Using quality function deployment for technique selection for optimum environmental performance improvement

The paper tackles how a given process or technique can be improved to qualify as an environmentally-conscious one at a given budget constraint. The use of quality function deployment (QFD) for the improvement analysis of selected “Best Available Techniques” is discussed. A modified version of QFD is developed and applied to determine the emissions which need to be analysed further for environmental performance improvement. The critical emitted substances with consideration given to environmental impact potential and cost budget are reported. The target specifications used are the environmental benchmarks obtained from the comparison of emission values of the techniques. Sinter production is used as an illustrative example to apply the proposed House of Ecology and the linear mathematical model. QFD could be applied to the continuous improvement of any process or technique with some modifications.