Integration: The key to pollution prevention

The scope for pollution prevention in the process industries is wide. The gap between actual performance and possible performance must be addressed through an integrated approach involving the regulatory process, executive level management, and the application of technology to design integrated production facilities. Technology currently exists to achieve this objective. The challenge is to identify and deploy the technology. The technologies for designing integrated processes can be placed in three categories: 1) hierarchichal review and other methods of structured thinking, 2) mathematical, and 3) thermodynamic. Senior management has a particularly critical role to play in pollution prevention. They must quantify the opportunity (the performance gap) for their own facilities, identify which technologies will address the problem, and develop and implement strategies for achieving their objectives.