Work package 1.3 - Identification of energy saving and sustainability potentials
Principal Investigator: Dr. A. Patyk (KIT)
Scientists: Dominik Poncette (KIT), Julia Riese (RUB), Dominik Wörsdörfer (RUB)
Main Scientific Goals
Compared to competitors new technologies have to be better not only regarding product quality and costs but also with respect to environmental performance. Further, impacts linked to the technology by unavoidable up- and down-stream processes have to be considered, too.
This work package aims on sustainability assessment of the concepts under study in the Alliance from a life cycle perspective, i.e. considering up- and downstream processes of the processes in the focus of the Alliance. The sustainability will be described by environmental profiles, cost data and their combination by indicators for eco-efficiency (e.g. greenhouse gas reduction costs). The assessment will done under two aspects:
- Ranking of the concepts, reactors, processes etc. developed in the Alliance with established or other innovative once.
- Identification of weak points of the HEA concepts.
To achieve this goals technical and economic data from the two other WPs of RT 1 and from the technical Research Topics are processed. Results of the analyses are reported to other RTs to consider sustainability aspects in their research activities.
Selection and specification of systems under study
This step is done with technical partners and supported by the scientific board. Subject are conventional references, the HEA concepts and innovative systems. As required by the project progress decisions from the beginning of the project have to be revised.
Modelling
To simulate energy and material flows of the overall systems including supply of chemical precursors etc. models are applied in specific software. The work started briefly after the beginning of the project for early tentative results. The model structure is continuously improved.
Data acquisition and generation
Data are adopted from WP 1.2. and other WPs, additional literature studies and calculated with simplified partial models. As the modelling the data acquisition started early and is continued to the late phase of the Alliance.
Identification of improvement potentials of the HEA concepts
For some important environmental indicators and costs the contributions of the different process stages to the overall impacts and costs are identified. Based on the outcomes recommendations are derived.
Ranking
The HEA concepts and competing technologies are assessed and compared based on aggregated indicators.
Figure 1: Mass flow scheme of phenol/acetone synthesis, modelled in umberto
Figure 2: In and output flows of an example process (nitrobenzene production for aniline synthesis)