Targeting for pollution prevention through process simulation

The majority of environmental legislators advise pollution prevention (P2) for reducing the environmental impact of industrial activities. This approach calls for assessing different methods to reduce the final concentration of environmentally harmful species in process effluents; one method is source reduction, e.g. by modifying process conditions to hinder production of pollutants. There are methods for predicting (targeting) furnace CO2, NOx and SOx emissions in an industrial site indirectly and via the level of energy consumed in the process. However, no method exists for targeting process-related emissions when they are not related directly to energy use. In this paper, a method is proposed for achieving this goal. The method combines a model of the process under consideration with a description of the behavior of pollutants beyond battery limits of the process. It is possible with this method to better determine the level of environmental impact of the process in hand. This method, therefore, is a targeting method for planning a retrofit on the process.