| Summary: |
In the late 80's both the Environmental Protection Agency and the European Community institutions (sustained development policy) presented a new philosophy to face the industrial pollution problem establishing priorities of action: source reduction, reutilisation/recycling, treatment and finally safe disposal. These institutions hope that such priorities definition, allied to the increase of restrictions on industrial waste discharges and public opinion evolution, will bring cleaner processes/products and reconversion of the existing ones. It is, therefore, intended to evolve from the present healing philosophy to a preventive one, which can generally show a higher level of efficacy with lower associated costs, leading industry to face environmental issues as process inefficiencies rather than inevitable problems.
The conceptual design and retrofit of industrial plants should take into account this new reality. The first two priorities (source reduction and r reutilisation/recycling) should be inserted at the industrial plants design procedure. Naturally, it is not possible, or at least economically feasible, to put in practice a policy of zero discharge, which means that for the time being end-of-pipe treatments will remain necessary. It must be reminded that there is a strong interaction between this and the reutilisation/recycling system. The proposed work is essentially related to the development of this last module applied to industrial wastewater, but easily extended to a broader scope including both domestic wastewater, and supply waters. So it is intended to develop an expert system to help the conceptual design and retrofit of wastewater treatment facilities, able to suggest an adequate treatment process flowsheet including equipment selection using minimum information (type of industry and feed and product streams).
The first part of the research will be dedicated to developing a strategy of hierarchical decision including the establishment of  |
Summary
In the late 80's both the Environmental Protection Agency and the European Community institutions (sustained development policy) presented a new philosophy to face the industrial pollution problem establishing priorities of action: source reduction, reutilisation/recycling, treatment and finally safe disposal. These institutions hope that such priorities definition, allied to the increase of restrictions on industrial waste discharges and public opinion evolution, will bring cleaner processes/products and reconversion of the existing ones. It is, therefore, intended to evolve from the present healing philosophy to a preventive one, which can generally show a higher level of efficacy with lower associated costs, leading industry to face environmental issues as process inefficiencies rather than inevitable problems.
The conceptual design and retrofit of industrial plants should take into account this new reality. The first two priorities (source reduction and r reutilisation/recycling) should be inserted at the industrial plants design procedure. Naturally, it is not possible, or at least economically feasible, to put in practice a policy of zero discharge, which means that for the time being end-of-pipe treatments will remain necessary. It must be reminded that there is a strong interaction between this and the reutilisation/recycling system. The proposed work is essentially related to the development of this last module applied to industrial wastewater, but easily extended to a broader scope including both domestic wastewater, and supply waters. So it is intended to develop an expert system to help the conceptual design and retrofit of wastewater treatment facilities, able to suggest an adequate treatment process flowsheet including equipment selection using minimum information (type of industry and feed and product streams).
The first part of the research will be dedicated to developing a strategy of hierarchical decision including the establishment of .... |