Accounting for nature's intermittency and growth while mitigating NO2 emissions by technoecological synergistic design—Application to a chloralkali process

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By including ecosystems in process design, it becomes possible to develop synergies between technological and ecological systems to establish islands of environmental sustainability. Such an approach can also ensure that human activities do not degrade ecosystems—the very systems that are essential for our sustainability. This work evaluates the idea of including ecosystems as unit operations in process design [1] while accounting for the intermittency and growth of ecological systems. The technology of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and a forest ecosystem are both capable of mitigating nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions and are designed to support a chloralkali process near Galveston, Texas. The cost of the forest ecosystem taking up NO2 is found to be one‐fourth of the cost of the SCR. However, as the capacity of vegetation to take up emissions varies with seasons, the chloralkali process needs to adjust its manufacturing rate accordingly. The result of such adaptation to local ecosystems can be manufacturing with net zero emissions and a step toward environmental sustainability. This study demonstrates the need for further research to address the practical and theoretical aspects of industry and ecosystems to establish mutually beneficial relationships that are economically, ecologically, and societally viable.