ABSTRACT
The process industry is a large consumer of raw materials, which are utilized both as feedstock for its numerous products and as an energy source to drive its various processes. In the scope of sustainable development, consensus on the limited availability of our natural resources, and on the need for closed cycles in our ecosphere, has grown. Hence, the current approach of our process industry is in question, in terms of both ef ciency and sustainability. First, we need to address the subject of ef ciency. There is a need for quantitative gures on the ef ciency with which natural resources are consumed. Such quantitative gures can be provided from a thermodynamic analysis of the process indicating the discrepancy between the ideal thermodynamic process and the state of the art in current process technology. Next, we will address the question of sustainability. Is it possible to indicate in quantitative terms to which extent a process or an industry is sustainable? This chapter has been based largely on one of our earlier publications [1].
