An Integrated Framework for Design of Sustainable Chemical Process Based On Life Cycle Assessment

In this work, we propose a supporting framework for the design of chemical process integrating computer-aided process engineering (CAPE) and life cycle assessment (LCA) tools. LCA has been a useful tool for quantifying the environmental impacts from existing product life cycle and its application to process development enables us to design environmentally conscious product and process. During process development, however, implementation of LCA is difficult due to lack of inventory data. CAPE tools are used for simulation and evaluation of chemical processes, but have potential for the estimation of process inventories used in LCA. Thus, we modeled activities and information flows using integration definition for function modeling (IDEF0) method for the sustainable chemical process development in which CAPE and LCA tools are integrated. Applicability of the proposed activity model is demonstrated and verified by case studies on the process development of bioethanol-derived chemicals.