Integrated sustainability assessment of chemical production chains

Abstract

The chlor-alkali/polyvinyl chloride production chain is characterized by high levels of energy consumption and emissions. The sustainable development of this industry has become a growing concern in the face of finite resources and the increasing demand. In the production chain, environmental, energy, and economic aspects are intricately linked. Thus, it's important to investigate how this industry can develop sustainably by examining the interactions among these three aspects. This paper evaluates the chlor-alkali/polyvinyl chloride production chain by using an integrated method combining the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response framework and system dynamics. First, the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response framework is used to investigate the interactions between society and the environment in the development of the production chain. Selected indicators were defined to characterize each subsystem in order to evaluate these interactions quantitatively. Next, system dynamics models are developed to explore the interactions among the three subsystems via causality loops. Five scenarios of the development of chlor-alkali/polyvinyl chloride production chain were simulated to see the effect of different policies on the subsystems. The results show that the sustainable development scenario showed reductions of 52% in energy intensity and 88% in chemical oxygen demand load intensity compared to business as usual. This integrated methodology can also be used as a decision-support tool for the design, planning, and management of the production chains of other process industries.