Guardo-Ruiz Rolando Manuel, Puello-Castellón Linda Mychell, Ortega-Toro Rodrigo, Aguilar-Vásquez Eduardo Andrés, González-Delgado Ángel Darío
Nanomaterials and Computer Aided Process Engineering Research Group (NIPAC), Chemical Engineering Department, Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena 130015, Bolivar, Colombia.
Food Packaging and Shelf-Life Research Group (FP&SL), Food Engineering Department, Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena 130015, Bolivar, Colombia.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 Jun 4;17(11):1561. doi: 10.3390/polym17111561.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most widely used polymers due to its physical properties and versatility. Water consumption of the suspension method is a critical issue that hinders competitiveness. In that case, this study implements water integration through direct recycling, with the aim of minimizing both freshwater consumption and wastewater generation. The source-sink diagram was used to generate the recycled water network, and the integrated process was simulated using software. From simulation data, the water-energy-product (WEP) analysis method was used to assess the process performance, and sustainability indicators for water, energy, and product were evaluated. Fractional water consumption and wastewater production ratio indicators increased to 51.1% and 55.0%, compared to 41% and 54% in the non-integrated process, showing improved water efficiency and cost reduction. The unreacted material reuse index reached 100%, while the production yield was 99.8%, due to effective recycling of unreacted VCM. The use of natural gas and energy integration led to optimal performance in TCE, NGCI, and EECI indicators. However, the ESI indicator was high (3.59 MJ/t) due to energy demands from thermal control equipment for water recirculation.
聚氯乙烯（PVC）因其物理性能和多功能性而成为应用最为广泛的聚合物之一。悬浮法的水消耗是阻碍其竞争力的关键问题。在这种情况下，本研究通过直接循环利用实现水集成，旨在将淡水消耗和废水产生降至最低。利用源流图生成循环水网络，并使用软件对集成过程进行模拟。根据模拟数据，采用水-能源-产品（WEP）分析方法评估过程性能，并对水、能源和产品的可持续性指标进行评估。与非集成过程中的41%和54%相比，分水消耗和废水产生率指标分别提高到51.1%和55.0%，显示出水效率提高和成本降低。由于未反应的氯乙烯单体得到有效循环利用，未反应物料再利用指数达到100%，而产品收率为99.8%。天然气的使用和能源集成在三氯乙烯（TCE）、天然气消耗指数（NGCI）和能源消耗系数指数（EECI）指标方面实现了最佳性能。然而，由于水再循环热控设备的能源需求，能源可持续性指数（ESI）较高（3.59兆焦/吨）。
