Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.3
The transition to zero discharge
100
Year
Percentage of year 2000 discharge
2000
100
8
0
2010
8
0
2020
60
2030
40
60
2040
20
2050
0
40
chemicals sector there are four actions that have the
potential to meet that difficult challenge:
20
(1)
Begin and maintain a transition from petro-
chemical to biotechnological feedstocks.
(2)
Develop a strategy for limiting water use to a
reasonable allocation of the locally available
supply.
(3)
Begin and maintain a transition from fossil
fuel and/or biomass energy to more sustainable
energy.
(4)
Establish a programme designed to achieve
near-zero discharges to the environment within
50 years or less.
1900
1950
2000
2050
2100
2150
Year
Fig. 4.3
Historic and sustainability scenarios for alternative
energy sources: fossil fuel plus biomass; and non-fossil fuel
plus biomass.
tially impossible to quantify. For some inorganic
species, such as the sulfate ion, the concept of 'crit-
ical loads' [18] has provided general guidelines. For
most emittants, however, the potential environmen-
tal implications have proven too diverse and too
subtle to yield a simple quantitation.
What approach can a facility manager take to this
challenge if quantitation remains elusive? The only
possible approach is to adopt 'zero discharge' as a
target. Although probably unattainable in practice,
such a goal has the potential to inspire markedly
improved environmental performance. An appropri-
ate approach to the preservation of environmental
resilience thus is to reduce gradually all emissions to
the environment from industrial processes to zero in
50 years (the sustainability horizon). The transition
towards zero discharge is outlined in Table 4.3.
Green chemistry as a field has made substantial
progress by reducing by-product generation, energy
use and discharge toxicity [19]. It has not yet defined
or approached sustainability, however. The chal-
lenges of sustainability are substantial and they are
not traditional. They are also potentially achievable,
or near to it. It is past the time to get started.
References
1.
World Commission on Environment and Develop-
ment.
Our Common Future
. Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1987.
2.
Board on Sustainable Development.
Our Common
Journey
. National Academy Press, Washington, DC,
1999.
3.
Kesler, S. E.
Mineral Resources, Economics, and the Envi-
ronment
. Macmillan, New York, 1994.
3 A Sustainability Scenario
4.
Campbell, C. J., & Laherrere, J. H.
Sci. Am.
, 1998,
278
,
78.
Superior environmental performance relative to
one's peers is important. However, the more chal-
lenging goal of progress towards sustainable envi-
ronmental performance is crucial if we are to
preserve civilisation more or less as we know it.
The discussion above argues that for the synthetic
5.
Kerr, R. A.
Science
, 2000,
289
, 237.
6.
US Environmental Protection Agency.
Profile of the
Petroleum Refining Industry
, Report EPA/310-R-95-013.
EPA, Washington, DC, 1995.
7.
Anastas, P. T., & Lankey R. L.
Green Chem
., 2001,
3
,
289.
