Comparison of chemical routes based on inherent safety, health and environmental impacts of accidental and daily operational releases

Abstract

One of the key decisions made during initial stages of chemical plant design and development is the chemical route selection. A chemical route is considered as the raw material(s) and the sequence of reaction steps that convert them to the desired chemical product. The selection of a chemical route focused on environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues has been given increased attention recently as avoiding hazards related to EHS can be largely achieved during initial stages of plant development. In order to select a route, alternate potential chemical routes need to be assessed and compared. In this work a fuzzy based inherent environmental, health and safety hazard index called EHS-Fuzzy Index is presented to compare chemical routes based on integrated EHS hazards due to accidental releases as well as releases from daily operational activities of the plant. Thirteen parameters representing EHS related hazards are included in the EHS-Fuzzy Index. The lower the EHS-Fuzzy Index the more environmentally friendly, occupationally healthy and safer the chemical route. The EHS-Fuzzy Index was applied in a case of six routes to manufacture methyl methacrylate (MMA). The least hazard was shown in tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) route.