Sustainable Development in Practice

Transcription

1 Sustainable Development in Practice Case Studies for Engineers and Scientists Editors ADISA AZAPAGIC University of Surrey SLOBODAN PERDAN and ROLAND CLIFT University of Surrey

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3 Sustainable Development in Practice

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5 Sustainable Development in Practice Case Studies for Engineers and Scientists Editors ADISA AZAPAGIC University of Surrey SLOBODAN PERDAN and ROLAND CLIFT University of Surrey

6 Copyright Ó 2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England Telephone (þ44) (for orders and customer service enquiries): Visit our Home Page on or All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or ed to permreq@wiley.co.uk, or faxed to (þ44) This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Other Wiley Editorial Offices John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA , USA Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Boschstr. 12, D Weinheim, Germany John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 33 Park Road, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2 Clementi Loop #02-01, Jin Xing Distripark, Singapore John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 22 Worcester Road, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9W 1L1 Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sustainable development in practice : case studies for engineers and scientists / edited by Adisa Azapagic, Slobodan Perdan, Roland Clift. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Engineering Research. 2. Sustainable development. I. Azapagic, Adisa. II. Perdan, Slobodan. III. Clift, R. (Roland) TA160.S dc British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN (Cloth) ISBN (Paper) Typeset in 10/12 pt Times by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.

7 Contents About the Editors About the Contributors Preface Acknowledgements vii viii xi xii PART 1 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS 1 1 Introduction to Sustainable Development 3 Slobodan Perdan 2 The Role of the Professional Engineer and Scientist in Sustainable Development 29 Cynthia A. Mitchell, Anna L. Carew and Roland Clift PART 2 CASE STUDIES 57 3 Waste Water Management: Identifying Sustainable Processes 59 Adisa Azapagic, Charles Duff and Roland Clift 4 Integrated Prevention and Control of Air Pollution: The Case of Nitrogen Oxides 85 Adisa Azapagic, Charles Duff and Roland Clift 5 Municipal Solid Waste Management: Can Thermodynamics Influence People s Opinions about Incineration? 117 Norman Kirkby and Adisa Azapagic with a contribution from Omar Romero-Hernandez 6 Process Design for Sustainability: The Case of Vinyl Chloride Monomer 201 Adisa Azapagic, Alan Millington and Aaron Collett 7 Towards Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing: Polylactic Acid A Sustainable Polymer? 250 James H. Clark and Jeffrey J.E. Hardy

8 vi Contents 8 An Industrial Ecology: Material Flows and Engineering Design 283 David T. Allen 9 Scenario Building and Uncertainties: Options for Energy Sources 301 Richard Darton 10 Fuel Cells in Stationary Applications: Energy for the Future? 321 Martin Pehnt 11 Towards Sustainable Process Contracting: The Case of the Glass Industry 344 Michael J. Nicholas 12 Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: The Case of Power Generation in South Africa 367 Jim Petrie, Lauren Basson, Philippa Notten and Mary Stewart 13 Social and Ethical Dimensions of Sustainable Development: Mining in Kakadu National Park 397 Slobodan Perdan Appendix: Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 426 Adisa Azapagic Index 438

9 About the Editors Adisa Azapagic is Professor of Sustainable Engineering. Her research interests and expertise include life cycle modelling and optimisation, life cycle assessment, industrial ecology, sustainability indicators, multiple criteria decision analysis and corporate social responsibility. Azapagic is the author of over 130 publications in these areas, including a book on Polymers, the Environment and Sustainable Development also published by Wiley. She is also interested in sustainability education and is a member of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) Working Party on Education. She is a UNESCO/TWAS/ICSU Visiting Scientist at the Instituto Tecnolo gico Auto nomo de Me xico (ITAM), Mexico City. Slobodan Perdan is a philosopher with expertise and professional interests in the areas of sustainable development, moral philosophy and sustainability education. He has written on a variety of issues concerning sustainable development, and has taught and researched a wide range of subjects including environmental philosophy, business and engineering ethics, corporate sustainability and social and political theory. Perdan is currently working as a freelance consultant having previously worked at the University of Surrey for several years. Roland Clift is a Distinguished Professor in Environmental Technology and founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey; previously Head of the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Surrey. He is a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, of the International Expert Group on application of Life Cycle Assessment to waste management and of the Rolls-Royce Environmental Advisory Board, and a past member of the UK Ecolabelling Board. Clift is a Visiting Professor in Environmental System Analysis at Chalmers University, Go teborg, Sweden. He has recently been awarded the Sir Frank Whittle medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering for his leading role in developing the holistic life cycle assessment of products and its use as a systematic way of incorporating environmental and social issues in engineering decisions.

10 About the Contributors David Allen is the Melvin H. Gertz Regents Chair in Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests lie in air quality and pollution prevention. He is the author of four books and over 150 papers in these areas. Allen is also actively involved in developing Green Engineering educational materials for the chemical engineering curriculum. Lauren Basson is a post-doctoral research fellow in Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town. Her research is focused on multiple criteria approaches to complex decision problems including management of uncertainty. Anna Carew is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney. Her research sits in the nexus of engineering philosophy, sustainability thinking and educational theory. James Clark holds the Chair of Industrial and Applied Chemistry at the University of York and is the founding Director of the Green Chemistry Network. His research interests cover various aspects of chemistry including catalysis and new materials. Aaron Collett is a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Surrey. He has been working as a Research Assistant at the University on different research projects. His primary professional interest lies in professional education and training of engineers and scientists. Richard Darton is Professor in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. His research interests include sustainable development, separation processes and the rheology of surfaces. He worked for Shell in the Netherlands for 16 years, and in 1991 returned to the UK to initiate a chemical engineering course at Oxford, where he is now a Fellow of Keble College. Charles Duff is the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Sustainable Design at the University of Surrey. He has an extensive background in environmental management in industry, including a secondment to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Jeffrey Hardy holds the post of Green Chemistry Educational Associate at the University of York. His research interests lie in the field of chemicals and feedstocks from renewable raw materials and Green Chemistry practical development.

11 About the Contributors ix Norman Kirkby is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey. His research interests include mathematical modelling of bioreactors, and more recently radiotherapy modelling. He has 20 years experience of teaching, especially thermodynamics, reaction engineering, dynamics and control. Alan Millington is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies for Chemical Engineering Programmes at the University of Surrey. His research interests range from filtration to safety assessment in chemical and process engineering. Millington is particularly interested in engineering education and has extensive experience in teaching various chemical engineering subjects. Cynthia Mitchell is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney. She has 15 years experience in science and engineering education and research, for which she has received national and international awards. Mitchell served two terms as President of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education. Michael J. Nicholas is a Process Industries Regulation Officer in the Environment Agency for England and Wales. He specialises in the regulation of Major Accident Hazard sites under the COMAH regulations, along with the regulation of other industrial installations under the Integrated Pollution Control and Pollution Prevention and Control regimes. He has previously worked in the field of environmental management at Lurgi (UK) Ltd, a process contracting company. Philippa Notten is an independent consultant in the field of Life Cycle Assessment, based in Denmark. She is co-chair of the UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative on Data Quality. Martin Pehnt is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in Heidelberg. His research interests include technology and environmental assessment of energy and transport systems, and environmental communication. He has recently been awarded the Robert Mayer Award by the Association of German Engineers for outstanding merits in the field of science journalism and publicism, particularly with respect to engineering and energy developments. Jim Petrie is Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney. He also serves as Director of CRESTA, the Centre for Risk, Environment, Systems Technology and Analysis, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His main research interests are in the area of environmental systems analysis in the resources sector. Omar Romero-Hernandez is a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations at the Instituto Tecnolo gico Auto nomo de Me xico (ITAM), Mexico City. His research interests include energy and the environment, technology and manufacturing strategy, product development and design, and operations management.

12 x About the Contributors Mary Stewart is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a member of the South African and Australasian Institutes of Mining and Metallurgy, treasurer of the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society and co-chair of the UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative working group of metals. The focus of her work is on multi-criteria decision-making for sustainable development in mining and minerals processing.

13 Preface This book is about sustainable development and its implications for science and engineering practice. It is aimed at engineering and science students and educators as well as practising engineers and scientists. An important thesis in this book is that sustainable development imposes new responsibilities on the expert, which demand a re-examination of the professional roles of engineers and scientists. However, we also argue that the new role actually makes the profession more attractive, requiring personal skills as well as technical expertise. Part 1 of this book explores the concept of sustainable development and its implications for technical experts. Recognising that practical interpretation of sustainable development depends on the context, Part 2 of this book is devoted to a set of case studies. These are drawn from a range of industrial sectors, including water, energy, waste, chemicals, glass and mining and minerals. All set out real practical problems. They explore the scientific and technical aspects of each problem but also consider its economic, environmental and social ramifications, to position the expert analysis in the context of sustainable development. They are intended as vehicles to develop the reflective approach to practising as a technical expert which we believe is essential for sustainable development. We dedicate the book to our students and successors, in the hope that it will help them to play their essential role in helping everyone to have a better quality of life, now and in the future, on this beautiful little blue-green planet. Adisa Azapagic Slobodan Perdan Roland Clift Guildford, Surrey

14 Acknowledgements We would like to thank those who have helped in the production of this book. First of all, we would like to thank all the contributors and we hope that they will feel that the book rewards their efforts. The Royal Academy of Engineering supported development of several of the case studies, through its programme of Visiting Professors in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development. Adisa Azapagic is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for a Study Abroad Fellowship which supported her sabbatical leave during which several chapters of this book were prepared. Roland Clift would like to thank his colleagues in the Centre for Environmental Strategy for providing the essential resources of listening, critically but constructively, to partially formed ideas. He is also grateful to Sue Ponsford who has typed parts of this book, displaying her usual helpfulness and patience. Last but not least, we are thankful to the staff of John Wiley & Sons, particularly Lyn Roberts, Keily Larkins and Amanda Smith, and to Bharath Parthasarathy at Integra for their help and professionalism in producing the book.

15 PART 1 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS