E-IMPACT - A ROBUST HAZARD-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT APPROACH FOR PROCESS INDUSTRIES

This paper proposes a hazard-based environmental impact assessment approach(E-Impact), for evaluating the environmental impact during process design andretrofit stages. E-Impact replaces the normalisation step of the conventionalimpact assessment phase. This approach compares the impact scores fordifferent options and assigns a relative score to each option. This eliminates thecomplexity of the normalisation step in the evaluation phase. The applicabilityof the E-Impact has been illustrated through a case study of solvent selection inan acrylic acid manufacturing plant. E-Impact is used in conjunction withAspen-HYSYS process simulator to develop mass and heat balance data.