Life-Cycle Inventory of Waste Solvent Distillation: Statistical Analysis of Empirical Data

Abstract

Distillation is one of the most important processes in the chemical industry. An environmental assessment of distillation processes is difficult because of the highly specific features of each distillation process. Life-cycle inventory (LCI) information is therefore scarce. The goal of this paper is to provide reliable data ranges for inventory flows of waste solvent distillation (i.e. amount of recovered distillate, consumption of steam, electricity, nitrogen, cooling water and ancillary product, and the generation of organic waste, wastewater, and outlet air). For this purpose, we collected data from approximately 150 waste solvent distillation processes from chemical industry and analyzed them statistically. The results of the statistical analysis compose generic data ranges for each LCI parameter. Where appropriate, the data of each LCI parameter have been subdivided according to the distillation technology or the waste solvent composition. Additionally, probability distributions have been fitted to the data of each LCI parameter, thus enabling quantitative uncertainty analysis (e.g. Monte Carlo Simulation). In a case study we illustrate the application of the inventory data ranges according to situations of differing data availability.