Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling

Transcription

1 Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling Edited by Myer Kutz 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN:

2 Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling Edited by Myer Kutz JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

3 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada 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 as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) , fax (978) , or on the web at Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) , outside the United States at (317) or fax (317) Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our Web site at Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Environmentally conscious materials handling / edited by Myer Kutz. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN (cloth) 1. Materials handling. 2 Green technology. I. Kutz, Myer. TS180.E dc Printed in the United States of America

4 To the Wistreich Family

5 Contents Contributors ix Preface xi 1 Materials Handling System Design 1 Sunderesh S. Heragu and Banu Ekren 2 Ergonomics of Manual Materials Handling 31 James L. Smith, Jeffrey C. Woldstad, and Patrick Patterson 3 Intelligent Control of Material Handling Systems 63 Kasper Hallenborg 4 Incorporating Environmental Concerns in Supply Chain Optimization 117 Maria E. Mayorga and Ravi Subramanian 5 Municipal Solid Waste Management and Disposal 137 Shoou-Yuh Chang 6 Hazardous Waste Treatment 173 Mujde Erten-Unal 7 Sanitary Landfill Operations 197 Berrin Tansel 8 Transportation of Radioactive Materials 217 Audeen Walters Fentiman 9 Pipe System Hydraulics 239 Blake P. Tullis Index 259 vii

6 Contributors Shoou-Yuh Chang North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, North Carolina Banu Ekren University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky Mujde Erten-Unal Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia Audeen Walters Fentiman Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana Kasper Hallenborg The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute University of Southern Denmark Odense, Denmark Sunderesh S. Heragu University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky Maria E. Mayorga Clemson University Clemson, South Carolina Patrick Patterson Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas James L. Smith Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas Ravi Subramanian Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia Berrin Tansel Florida International University Miami, Florida Blake P. Tullis Utah State University Logan, Utah Jeffrey C. Wolstad Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas ix

7 Preface Many readers will approach this series of books in Environmentally Conscious Engineering with some degree of familiarity with, or knowledge about, or even expertise in one or more of a range of environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, and waste. Such capabilities may be useful for readers of this series, but they aren t strictly necessary, for the purpose of this series is not to help engineering practitioners and managers deal with the effects of man-induced environmental change. Nor is it to argue about whether such effects degrade the environment only marginally or to such an extent that civilization as we know it is in peril, or that any effects are nothing more than a scientific-establishment-and-media-driven hoax and can be safely ignored. (Authors of a plethora of books, even including fiction, and an endless list of articles in scientific and technical journals, have weighed in on these matters, of course.) On the other hand, this series of engineering books does take as a given that the overwhelming majority in the scientific community is correct, and that the future of civilization depends on minimizing environmental damage from industrial, as well as personal, activities. At the same time, the series does not advocate solutions that emphasize only curtailing or cutting back on these activities. Instead, its purpose is to exhort and enable engineering practitioners and managers to reduce environmental impacts, to engage, in other words, in Environmentally Conscious Engineering, a catalog of practical technologies and techniques that can improve or modify just about anything engineers do, whether they are involved in designing something, making something, obtaining or manufacturing materials and chemicals with which to make something, generating power, transporting people and freight, handling materials anywhere in the chain between manufacturing operations, warehousing, and distribution, or handling and transporting both municipal and dangerous wastes. Increasingly, engineering practitioners and managers need to know how to respond to challenges of integrating environmentally conscious technologies, techniques, strategies, and objectives into their daily work, and, thereby, find opportunities to lower costs and increase profits while managing to limit environmental impacts. Engineering practitioners and managers also increasingly face challenges in complying with changing environmental laws. So companies seeking a competitive advantage and better bottom lines are employing environmentally responsible methods to meet the demands of their stakeholders, who xi

8 xii Preface now include not only owners and stockholders, but also customers, regulators, employees, and the larger, even worldwide community. Engineering professionals need references that go far beyond traditional primers that cover only regulatory compliance. They need integrated approaches centered on innovative methods and trends in using environmentally friendly processes, as well as resources that provide a foundation for understanding and implementing principles of environmentally conscious engineering. To help engineering practitioners and managers meet these needs, I envisioned a flexibly connected series of edited books, each devoted to a broad topic under the umbrella of Environmentally Conscious Engineering. The intended audience for the series is practicing engineers and upper-level students in a number of areas mechanical, chemical, industrial, manufacturing, plant, power generation, transportation, and environmental as well as engineering managers. This audience is broad and multidisciplinary. Practitioners work in a variety of organizations, including institutions of higher learning, design, manufacturing, power generation, transportation, warehousing, waste management, distribution, and consulting firms, as well as federal, state and local government agencies. So what made sense in my mind was a series of relatively short books, rather than a single, enormous book, even though the topics in some of the smaller volumes have linkages and some of the topics might be suitably contained in more than one freestanding volume. In this way, each volume is targeted at a particular segment of the broader audience. At the same time, a linked series is appropriate because every practitioner, researcher, and bureaucrat can t be an expert on every topic, especially in so broad and multidisciplinary a field, and may need to read an authoritative summary on a professional level of a subject that he or she is not intimately familiar with but may need to know about for a number of different reasons. The Environmentally Conscious Engineering series is comprised of practical references for engineers who are seeking to answer a question, solve a problem, reduce a cost, or improve a system or facility. These books are not a research monographs. The purpose is to show readers what options are available in a particular situation and which option they might choose to solve problems at hand. I want these books to serve as a source of practical advice to readers. I would like them to be the first information resource a practicing engineer reaches for when faced with a new problem or opportunity a place to turn to even before turning to other print sources, even any officially sanctioned ones, or to sites on the Internet. So the books have to be more than references or collections of background readings. In each chapter, readers should feel that they are in the hands of an experienced consultant who is providing sensible advice that can lead to beneficial action and results. The five earlier volumes in the series have covered mechanical design, manufacturing, materials and chemicals processing, alternative energy production, and transportation. The sixth series volume, Environmentally Conscious Materials

9 Preface Handling, has linkages to some of those earlier volumes, particularly manufacturing and transportation. The nine chapters in this volume can be divided into three parts. The first part, consisting of four chapters, deals with the handling of materials in manufacturing, warehousing, and supply chains, with regard not only to the physical entities themselves, but also to the workers who handle them. The second part, consisting of three chapters, covers the handling of waste, both municipal solid waste and hazardous waste, and landfill management. The third part, consisting of two chapters, deals with transportation issues, with respect first to radioactive materials and second to pipelines. I asked the contributors, located not only in North America, but also in Europe, to provide short statements about the contents of their chapters and why the chapters are important. Here are their responses: Sunderesh S. Heragu (University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky), who along with Banu Ekren contributed the chapter, Materials Handling System Design, writes, This chapter discusses traditional and newer material handling systems that are used in manufacturing systems as well as warehouses. Although the main function of a material handling system is to transport parts a non value added activity it is nevertheless important because material handling is a vital link between manufacturing (or service) processes without which a manufacturing system or warehouse cannot operate. James L. Smith (Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas), who along with Jeffrey C. Woldstad and Patrick Patterson, contributed the chapter on Ergonomics of Manual Materials Handling, writes, This chapter explores the relationships of human capabilities and limitations to materials handling. Whether the worker is required to manually handle materials or to use mechanical assists or automation, the human component of materials handling should not be ignored. This chapter explores the development of manual materials handling guidelines and provides recommendations for considering the human element in the design of materials handling systems. Kasper Hallenborg (University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark), who contributed the chapter on Intelligent Control of Material Handling Systems, writes, Manufacturers are facing new challenges that require a more flexible production environment. Multiagent technologies propose an approach to increase flexibility, robustness, and adaptability in dynamic environments. The chapter introduces the technology and describes basic communication and organization principles of multiagent systems. The principles are exemplified by two real cases from industry. Maria E. Mayorga (Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina), who together with Ravi Subramanian, contributed the chapter on Incorporating Environmental Concerns in Supply Chain Optimization, writes, Motivated by increasing regulatory and market-driven environmental pressures that impact supply chain decision-making, this chapter outlines how related trends require conventional supply chain optimization approaches to be revisited. Specifically, xiii

10 xiv Preface using real-world examples, we describe how various legislative, economic, and social factors can be characterized within supply chain optimization models. Accordingly, we provide recommendations of value to practitioners. Shoou-Yuh Chang (North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina), who contributed the chapter on Municipal Solid Waste Management and Disposal, writes, Municipal solid waste management becomes a complicated problem for the United States and other countries with public health, environmental and economical concerns. This chapter addresses the management processes and disposal alternatives in dealing with this public-sector problem. Mujde Erten-Unal (Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia), who contributed the chapter on Hazardous Waste Treatment, writes, Different manufacturing and industrial processes generate hazardous waste. In addition, manufactured products are consumed throughout the society and lead to generation of hazardous waste by commercial, agricultural, institutional, and homeowner activities. Therefore, it is important to understand different technologies for treating hazardous wastes generated from these activities. In this chapter, the hazardous waste treatment methods are grouped and described under physical-chemical, biological, thermal and land disposal categories. Berrin Tansel (Florida International University in Miami, Florida), who contributed the chapter on Sanitary Landfill Operations, writes, Landfills are critical for most waste management strategies, because they are the simplest, cheapest, and most cost-effective method of disposing of waste. This chapter presents engineering considerations which should be incorporated during planning, design, operation, closure, and postclosure of landfills so that impacts to the environment (e.g., leachate and gas releases to the environment) are minimized or mitigated. Waste generation patterns and characteristics can be influenced by public education, local policies, and ordinances. Procedures for site selection, design, operation and closure of sanitary landfills are presented. Audeen Walters Fentiman (Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana), who contributed the chapter on Transportation of Radioactive Materials, writes, This chapter focuses on transportation of highly radioactive materials such as used nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and high-level waste resulting from reprocessing used nuclear fuel. Coverage includes sources, amounts, and current locations of nuclear wastes that will eventually need to be transported, regulations governing transportation of these materials, and descriptions of the types of casks used to transport highly radioactive materials. These wastes have been generated at more than 100 nuclear power plants and about a dozen Department of Energy facilities around the country and will need to be transported to central locations for treatment or disposal. Finally, Blake P. Tullis (Utah State Universityin Logan, Utah) who contributed the chapter on Pipeline System Hydraulics, writes, Pipeline design includes selecting the most appropriate pipe size, pipe material, pumps, valves, joint and

11 Preface seal type, corrosion protection, and operational procedures to minimize the potential for transient pressures that can burst or collapse the pipe. A sound pipeline design is essential for protecting the surrounding environment form the pipeline contents and vice versa. That ends the contributors comments. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of them for having taken the opportunity to work on this book. Their lives are terribly busy, and it is wonderful that they found the time to write thoughtful and complex chapters. I developed the book because I believed it could have a meaningful impact on the way many engineers approach their daily work, and I am gratified that the contributors thought enough of the idea that they were willing to participate in the project. Thanks also to my editor, Bob Argentieri, for his faith in the project from the outset. And a special note of thanks to my wife Arlene, whose constant support keeps me going. xv Myer Kutz Delmar, NY