Читать книгу Industrial Environmental Management - Tapas K. Das - Страница 30

The first step toward achieving Zero Discharge and/or Zero Emissions is an in‐depth review of the industry to see if total throughput is possible. This means determining whether all material inputs can be found in the final product – if there are no wastes, all inputs must have ended up in the product. One of the few industries where this can occur is cement manufacturing. In the Mini‐Case Study 1.1, however, only a small fraction of the nutrients in the grain ends up in beer.

If throughput is not total, the next step is to determine whether the products manufactured can be easily reintegrated into the ecosystem without additional costs for processing, energy, or transportation. However, since this is rarely possible, most industries will not achieve Zero Discharge unilaterally.

Process and product design engineers will probably find their first opportunities by meeting with their traditional clients, analyzing each client's throughput, and looking for opportunities for pollution prevention and waste minimization that the client's in‐house experts may not have seen. The analysis would include evaluating products and services presently being produced, processes and materials used, and management of environmental issues including energy efficiency, as well as clarifying the full scope of emissions.