed with Aspen Plus V8 and the relationships between GREENSCOPE environmental indicators and process variables were determined. The results showed that the studied process has a high level of sustainability. However, some critical aspects were identified regarding hazardous materials (use of phenol) and safety (hydrogen handling).