Ecological and Economic Objective Functions for Screening in Integrated Development of Fine Chemical Processes. 2. Stream Allocation and Case Studies

Process design in the chemical industry is challenged to integrate environmental and safety aspects in addition to economic and technical considerations in the early development phase of a new process. To achieve this goal, a flexible assessment framework of ecological and economic indices presented in part 1 of this paper is applied to two industrial case studies, one relying on purely chemical literature data and the other including early process knowledge. An allocation method for waste streams, components, and costs is presented and mass loss indices (MLI), cost indices (CI), and ecological indices (EI) are calculated. Using this index system, the ecological and economical problems of a process can be identified at their roots. Hence, this method supports the search for more cost-effective and environmentally friendlier chemical processes.