Assessment of Life Cycle Environmental Impact in the Utility Plant

PABLO E. MARTÍNEZ; ANA M. ELICECHE

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Congreso; XXII Congreso Interamericano de Ingeniería Química y V Congreso Argentino de Ingeniería Química; 2006

Asociacion Argentina de Ingenieros Quimicos

his article presents a methodology to assess for the environmental impacts associated with the operation of an ethylene process utility plant. In the utility sector the pollution comes mainly from the combustion emissions, the purged water from the boilers and water discharges from the cooling towers. The gas emissions and the liquid effluents from the utility plant were modelled using emission factors. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used for evaluating the environmental burdens associated with the utility plant. In the LCA context, the limits of the utility plant are extended to contemplate the environmental burdens associated with the generation of electricity imported by the utility plant. The main environmental impacts of imported electricity generated by thermoelectric, hydroelectric and nuclear plants are evaluated. The following environmental impact categories are evaluated as suggested by Heijungs et al. (2002): Global Warming, Acidification, Eutrophication, Photochemical Oxidant Formation, Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Human Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and Impact of Ionizing Radiation. The global environmental impact is evaluated as a weighted sum of the environmental impact categories.