ABSTRACT
Abstract The key to sustainable growth is innovative technology that addresses performance elements for economic growth, environmental protection, and social progress. Environmental regulations, the push for social progress, and profitability demands will drive refining, chemical, and other industries to meet this innovation challenge. Near-term efforts focus on process optimization, energy utilization, and emissions reduction using incremental technology improvements. In the future, hazard reduction, feedstock substitution, and new energy sources will become more critical. This paper describes approaches to developing sustainable technology and provides pertinent examples in areas such as direct natural gas utilization, desulfurization, and elimination of hazardous liquid acids as catalysts. Introduction There are many definitions for sustainable development in use today. The World Resources Institute definition: “Growth that meets the economic, social, and environmental needs without compromising any of them” encompasses most concepts. The chemical, petrochemical, and petroleum refining process industries have slowly evolved toward maintaining sustainable development. Although the progress toward sustainable development has been significant, it has largely been directed at increasing efficiency, minimizing waste, and eliminating harmful emissions for existing processes. Much of this has been driven by the savings resulting from more efficient operations and government legislation. For example, Dow Chemical has utilized new recovery systems and more efficient processing equipment to reduce emissions by 43% and waste by 30%. This resulted in a 180% return on investment at the Midland, Michigan facility (1). Improvements in technology such as this will extend our resources, but in the long run are not sustainable.
