"Waste" describers material that was not used for its intended purpose or unwanted material produced as a consequence

of another process. In the chemical industry, waste is either considered inert or contaminated. Inert waste can be recycled or released into the environment. Malformed polymer or leaking steam may be considered inert wastes, although they are not chemically inert. Wastewater is a type of contaminated waste that needs to be treated before the components can be recycled or released to the environment. No matter what type of waste you have, waste costs money. Malformed polymer is either sold as scrap for much less than the properly formed parts or it has to be reprocessed. Either scenario costs a company money. Treating wastewater is certainly an expensive endeavor. In short, there is much motivation to minimize waste in the chemical and other industries.

Batch Operations

When you think of a batch operation, you may not think that these smaller units produce much waste. To the contrary, batch operations produce much more waste per unit product than do continuous processes. Traditionally, manufacturers using batch operations could afford this high waste content thanks to the high value of their products. In recent years, waste has become more and more expensive to deal with while competition has forced product value down. What has raised the cost of waste "production"? Increased solvent prices and fees for environmental permitting and monitoring emissions. Each run of a batch process differs in many aspects. Waste generation is no exception. For example, one run may yield 1.5 lbs. of unwanted by-product while a small pressure variation in the next run causes 1.7 lbs. of waste to be produced. Waste handling equipment must be designed to handle the worst case scenario waste production conditions. Careful control of reaction conditions can help minimize waste in such applications. Reactor loading and unloading are also opportunities to minimize waste. During reactor loading, add solids before liquids. This will minimize the amount of time that a most likely volatile liquid is in contact with the atmosphere. If possible, use a solvent with a lower vapor pressure to minimize evaporation losses. Consider using a hopper specific to your solids. Some hoppers allow locking of the process vessel to minimize vapor losses. Also, some hoppers are available to open and distribute solids packaged in bags (cut-in hoppers). During batch reactor operations, consider using a vapor recycling system if necessary. The cumulative effects can be well worth the investment. Install gaskets on all vessel openings. Use statistical process control (SPC) to regulate reactions rather than using intermediate testing. When discharging the reactor, try to allow the reactor to cool as much as possible to limit volatile organic compounds from leaking.

Process Modifications

Raw Materials Feed quality is very important in waste minimization. Working with suppliers to improve feed quality reduce waste dramatically. Even small impurities can lead to giant amounts of waste. For example, a specific feed impurity may speed up catalysts degradation which in turn produces waste that must be separated from final products. Even if these impurities are not a compromise of your quality and are left in the product, it may increase the waste in your customer's process. Raw materials can also be evaluated for reduction or elimination. Consider a company that uses algae inhibitor in their cooling tower. By shielding their tower from the sun, they quickly found that they could reduce their inhibitor use by half.

Reactors The transition from laboratory to industrial scale can sometimes see a drastic change in product yield if proper mixing is not employed. By using static mixers before the reactor, by-product yield can be minimized. Constant searching for better catalyst materials can also help a reactor operate at peak efficiency. Consider a separate, smaller reactor for recycle streams. Optimum conditions for recycle streams can vary from those used for fresh feeds. A separate reactor allows these different, optimum conditions to be used.

Distillation Columns Distillation columns contribute to waste by allowing impurities to remain in the product. The solutions to this problem include ways to better separations. It is critical that engineers analyze the cost of waste treatment and the additional energy costs required for better separations. At times, the additional energy may be much more expensive than waste treatment. Separations can be bettered by the following methods: 1. Increased reflux ratio 2. Additional trays

3. Changing feed location 4. Insulating column 5. Pre-heating column feed 6. Increasing size of vapor lines Columns can also produce significant waste due to inadequate condensation. The vapor can find its way to a vent or flare and add to atmospheric pollution and result in costly fines. Be sure your condenser is operating properly.

Pollution Your activities may cause air pollution from the release of chemical fumes and odours, noise pollution from processing plant and machinery, water pollution from contaminated discharges or accidental spills, or land contamination from storing chemicals or oil. If you cause a pollution incident you may be prosecuted or fined and have to pay clean-up costs, all of which could damage your reputation.

Emissions to air or odours can result from:

reaction or distillation facilities combustion plant products used in specific chemical processes, eg chlorophenols storing raw materials such as solvents, eg ethyl acetate, toluene and xylene using certain chemical groups, eg volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or sulfurous compounds waste and wastewater treatment processes

Safe Disposal Waste streams are rendered completely harmless or safe so that they do not adversely impact the environment. Here, we define this as total conversion of waste constituents to carbon dioxide, water, and nontoxic mirerals. An example would be subsequent treatment of a wastewater treatment plant effluent in a private wetlands. So-called secure landfills would not fall within this category unless the waste is totally encapsulated in granite. The book Pollution Prevention: Methodology, Technologies andPractices 111 is a waste-minimization and pollution prevention resource describing a novel systematic methodology that uses a structured brainstorming process, requiring minimum resources to identlfy chemistry and engineering changes to processes. The book also contains an extensive fundamental waste-minimization knowledge that is applicable to all businesses, as well as novel problem-solving approaches that enable all plant operations personnel to have an important role in the identification of waste-minimization and pollution-prevention opportunities. The approaches examine process data and information from a different perspective, leadmg \to the identification of new opportunities for reducing waste and increasing business revenue

TreatforMscharge This involves lowering the toxicity, turbidity, global warming potential, pathogen content, etc., of the waste stream before discharging it to the environment. Examples include biological wastewater treatment, carbon adsorption, filtration, chemical oxidation, and so on.

Recycle A large number of manufacturing facilities, especially chemical plants, have internal recycle streams that are considered part of the process (Figure 1). Here recycle refers to the external recycl: of materials, such as polyester film and bottles, Tyvek envelopes, paper, and spent solvents

Minimize Generation Reduce to a minimum the formation of nonsalable byproducts in chemical reaction steps, and of waste constituents, such as tars, fines, and so on, in all chemical and physical separation steps. Minimize Introduction Minimize the addition of materials to the process that pass through the system unreacted or that are transformed to make waste. This implies minimizing the introduction of materials that are not essential ingredients in making the final product. Examples of introducing nonessential ingredients include: 1) using water as a solvent when one of the reactants, intermediates, or products could serve the same function, and 2) adding large volumes of nitrogen gas because of the use of air as an oxygen source, heat sink, diluent or conveying gas.