Environmental Protection

Industrial Ecology:

A Chemical Engineering Challenge

David T. Allen, University of Texas, Austin R. Scott Butner, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Industrial ecology involves turning wastes into raw materials an art that chemical engineers have practiced for decades.

f the Internet search engine Google is an indicator, the term industrial ecology is rapidly coming into vogue. A recent search for the phrase identied more than 22,000 matching websites, and although the term has been around for more than a decade, nearly half of those websites had been updated or created in just the past three months. This begs the question: What is industrial ecology, and whats it got to do with chemical engineers? The term industrial ecology refers to the idea that nature (specifically, nature at its higher levels of organization, such as communities and ecosystems) can serve as a useful metaphor for industrial systems, which can be used to help industry become more efficient and more sustainable. A commonly cited example is the flow of nutrients (materials) in natural ecosystems, where waste from one organism becomes the food for others, creating a web of interrelated processes that effectively recycle nutrients on a continuous basis. Industrial ecologists view this as an ideal model for industrial systems where the waste from one process becomes the feedstock for the next. Applied more broadly, the term encompasses the use of ecological analogies as a way of gaining insight into the role that individual technologies, companies or industry sectors play within so-called industrial ecosystems. Chemical processes in an ideal industrial ecosystem would use the wastes and byproducts of other processes, and the entire industrial system would require only

energy inputs and no mass inputs. Are such systems realistic? Do they exist now? How could they be designed? This article addresses these questions, which will be among the chemical engineering challenges for the next century.

A simple example: chlorine At the heart of industrial ecology is the knowledge of how to reuse or chemically modify and recycle wastes which chemical engineers have been doing for decades. The history of the chemical manufacturing industries provides numerous examples of waste streams nding productive uses. Consider a classic example the manufacture of vinyl chloride. Billions of pounds of vinyl chloride are produced annually. Approximately half of this production occurs through the direct chlorination of ethylene: ethylene reacts with molecular chlorine to produce ethylene dichloride (EDC), which is then pyrolyzed, producing vinyl chloride and hydrochloric acid.
Cl2 + H2C=CH2 ClH2CCH2Cl ClH2CCH2Cl H2C=CHCl + HCl In this synthesis route, one mole of hydrochloric acid is produced for every mole of vinyl chloride. Viewed in isolation, this process might be considered wasteful. Half of the original chlorine winds up not in the desired product, but in a waste acid. But the process

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is not operated in isolation. The waste hydrochloric acid from the direct chlorination of ethylene can be used as a raw material in the oxychlorination of ethylene. In this process, hydrochloric acid, ethylene and oxygen are used to manufacture vinyl chloride: HCl + H2C=CH2 + 0.5 O2 H2C=CHCl + H2O

Table. Non-chlorinated chemical products that use chlorine in their manufacturing processes. Product Synthesis Pathway Chlorinated Intermediates Used, lb/lb of product 4.3 2.3

Glycerine Epoxy resin

Hydrolysis of epichlorohydrin Epichlorohydrin via chlorohydrination of allyl chloride, followed by reaction of epichlorohydrin with bisphenol-A Phosgene reaction with toluenediamine

Toluene

2.2

diisocyanate By operating both the oxychlorination pathway and the direct chlorination pathway, the Aniline Chlorobenzene via chlorination of 2.2 benzene, followed by reaction of waste hydrochloric acid can be used as a raw chlorobenzene with ammonia material and essentially all of the molecular Phenol Chlorobenzene via chlorination of 2.1 chlorine originally reacted with ethylene is inbenzene, followed by dehydrochlorination corporated into vinyl chloride. The two processof chlorobenzene es operate synergistically, and an efficient deMethylene Phosgene reaction with aniline (also 1.5 sign for the manufacture of vinyl chloride indiphenylene produced with chlorinated intermediates) volves both processes. diisocyanate Additional efficiencies in the use of chlorine Propylene oxide Chlorohydration of propylene 1.46 can be obtained by expanding the number of Source: (1). processes included in the network. Recently, more extensive chlorine networks have emerged linking isocyanate producers into vinyl chloride ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride manufacturing. manufacturing networks. In isocyanate manufacturing, The isocyanate manufacturers have guaranteed supplies molecular chlorine is reacted with carbon monoxide to of chlorine and guaranteed markets for their byproduct produce phosgene: hydrochloric acid. Even more complex networks could, in principle, be conCO + Cl2 COCl2 structed. As shown in the table (1), chlorine is used in manufacturing a number of non-chlorinated products. The table The phosgene is then reacted with an amine to produce lists, for selected reaction pathways, the pounds of chlorinatan isocyanate and byproduct hydrochloric acid: ed intermediates used along the supply chain per pound of nished product. This ranking provides one indication of the RNH2 + COCl2 RNCO + 2 HCl potential for networking these processes with processes for manufacturing chlorinated products (1, 2). The isocyanate is subsequently used in urethane proCreating larger networks duction, and the hydrochloric acid is recycled. The key feature of the isocyanate process chemistry is that chlorine Identifying which processes could be most efficiently does not appear in the nal product. Thus, chlorine can be integrated is not simple, and the design of the ideal netprocessed through the system without being consumed. It work depends on what suppliers and markets for materials may be transformed from molecular chlorine to hyare nearby, and other factors. What is clear, however, is drochloric acid, but the chlorine is still available for incorthat the chemical process designers must understand not poration into nal products that contain chlorine, such as only their own process, but also processes that could supvinyl chloride. A chlorine/hydrogen-chloride network inply materials and use their byproducts. And, the analysis corporating both isocyanate and vinyl chloride has develshould not be limited to chemical manufacturing. For exoped along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The molecular chlorine is ample, byproduct hydrochloric acid from vinyl chloride sent to both direct chlorination processes and to isomanufacturing could be used in steel making, or chemical cyanate manufacturing. The byproduct hydrochloric acid manufacturing could use as feedstock the byproduct hyis sent to oxychlorination processes or calcium chloride drochloric acid from semiconductor manufacturing. manufacturing. The network has redundancy in chlorine A classic example of an extended, multi-industry network ows, such that most processes could rely on either moleis a group of facilities located at Kalundborg, Denmark, cular chlorine or hydrogen chloride. where an oil renery, a sulfuric acid plant, a pharmaceutical Consider the advantages of this network to the varimanufacturer, a coal-burning power plant, a sh farm, and a ous companies. The vinyl chloride manufacturer effecgypsum board manufacturer form an industrial network, extively rents chlorine to the isocyanate manufacturers; the changing ows of energy and mass (Figure 1). The power chlorine is returned in the form of hydrochloric acid for plant and the renery exchange steam, gas and cooling

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would be energy escaping with the stack gases. In contrast, typical coal-burning power plants in the U.S. use heat from combustion solely to generate electricity, at an efficiency Ecological Components of about 40%. Liquid Material and energy exchanges provide Sulfur Tisso economic benets to the participants. In Lake Agricultural Sludge some cases, such as the power plants sale of Fish Farming Statoil calcium sulfate to the gypsum board manuGas Refinery facturer, the direct economic benets do not Gyproc fully cover the recovery costs. In these cases, Plaster Treatment Greenhouses Board the exchanges are driven by regulations, such Fjord Plant as those requiring the scrubbing of power plant stack gases to remove SO2. The exSteam changes simply lower the cost of compliance Gypsum by making it unnecessary to landll or otherSteam Waste Heat Gas Asnaes Power wise dispose of the waste generated by the Plant Cooling Water scrubbers. In other cases, such as the use of Waste Water power plant waste heat in the renery, the Fly Ash, Clinker exchanges are self-supporting. Waste Heat The central facilities in the Kalundborg Air Emissions Ecopark are the power plant and the oil reMaterials Transfer District Heating nery, and many of the exchanges either Extraction and/or Discharge of Water originate from or go to these facilities. While using a power plant or a renery as a central facility is a concept that could be s Figure 1. The industrial network at Kalundborg, Denmark. successful in other locations, many other approaches are possible. Consider, for examwater. Waste heat from the power plant is used in district resple, an eco-industrial park in North Texas where the central idential heating and to warm greenhouses and the sh farm. facility is a steel mill. This facility, shown conceptually in Ash from coal combustion at the power plant is shipped to Figure 2, utilizes scrap cars as the primary feed material. cement manufacturers. Calcium sulfate from the power The steel from the vehicles goes to an electric arc furnace plants scrubbers is sent to the gypsum board manufacturer. (EAF), which produces a variety of steel products. The furTreated process sludges from the pharmaceutical plant are nace also produces a signicant quantity of EAF dust, sent to local farmers for use as fertilizer, and the renery which contains signicant quantities of zinc, lead and other sends hot liquid sulfur from the desulfurization of crude oil to metals. The EAF dust is sent to a cement kiln where the a sulfuric acid manufacturer (3). A moredetailed examination of the material and energy exchanges at Kalundborg reveals Steel several interesting points. Operations EAF Fe The ecopark developed over a period of more than 30 years. Some material and energy exchanges have taken place for decades, and the exchanges continue to Plastics Cement Automobile Metal grow in extent. and Metal Operations Shredding Recovery Separators The exchanges have the potential to Energy be remarkably efficient. For example, the power plant is able to use some of the ASR waste heat and steam produced through Separated power generation by sending it to the reEnergy Plastics Ash nery, greenhouses, sh farm and district Recovery Recovery heating system. If markets were found for all of the waste steam, up to 90% of the heat from the plants combustion of coal could be utilized. The only losses s Figure 2. Material ows in North Texas eco-industrial park.
Kemira Sulfuric Acid

Novo Nordisk

Delivery Network for Treated Sludge

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beyond the food chain:

otherlessonsfromindustrialecology
o its most ardent champions, industrial ecology is an emerging scientific discipline that promises to dramatically increase our understanding of how industry can function in a way that is simultaneously more efficient, more profitable, and more compatible with the natural environment. To its detractors, industrial ecology is at best a passing fad or buzz-phrase, and at its worst an example of pseudoscience based on an overly simplistic analogy stretched far beyond its breaking point. Most likely, the truth lies somewhere in between the two extremes. But before dismissing industrial ecology as mere fad, it is perhaps best to heed Francis Bacons admonition that truth emerges more readily from error than confusion. The analogy between industrial and natural ecosystems may not be perfect, but it is nonetheless instructive, even if some of this instruction comes from understanding how the analogy fails upon close examination. Keeping with this spirit, in 1997, a group of academic and government researchers, headed by Jesse Ausubel and Iddo Wernick of Rockefeller Univ., issued a report entitled Industrial Ecology: Some Directions for Research (http://phe.rockefeller.edu/ie_agenda). The report outlines a possible research agenda for fully exploiting the ecosystems metaphor. Some of the suggested areas for further research go well beyond the traditional questions about characterizing material and energy flows in industrial systems. They remain vital research questions to this day: Design without a designer? Despite ongoing controversy about its implications beyond the sciences, Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection has proven to be a remarkably robust way of explaining the emergence of diversity in nature, as well as many other natural phenomena. So can evolution be used to design new processes or products? Genetic algorithms are emerging as a powerful new tool for design optimization. Will these tools enable a new generation of evolved processes and products that change the way that design is done?

Adaptation and survival its a jungle out there! Much of the industrial ecology literature focuses on the flow of materials and energy throughout industrial systems, and often depicts these systems as relatively static, or unchanging with time. However, a great deal of attention is paid to understanding the dynamic aspects of real, natural ecosystems. Such studies examine, for instance, how individual species adapt over time to their environment, and how ecosystems themselves change over time, reflecting the changes brought about by the living organisms themselves. (This phenomena is known as ecological succession, and includes such transitions as the change of grasslands to shrublands, or the progression of a forest from pioneer species to a so-called old growth or climax forest. For a given type of initial conditions, these successions generally follow a predictable sequence of stages, each one reflecting a different composition of plant and animal species.) Understanding these dynamic changes may help business planners and technologists understand the dynamics of emerging markets, or help engineers learn how to facilitate the introduction of new technologies in complex systems (like a refinery). Is Mother Nature an engineer? Popularized by writers such as Janine Benyus, the idea of biomimicry using natural organisms as inspiration for solving engineering challenges has captured the imagination of many. Business innovators are looking to nature to design surfaces that are easier to keep clean, dyes and coloring agents that require fewer toxic materials, and catalysts that are highly selective. In the end, industrial ecology is best viewed as merely one more tool (albeit a powerful one) for helping industry become more sustainable. It is a powerful framework for thinking about how businesses manage materials (find food to eat); adapt to change (learn and evolve); and create value (establish ecological niches). Nevertheless, with any tool, it is best to keep in mind Abraham Maslows oft-cited observation about tools: When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Not all problems can be solved with hammers.

trace metals (copper, sulfur, manganese, chromium, nickel, zinc, lead and others) have value. Automobile shredder residue (ASR) can be burned for energy recovery, or some of the plastics in the residue can be separated.

The potential for creating exchanges These two case studies illustrate the basic principles of ecoparks integrating ows of energy and materials in diverse industrial operations, and increasing mass and energy efficiency. Are these anomalies, or are there large quantities of waste materials that can be productively used? This question is difficult to answer with certainty, but a few simple examples may illustrate the potential for nding new uses for waste.

One estimate of the potential for industrial exchanges of materials and energy can be drawn from a simple examination of energy ows in the U.S. Approximately one-third of the 80100 quadrillion Btu of energy consumed annually is used for electric power generation. Of the energy used in electricity generation, roughly two-thirds is lost as waste heat. This means that roughly a quarter of all energy demand could be met through the utilization of lost heat. Combined heat and power systems are emerging throughout the country to take advantage of such opportunities, but much remains to be done. A second example of the potential for conservation through material exchanges involves another ubiquitous material water. Water is used in virtually all industrial

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processes, and major opportunities exist for reuse since, in general, only a small amount of water is consumed most water in industrial applications is used for cooling, heating or processing of materials, not as a reactant. Furthermore, different industrial processes and industrial sectors have widely varying demands for water quality. For example, wastewater from a semiconductor manufacturing facility that requires ultrapure water may be suitable for a variety of other industrial applications. Thus, water exchanges and reuse provide a signicant opportunity. Ref. 4 describes an example of such opportunities.

New tools for industrial ecology Traditional approaches to chemical process design tend to focus on modeling and optimization of ows within a process, rather than the ow of materials and energy between processes. Of course, the distinction is a subtle one and depends largely on where the engineer decides to draw the box around the process. Techniques such as heat- and mass-exchange network optimization are effective for improving the efficiency of complex process facilities by identifying opportunities for exchange of waste heat and reuse of water and other so-called mass-exchange agents across unit process boundaries (5). Indeed, these tools will almost certainly prove essential in moving to the next level of process integration. But the design of industrial ecosystems is also likely to require the development of entirely new tools, some of which are just now emerging. The Industrial Materials Exchange tool. Perhaps the most mature and certainly the most widely cited industrial ecology design and analysis tool is Bechtels (now Nexants) Industrial Materials Exchange (IME) tool. Like the other tools discussed below, the IME tool is intended to aid in the identification and analysis of socalled byproduct synergies opportunities to use wastes from one product as feedstocks for another process. Unlike the other tools discussed here, IME is not available to users outside of Nexant, which views the tool as a valuable asset for aiding its engineers and planners in designing more profitable and more tightly integrated industrial facilities. The IME tool was initially developed by Bechtel employees, inspired by the Kalundborg, Denmark, eco-industrial park, as a database of material ows associated with selected industrial processes. Subsequent collaborations with colleagues at the U.S. Dept. of Energys Idaho National Environmental Engineering Laboratory (INEEL) have resulted in a next-generation version of IME, known as the Dynamic Industrial Materials Exchange (DIME). DIME incorporates dynamic simulation of material ows to aid in the design and analysis of byproduct synergies that are affected by uctuations in material availability or process requirements. Such uctuations are frequently caused by a variety of factors, including seasonal demand variations,

weather patterns, or large construction, site-remediation or demolition projects that can create one-time spikes in demand or availability of alternative raw materials. The IME tool has been used in several high-prole industrial ecosystem projects, including the Brownsville/Matomoros Regional Industrial Symbiosis project in Texas, and a similiar effort in Tampico, Mexico, facilitated by the Business Council for Sustainable Development Gulf of Mexico (6). EPAs Designing Industrial Ecosystems Toolkit. Another tool that is conceptually similar to IME is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Designing Industrial Ecosystems Tool (DIET) toolkit, developed in cooperation with Professor Sam Ratick of Clark Univ. and Industrial Economics Inc., a Boston, MA, consulting rm. This prototype industrial ecology toolkit is designed to help users identify, screen and optimize byproduct utilization opportunities at the regional scale. The toolkit consists of three interrelated components: The Facility Synergy Tool (FaST) is a database application that helps a user identify potential matches between non-product outputs (NPOs) and the material and energy requirements of common industrial processes. It can also be used to identify the types of industrial partners that should be recruited to serve as sinks for waste streams from existing facilities. The Designing Industrial Ecosystems Tool (DIET) uses the byproduct synergy matches identied in the FaST database tool as inputs to a linear programming model that generates optimum scenarios for industrial synergies. DIET allows the user to simultaneously optimize the system for environmental, economic and employment objectives. RealityCheck is a screening tool used to identify potential regulatory, economic and logistical constraints (barriers) to byproduct utilization opportunities. Though originally designed as an integral part of the industrial ecology toolkit, it can be used as a standalone tool. The DIET toolkit illustrates a potential approach to the design and optimization of eco-industrial parks by helping the user to identify and evaluate potential byproduct synergies within an existing regional network of industrial facilities. Unfortunately, EPA has no current plans to complete the development of the tools. Using GISes to design industrial waste exchanges. One of the practical barriers to the widespread implementation of waste stream utilization schemes is the high cost of transporting materials from their sources to other facilities that may be able to use them as feedstocks. Since the cost of transporting these materials can often be prohibitive, it seems reasonable to expect that the tools used to design industrial ecosystems should be able to take transportation costs into account. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. An interesting exception is an industrial ecology planning tool developed by Carolyn Nobel, who at the time

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was a Univ. of Texas, Austin, graduate student. The tool incorporates a geographic information system (GIS) to help identify feasible water reuse networks and to allow transportation costs to be explicitly included in the optimization of these networks. Once a user has entered information about facilities in the region of interest into the GIS, the model matches wastewater characteristics of facilities with the feedwater requirements of other facilities in the area. By matching streams with compatible water quality criteria, the model identifies feasible water reuse opportunities within the region of interest. Since any individual wastewater stream may have several potential uses, the feasible matches are passed to a linear programming module to calculate the optimal water reuse scenario. This tool was used to identify and optimize water use and reuse opportunities within a complex of approximately 20 different industrial facilities at the Baytown Industrial Complex in Pasadena, TX. In this relatively simple example, economically feasible water-reuse networks were identied that had the potential to reduce total freshwater use by more than 90%, while simultaneously reducing water costs by 20%. The tool was developed using commercial off the shelf GIS software and a widely available mathematical optimization package. And, although the tool was developed specically to illustrate the optimization of industrial water reuse networks, the underlying approach can be ex-

tended to other industrial materials with relatively little additional effort. It should be pointed out that none of these tools are widely available. Industrial ecology is still in its infancy and many of the tools that have been developed are prototype versions built to illustrate or explore key ideas about how to use the industrial ecosystem metaphor to design large-scale systems. Of the tools discussed here, only the IME tool appears to be in current use, and that is primarily as an in-house design tool used by Nexant and its partners to add value to its consulting practices. So, while industrial ecology may provide a rich framework for designing large-scale industrial networks, those wishing to apply the concepts may need to do much of the up-front tool development work themselves. Chemical engineers can and should play a role in the development of this next generation of design tools design tools that will help to create even more intricately networked indusCEP trial processes an industrial ecology.

Literature Cited
1. Chang, D., and D. T. Allen, Minimizing Chlorine Use: Assessing the Trade-Offs Between Cost and Chlorine Use in Chemical Manufacturing, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 1 (2), pp. 111134 (1997). 2. Rudd, D. F., et al., Petrochemical Technology Assessment, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY (1981). 3. Ehrenfeld, J., and N. Gertler, Industrial Ecology in Practice, The Evolution of Interdependence at Kalundborg, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 1 (1), pp. 6780 (1997). 4. Keckler, S. E., and D. T. Allen, Material Reuse Modeling: A Network Flow Programming Approach, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2 (4), pp. 7992 (1998). 5. El-Halwagi, M. M., and H. D. Spriggs, Solve Design Puzzles with Mass Integration, Chem. Eng. Progress, 94 (8), pp. 2544 (Aug. 1998). 6. Business Council for Sustainable Development Gulf of Mexico, By-Product Synergy: A Tool for Sustainable Greenhouse Gas Emissions, http://www.bcsdgm.org/bps_article.htm.

DAVID ALLEN is the Gertz Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources at the Univ. of Texas at Austin (J. J. Pickle Research Campus, 10100 Burnet Rd., MS R7100, Austin, TX 78758; Phone: (512) 471-7792; Fax: (512) 471-1720; E-mail: allen@che.utexas.edu). His research interests lie in environmental reaction engineering, particularly issues related to air quality and pollution prevention; he is the author of four books and over 125 papers in these areas. He was the lead investigator on one of the largest and most successful air-quality studies ever undertaken the Texas Air Quality Study (www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/texasqs). His current research is focused on using the results from that study to provide a sound scientific basis for air quality management in Texas. In addition, he is actively involved in developing Green Engineering educational materials for the chemical engineering curriculum, and he jointly developed, with EPA, a textbook on design of chemical processes and products. He received the NSFs Presidential Young Investigator Award, an AT&T Foundation Industrial Ecology Fellowship, and the AIChE Environmental Div. Cecil Award for contributions to environmental chemical engineering. He holds a BS from Cornell Univ., and an MS and PhD from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering. He has held visiting faculty appointments at Cal Tech, the Univ. of California at Santa Barbara, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy. He is a member of AIChE, and will serve as chair of the Environmental Div. during 2003. R. SCOTT BUTNER is a senior research scientist in the Data and Knowledge Engineering group, at the U.S. Dept. of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (MSIN K7-28, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA 99352; Phone: (509) 372-4946; Fax: (509) 375-2443; E-mail: scott.butner@pnl.gov). He has been involved in pollution prevention and sustainable technology research since joining PNNL in 1984. Many of his research projects examine ways of better utilizing information technologies to improve environmental decision making by business. Currently, he is serving as Director of ChemAlliance (http://www.chemalliance.org), which provides pollution prevention, regulatory and compliance assistance information to the chemical industry. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Washington, and he is a member of AIChE and a past chair of the Environmental Div. He lives in Washington state where his social ecosystem includes his wife, two sons, three dogs, two cats, and miscellaneous small furry animals. When he is not tinkering with computers, he is an avid, some would say fanatical, fly fisherman.

Further Reading
This article was based on material in Green Engineering: Environmentally Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, by D. T. Allen and D. R. Shonnard, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2001). More details on the types of quantitative design tools that are becoming available for chemical engineers can be found there.

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