The Sustainable Process Index SPI As An
Engineer’s Tool For Environmental Impact
Assessment Of Processes: The Sugar Industry
As A Case Study
Author(s)
G. Gwehenberger & M. Narodoslawsky
Abstract
The Sustainable Process Index (SPI), a member of the ecological footprint
family, is an ISO 14000 compatible tool for the evaluation of environmental
impacts of processes. It allows the calculation of the relevant ecological
pressures of a process including prechain and product usage. The SPI focuses on
aspects of environmental sustainability and is aimed at engineers and the factors
they can influence most effectively: material and energy flows that processes
exchange with their environments.
The data of these flows are roughly known early in process development.
The corresponding data for natural systems are the sedimentation rate of carbon
in oceans, the natural concentrations of substances in soil and water, the
exchange rates per area unit of airborne pollutants between forests and air as well
as the replenishment rates for soil and water. Most of the natural flow and quality
data allow a certain \“regionalization” of the SPI wherever that is needed.
For a fast calculation of the SPI a computer program based on MS Excel has
been developed. This tool has proven its usefulness in comparing different
engineering options in view of their ecological impact. The most recent case
studies are the investigation of the ecological and economical feasibility of
small-scale ethanol production facilities that use corn or wheat as a raw material
and the analysis of alternate usages of (by)products of the European sugar
industry. The results of these case studies will be discussed here
Keywords: Life Cycle Analysis, environmental impact assessment, sugar
production, bio fuels, optimization.
Keywords
Life Cycle Analysis, environmental impact assessment, sugar
production, bio fuels, optimization.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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