Page 436 - Academic Press Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology 3rd Chemical Engineering

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Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology EN012I-591 July 26, 2001 15:54

602 Pollution Prevention from Chemical Processes

3. Selecting the Waste Streams 2. Set Goals
A typical process generates several major waste streams This task helps the team to analyze the drivers for pol-
and many minor ones. The goal should be to select one lution prevention and to develop the criteria necessary
or more of the major streams for the first round of waste to screen the options generated during the brainstorming
assessments. If successful with these major streams, ad- session.
ditional waste streams can be targeted, including minor
ones, in a second round of assessments.
3. Define Problem

The team begins to understand the targeted waste streams
4. Creating an Assessment Team
and the processes that generate these streams. The waste
Inthisstep,acoreteamisselectedwhichconsistsoffourto stream and process analyses techniques are used in this
six people who are best able to lead the program, perform step to facilitate understanding of the problem.
the waste assessments, and implement the recommended
process improvements. At smaller and medium-sized fa-
cilities a single individual may undertake the bulk of the 4. Generate Options
pollution prevention tasks, or consultants can be used.
When the team has developed a good understanding of the
manufacturing process and the source and cause of each
waste stream, it should convene to brainstorm for ideas to
B. Assessment Phase
reduce the generation of these materials.
The assessment phase in many ways represents the heart
of the pollution prevention program. It also tends to be
where many engineers and scientists find the most enjoy- 5. Screen Options
ment and personal satisfaction. For this reason, there is
In a separate meeting, the core assessment team will
always a tendency to bypass the “softer” chartering phase
revisit the options generated during the brainstorming
and jump right into the assessment phase. This is gen-
process to reduce the number of credible ideas carried
erally a mistake. We consistently find that programs that
forward.
bypass the chartering phase fail. This is because they fail
to incorporate the first two major success factors listed in
the recipe for success: obtaining commitment from busi- 6. Evaluate the Screened Options
ness leadership to support change and provide resources
and seeking the early involvement of all stakeholders in More detailed engineering and economic evaluations are
the process. These two major success factors arise from performed on the screened options to select the best op-
the chartering phase itself. However, it is also recognized tion(s) to implement.
that in some cases the successful implementation of the
assessment phase on small projects by one or two cham-
C. Implementation Phase
pions could earn subsequent commitment by the business
leadership for larger projects. Each company has a char- The goal of this phase is to turn the preferred op-
acteristic style for undertaking change, and the champions tions identified by the team into actual projects that re-
need to utilize these methods to accomplish their pollution duce waste generation and emissions. Options are first
prevention goals. selected for implementation. This should be a natural
The assessment phase consists of tasks which help the follow-up to the screening and evaluation stages described
team to understand how the target waste streams are gen- above. Next, the team needs to develop an implementa-
erated and how these wastes can be reduced at the source tion plan that includes resource requirements (both peo-
or eliminated. ple and money) and a project timeline. This is one of
the reasons that having a project engineer on the core
assessment team is valuable. Third, the team must se-
1. Collect Data
cure approval and begin project implementation. Often,
The amount of information to collect will depend on the this step will be according to customary local prac-
complexity of the waste stream and the process that gen- tice. Finally, people need to be kept involved through-
erates it. Material balances and process flow diagrams out the entire pollution prevention program. The team
are a minimum requirement for most pollution prevention leader should always be working to build and maintain
assessments. momentum.