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Sustainability lessons from practice: how flow intensification can trigger sustainability and modular plant technology in EU projects
Author(s) -
Sundaram Smitha,
Kralisch Dana,
Wang Qi,
Hessel Volker
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.1894
Subject(s) - sustainability , life cycle assessment , modular design , context (archaeology) , process (computing) , european union , carbon footprint , process engineering , environmental economics , manufacturing engineering , environmental science , production (economics) , engineering , greenhouse gas , computer science , business , ecology , paleontology , biology , economics , macroeconomics , economic policy , operating system
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis are two prime tools that have been used to evaluate the sustainability of novel EU projects, which investigated new strategies to improve product yields and reduce costs, while ensuring a good ecological footprint and cost efficiency. These include EU projects focussed on developing modular, compact production platforms with intensified reactors–such as the F3 Factory, COPIRIDE (combining process intensification‐driven manufacture of microstructured reactors and process design regarding to industrial dimensions and environment), POLYCAT (modern polymer‐based catalysts and microflow conditions as key elements of innovations in fine chemical synthesis) and SYNFLOW (Innovative Synthesis in Continuous‐flow Processes for Sustainable Chemical Production). New projects such as the MAPSYN (Microwave, Acoustic and Plasma assisted SYNtheses) and BIOGO (Catalytic Partial Oxidation of Bio Gas and Reforming of Pyrolysis Oil (Bio Oil) for an Autothermal Synthesis Gas Production and Conversion into Fuels) continue this, but by using alternative energy and a biomass‐based, heat‐integrated process, respectively. Thus, this paper is a review of EU projects that have carried out LCA and cost analyses and used the results to aid decision‐making in the context of process intensification, flow chemistry and modular plants. Copyright © 2015 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.