Os sistemas industriais são compostos de arranjos complexos que podem variar quanto ao limite do sistema, a fase de produção, o nível de gestão e as dimensões de sustentabilidade. A integração de tais conceitos é essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Outro ponto crucial é o procedimento para a tomada de decisão imparcial. Alguns resultados da pesquisa são destacados.
“This review covers methods applicable to the chemical industry seeking to answer the following question: are the existing sustainability assessment methods able to comparatively discriminate complex chemical industry arrangements to support design and corporate decisions? (…) The framework identified 60 methods on sustainable chemical process design and production up to the present date.”
“Not rarely, multiple sustainability criteria point oppositely, entailing a need for more systematic and coherent assessments. The Sustainable Process Systems Engineering method is introduced as a two-level hierarchical evaluation of process designs. The first level selects the best design via four-dimensional indicators (environment, efficiency, health-&-safety, and economic), while in the second level, sustainability hotspots of the best design are pinpointed to unveil possible improvements.”
“Natural Gas (NG) can be considered a bridging energy source due to its lower fossil carbon emissions. CO2 from fossil fuels is quickly becoming an economic burden due to the increasing adoption of Carbon Taxes. The gaseous and inert nature of CO2 hinder to close material/energy loops as outlined by the Circular Economy European Commission. A wide array of CO2 mitigation technologies are being developed for onshore/offshore processes towards reducing carbon emissions. In this scenario, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a potential reducer of 20% worldwide CO2 emissions by 2050, supporting sustainable fossil-fuel utilization, despite facing ≈102Gt CO2/y.”