Waste Management

The new Concept is:

Design a process with

“zero waste”
 Waste Management
Wastes include:

• Liquid or solid residues from a process

• Contaminated materials
• Off-specification products
• Accidental spillages
• Machine/finishing residue
• Fugitive emissions
• Gaseous discharges
 Waste Management
Main causes of waste generation :

• Inappropriate raw material

• Inefficient process
• Unsuitable equipments
• Poor operation practices
• Accidents
Waste Management
The main objective is:

Design a new process or modify an

existing plant or process to satisfy
environmental, users and system
requirements
 Waste Management
To be learned:

How to eliminate/minimise the waste

in the sources by substitution of raw
material, changing the process
conditions, equipment or recycling the
Process streams.
 Waste Management
The concepts that would be reviewed
in this course are:
Waste Minimisation, Polution
Prevention, green Chemistry/Clean
Technology, Recycling and Waste
Treatment

M. Shahriari - Chalmers
 Waste Management
Course structure

Lectures Study Visit

Waste Minimization and P2

Cleaner Technology
Waste minimization practices

Waste Treatment and Utilization

 Sustainability

Environmental Economic
Protection Stability
Sustainable
Development

Social Responsibility
SD aims to meet two key objectives of modern societies;
• Economic development to secure higher standards of living
• Protection of the environment
 Waste Management
How can we find ways to meet our current economic and social
needs without compromising the ability of our children, and our
children's children, to do the same? Our success will depend on
understanding the difference between:

• Sustainable practices: practices that provide

ongoing economic and social benefits without
degrading the environment.
• Unsustainable practices: "quick fixes" that fill an
immediate need for resources. Over time,
however, these practices deplete or damage
natural resources so they cannot be used or
enjoyed by future generations.
 Waste Management
Waste Definition:

Any substance which constitutes a scrap

material or an effluent, or other unwanted
surplus substance arising from the
application of a process.
 What are the problems with
wastes
Require significant
Creating potential
investment in
environmental problems
pollution control
Wastes

represent losses from the production

process of valuable materials and energy
 Waste Management
Wastes include:
• Liquid or solid residues from a process
• Contaminated materials
• Off-specification products
• Accidental spillages
• Machine/finishing residue
• Fugitive emissions
• Gaseous discharges

M. Shahriari - Chalmers
 Waste Management
Main causes of waste generation :
• Inappropriate raw material
• Inefficient process
• Unsuitable equipments
• Poor operation practices
• Accidents

M. Shahriari - Chalmers
 Waste Management
Products
Feeds Process
Effluent
Waste treatment
Original Process
Products
Feeds Process
Effluent
Waste treatment
After Waste Minimisation
 Waste Management
Waste management is involved with all efforts
concerning with eliminating or minimizing of wastes
including:
• Identification of wastes and the sources of
generation in a process
• Selecting and implementing of the most
appropriate techniques with respect to
economic point of view as well as environmental
reasons in the frame of the hierarchy of WM
practices through process optimization or
redesign in developing cleaner process
 Waste Management
The main objective of waste management is:

Cost effective handling, minimization, treatment and

disposal of waste under the key constraint of legislation
and its enforcement
In a new process, the implications of waste must be
considered at all stages from conceptual design through
to detailed design/optimization and pilot studies
 Waste Management
Wastes include:

Liquid, solid, and gaseous waste materials can be

generated during the manufacture of any product
Waste generated in process industries represents a loss of
raw material, intermediates, by-products which may cause
damage to the environment and requires time,
manpower and money to manage.

M. Shahriari - Chalmers
Hierarchy of waste management options
set down in EC Council Resolution on
Waste Policy

Prevention Best

Minimization

Recycling

Disposal
Worst
 Waste Management
Earlier policy Re-
utilisation
Material recycling
Energy recycling
Landfill disposal

Re-utilisation
Material recycling
Energy recycling
present and Landfill
disposal
Future policy
Change of system for management of disposed material
 What is Clean Technology?
The reduction of waste at source is preferable and often
cheaper than end of pipe solutions and may be achieved
by various means such as process modification, recycling
or recovery of waste materials. In these times of
increased legislation, with stricter environmental controls
and greater public access to company records , there is a
very real need to look again at process design and
company policies. It is imperative for industry that
personnel both understand and implement the principles
of Clean Technology.
M. Shahriari - Chalmers
 Clean Technology
Reduce
Change
Substitute Unnecessary if
Utilities Zero waste
Products
Raw Materials Process
Disposal/
Waste
treatment
Improve
Minimise/recycle
Clean Technology can apply to all stages in Life Cycle
 Waste Minimisation
Synonymous terms of waste minimisation:
- Waste Reduction
- Clean or Cleaner Technology/Engineering/
Processing
- Pollution Prevention (P2)/Reduction
- Environmental Technologies
- Low and Non-Waste Technologies
 Waste Minimisation
- What are the benefits of Waste
Minimisation?
- What are the main barriers in
Waste Minimisation?
- What is the major element of
success in Waste Minimisation?
- Methodology of Waste Minimisation
 What are the benefits of Waste
Minimisation?
• Improving the health and safety of employees
• Increasing operating efficiency and hence reducing production cost
• The implementation of a waste minimization project which is
associated with additional capital investment, may be rewarded
by benefits such as:
Reduced on-site waste monitoring, control and treatment costs
Reduced handling, pretreatment, transport and out-site disposal cost
Reduced waste storage space
Reduced administrative and paper work costs
Reduced analytical costs for the characterization of waste streams
Reduced production costs
Reduced risk for handling of hazardous materials
Reduced risk for the environment i.e., reduction/elimination of
liability charges
Improved operating efficiency and process reliability
 Main Barriers in Waste Minimisation
• Economic Barriers
• Technical Barriers
• Regulatory Barriers
• Cultural Barriers
Resistance to change within a company may
introduce barriers Problems may be caused by:
* Lack of management responsibility
* Lack of awareness of objectives
* Individual or organizational resistance to change
* Poor internal communication
* In flexible organizational structure
* Bureaucracy
* Restrictive employment practices
 Major Element of Success in
Waste Minimisation is:
Training:
What should be on focus when the training for
waste minimisation is concerned? Example subjects:
Company policy
Overview of legislation and regulations
Definition of waste types
Description of risk to health, safety, and the environment
Definitions of waste minimisation, recycling and treatment
Potential for waste generation within the company
Benefits to be gained from waste minimisation
Barriers and techniques for overcoming them
WM techniques
Case studies
 Methodology of Waste Minimisation
Setting goals and timescales
Establish assessment team
Process and waste characterization including: mass & energy
balance, identifying of waste sources in the process
Finding and ranking of options
Techno-economical study
Report on assessment and evaluation:
Recommendations for implementation of WM projects including details for each
option: WM potential, maturity of technology, overall economics, required
resources and financing possibilities, time for installation
Detail engineering work anf implementation of the project
 Practical techniques to minimise waste
Waste Minimisation
Techniques

Waste reduction at source Recycling

Good Technological Input material Product On-site Off-site

practice changes changes Changes recycling recycling

Cleaner
Retrofitting
processes
Basic Approaches to Waste Minimization
Are to Modify:

1. the chemicals/feeds

2. the process

3. the equipment

4. the effluent treatment

 Sources of waste
In an existing plant before thinking about waste
minimisation we need to know:
• Where it is being generated ?
• How it is generated ?
• Where it is going ?
This requires a waste audit ( a material and energy balance)
A balance which takes into account startup, shutdown, and
product changeover is often required.
Reactor is at the heart of the process
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 Sources of Wastes
Process Utility
waste waste

Reactor

Separation
Reactor and
recycle

Heat exchangerand
Separation network
recycle
Heat exchanger network

Utilities
 Sources of Waste
Process waste Utility waste

in reactor From furnaces, steam boiler, gas

turbines, diesel engines, and stack
outlets.
in separation and
recycling systems

in process
operations
 Sources of waste in reactors (1)
1. Unreacted feed

2. The primary reaction can produce waste byproducts

FEED 1+FEED 2 =>PRODUCT + byproduct
3. Secondary reactions can produce waste byproducts
FEED 1+ FEED 2 =>PRODUCT
PRODUCT => byproduct

4. Impurities in the feed materials become waste or can react

to produce additional waste byproducts

5. Catalyst is either degraded and requires changing or is lost

and can not be recycled
 Minimising waste in reactors (2)
1. Minimising the waste of unreacted feed materials

- Change the process conditions e.g. retention time,

temperature, pressure

- Change feed material to another alternative

- Change the technology and equipments

 Minimising waste in reactors (3)
2. Minimising waste byproducts from primary reactions

1. For irreversible reactions higher conversion can be

obtained by higher temperature, higher pressure, and
longer retention time

2. For reversible reactions higher conversion can be

obtained by:
• Excess reactants
• Product removal during reaction
• Inserts concentration
• Changing reactor temperature and pressure
 Minimising waste in reactors (4)
3. Minimising waste byproducts from secondary reactions
- Choosing the correct type of reactor with regards to the type
of reaction (series or parallel) can help the process of
waste minimisation. In case of parallel reaction, look at the
ratio of the rate equations of the secondary and primary reactions
and choose conditions to minimise that ratio.

- Minimising waste byproduct techniques depends on the

reaction system. Figure shows some of these techniques
and illustrate where each technique is appropriate for a
number of reactions.
 Minimising waste in reactors (5)
4+5. Minimising waste from impurities and catalyst loss
Avoiding the waste in this case is possible by:
- Purifying the feed. Then we must trade off higher feed
purification costs against lower cost for raw materials,
product separation and waste disposal.
- Reducing waste from catalyst loss by using
heterogeneous rather than homogeneous catalyst.
Homogeneous catalysts can be difficult to separate and
recycle and this leads to waste. Heterogeneous are degraded
and need replacement. If contaminants in the feed or recycle
shorten catalyst life then extra separation to remove those
contaminants before entering the reactor might be justified.
Sources of waste in separation
and Recycling systems
Wastes in separation systems can be
minimised By:
 recycling waste streams directly;
 beneficiation/purification of the feed;
 elimination of extraneous materials used for
separation;
 additional separation of waste streams to
allow increased recovery.
 Recycling (1)
With respect to the hierarchy of WM practices, recycling should
Only be considered if all other options for W Minimization have
been exhausted.

The success of recycling depends on:

• The ability to reuse the waste by return to originating
process as a substitute for an input material
• The ability to use the waste as a raw material either
on-site or off-site
• The ability to segregate recoverable and valuable
materials from a waste
 Recycling (2)
On-Site Recycling:
The optimum place to recover waste is within the production facility.
The following wastes are good candidates for recycling:

• Contaminated versions of process raw materials

• Lightly contaminated wastes which can be used in other operations not
requiring high quality materials
• Wastes which have physical and chemical properties suitable for other
on-site applications-e,g., the use of waste solvent, oil, etc in combustion process
• Reuse of extracted water from dilute, high volume waste streams
• Waste which can be refined on-site e.g., the recycling of slop oils in an
oil refinery
Most on-site recycling processes will generate some waste which must be
disposed safely if can not be further used on-site
 Recycling (3)
Off-Site Recycling:
Wastes may be considered for use off-side when:
• No facility is available on site
• Generated waste is not enough to make on-site recycling
• The recovered material can not be used in the process

The cost of off-site recycling depends on different factors

including the purity of the waste and the market.
In a few cases waste may be transferred to another company
to be used as raw material. Such an exchange can be
economically advantageous to both companies.
 Minimising Waste in Process
Operation
Main Causes Some Actions
• Poor control and operation Increase automation
(low conversion, additional
Unwanted by-products)
• Poor design Modify the system
(e.g., loss during material handling)
• Tank filling Send vapour into
recovery system or use
tank with floating roof as
a flexible membrane
• Incidental/Fugitive emission Perform risk assessment
• Start up/shut down Improve reliability
Waste treatment Technologies

 Gaseous treatment technologies

 Liquid treatment technologies
 Solids treatment technologies