Automated Environmental Evaluation for the Optimization of Chemical Processes

Abstract The aim of this work is to show the improvements achieved in terms of sustainability, environment and economic profit in a specific process design problem. The procedure combines rigorous simulation in Hysys® with an environmental evaluation tool programmed in Matlab®. This tool determines categorized impacts using the simulation results and a final global index through an aggregation method based on the geometric mean of the ratios of impacts with respect to the base case. This Hysys®-Matlab® connection allows us the automation in the modification of simulation variables, in the calculation of the environmental impacts, and in the implementation of optimization tools. The procedure is tested using a case study (styrene production), where data obtained from rigorous simulation validated with industrial data.