Life cycle assessment of structured corrugation SiC-foam packing

Abstract

Structured packing has been widely used in distillation processes. This paper compares environment impacts of a new type of structured packing, structured corrugation SiC-foam packing (SCFP-SiC) and traditional structured corrugation metal packing (SCMP) in both production process and usage phase using IMPACT2002+ method, an impact method using in life cycle assessment (LCA). In the production process, respiratory inorganics, global warming, terrestrial ecotoxicity, non-renewable energy and human toxicity are the most critical environment impacts for both the two structured packing. Producing 1 m3 SCFP-SiC causes 2.5 times higher overall environment impact than SCMP of the same volume. In the usage phase, SCFP-SiC shows a more environment friendly result than SCMP in a long run. Assume SCFP-SiC can increase 1.5 times theoretical stage number and its service time is five times longer than SCMP, its fixed overall environment impact is only 33.3% of SCMP when it is used to decrease the tower height. If it is used to decrease the reflux ratio, it will show a better environment result than SCMP just 1.4 years later in the separation of mixed xylenes. Considering its remarkable corrosion resistance and high mass transfer efficiency, SCFP-SiC will be a hopeful substitution of SCMP in separation processes from the environment view.