González-Delgado Ángel Darío, Ramos-Olmos Miguel, Aguilar-Vásquez Eduardo
Nanomaterials and Computer Aided Process Engineering Research Group (NIPAC), Chemical Engineering Department, Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena, Bolivar, Colombia.
Grupo de Investigación en Ciencias Administrativas y Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (CIASST), Business Administration Department, Universidad Minuto de Dios-UniMinuto, Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jun 30;15(13):2902. doi: 10.3390/polym15132902.
The new demands for sustainable operation in the chemical industry due to increasing environmental regulations and agreements have generated the need to adapt existing processes to more intelligent production. The plastics sector is in a complex position due to its contribution to economic development and the climate crisis. Therefore, environmental assessment has become an important tool due to the benefits it provides by quantifying the environmental performance of processes, allowing it to balance operational and environmental needs. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most globally used polymers thanks to its resistance, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. The polymer is synthetized by suspension polymerization, which is characterized by high productivity and controllability. However, it presents problems associated with intensive energy consumption and the emission of toxic substances and greenhouse gases. Therefore, an environmental assessment of the suspension PVC production process was performed using the waste reduction algorithm (WAR). The potential environmental impact (PEI) was quantified using the generation rate and the output velocity for four cases and three different fuels. It was found that the process transforms raw materials with high impacts, such as VCM, into substances with lower PEI, such as PVC. However, the process has a high generation of PEI due to the effects of energy consumption (-2860, -2410, 3020, and 3410 for cases 1-4, respectively). The evaluation of the toxicological impacts shows that the ATP category is the only one that presents a positive generation value (75 PEI/day); the product contributes to the formation and emission of impacts. The atmospheric categories showed that the energy consumption of the process is the most critical aspect with a contribution of 91% of the total impacts emitted. The AP and GWP categories presented the highest values. It was determined that the most suitable fuel is natural gas; it has lower impacts than liquid and solid fuels (coal). Additionally, it can be concluded that the PVC production process by suspension is environmentally acceptable compared to the polyethylene or polypropylene processes, with output impacts 228 and 2561 times lower, respectively.
由于环境法规和协议的增加，化工行业对可持续运营提出了新的要求，这就需要使现有工艺适应更智能的生产。塑料行业因其对经济发展和气候危机的影响而处于复杂的境地。因此，环境评估已成为一项重要工具，因为它通过量化工艺的环境绩效带来了诸多益处，使其能够平衡运营需求和环境需求。聚氯乙烯（PVC）由于其耐用性、柔韧性和成本效益，是全球使用最广泛的聚合物之一。该聚合物通过悬浮聚合合成，其特点是生产率高且可控性强。然而，它存在与高能耗以及有毒物质和温室气体排放相关的问题。因此，使用废弃物减少算法（WAR）对悬浮PVC生产工艺进行了环境评估。针对四种情况和三种不同燃料，利用产生速率和输出速度对潜在环境影响（PEI）进行了量化。结果发现，该工艺将具有高影响的原材料（如氯乙烯单体）转化为具有较低PEI的物质（如PVC）。然而，由于能耗的影响（情况1 - 4分别为 - 2860、 - 2410、3020和3410），该工艺产生的PEI较高。毒理学影响评估表明，ATP类别是唯一呈现正产生值的类别（75 PEI/天）；该产品对影响的形成和排放有贡献。大气类别表明，该工艺的能源消耗是最关键的方面，占总排放影响的91%。AP和GWP类别呈现出最高值。确定最合适的燃料是天然气；它的影响比液体和固体燃料（煤）更低。此外，可以得出结论，与聚乙烯或聚丙烯工艺相比，悬浮法PVC生产工艺在环境方面是可接受的，其输出影响分别低228倍和2561倍。
