Eco design LCA of an innovative lab scale plant for the production of oxygen-enriched air. Comparison between economic and environmental assessment

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:171

Article

Galli, Federico¹  Pirola, Carlo²  Previtali, Daniele³  Manenti, Flavio³  Bianchi, Claudia L.² 

[1] Ecole Polytech Montreal, Dept Chem Engn, 2900 Blvd Edouard Montpetit, Montreal, PQ H3C 3A7, Canada

[2] Univ Milan, Dipartimento Chim, Via Golgi 19, I-20133 Milan, Italy

[3] Politecn Milan, Dipartimento Chim Mat & Ingn Chim Giulio Natta, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milan, Italy

关键词: Enriched air;    LCA;    PRO/II;    Lab-scale plant;    Eco-design;    SimaPro 8.1;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.268

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Here we developed an early-stage attributional LCA of an innovative production process of oxygen enriched air by water desorption. We compared LCA's results with a rigorous economic model, in an eco-design optimization perspective. We developed the life cycle analysis using primary data from the lab-scale plant. We used SimaPro 8.1.1.16 for the LCA analysis and the ReCiPe Endpoint V 1.12 E/A method for the interpretation of the results. The functional unit was the amount of enriched air produced by the plant in 24 h in Milano (Italy). A steady state chemical plant simulation software (PRO/II 9.3) calculated the reference flow and we input it in SimaPro with a parametric function. We considered a cradle-to-grave analysis. Temperature, pressure and water flowrate were varied to minimize environmental burdens and plant costs. Uncertainty analysis revealed that there is no difference between operating the degassing unit at 20 degrees C or 30 degrees C. SimaPro and PRO/II presented different optimum conditions. However, taken as a whole, we individuated the best process parameters from an eco-economic prospective. The results obtained are related to a lab-scale plant and thus no comparisons between industrial processes are possible, but the methodology we propose will improve the design of any process. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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