2013 AIChE Annual Meeting
(59c) Case Studies For Sustainable Process Development In Biotechnology and Engineering Industry
Author
Sustainable process development is quickly becoming a cornerstone in light of decreasing profit margins in conventional chemical process industries. Starting from conceptual modeling, it is imperative to utilize process integration, economic analysis, and environmental impact assessment to ensure that newly developing industries will meet investor expectations while performing in safe and environmentally friendly ways. Several industrial case studies will be presented to highlight the use of sustainable process development and their impacts on economic and environmental performance. More effective catalyst carriers could be utilized to reduce the footprint of reaction systems that involve intense amounts of heat transfer, while air filtration design in combination with full cost accounting models have shown promise in the development of green buildings and systems. Fermentation and protein purification development have demonstrated vast potential in carbon dioxide capture and replacement of petroleum-based feedstocsk for production of chemicals and fuels. Utilization of crop residues as enhanced value-added streams result in increased profitability in growing biomass-based industries, while the consideration of environmental factors in food production have led to the emergence of new products and markets with less reliance on animal farming.