Application of cleaner technologies in milk processing industry to improve the environmental efficiency

Changes in production processes and products that result in improvement of environmental, economic and social performance of enterprises are an important element of the overall process towards more sustainable production. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the application of cleaner production and eco-design as sustainable production tools to improve the environmental efficiency of milk processing industry. Milk processing industry is one of the largest and dynamically developing branches of industry in the world. The main impact of milk processing industry on the environment is related to energy and water consumption, and waste and wastewater generation. A number of potential solutions to improve the environmental performance of milk processing industry, to reduce energy and resources consumption are analysed: substitution of cleaning agent in the milk receiving bar for washing of milk tankers with the specialised acidic detergent, integration of the automated CIP washing system in the butter bar, implementation of water recycling system to collect warm (35?°C) water, integration of the membrane technologies for the evaporation process and the use of filtrate received during the condensation for steam generation in the boiler house. Finally, an eco-design solution for cans of milk products is presented. All these proposals have been implemented in the milk processing company.     

Towards cleaner technologies: emissions reduction, energy and waste minimisation, industrial implementation

This editorial introduces and provides an overview of a Special Issue dedicated to the jubilee 10th Conference of Process Integration, Modelling and Optimization for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction—PRES’07. It contains thirteen selected papers covering various fields of cleaner technologies and environment policy problems. The technologies address recent developments in CO₂ capture in Combined Cycle power plants, CO₂ reduction in pulp and paper mills, process efficiency increases combined with energy savings at a mill, distillation separation enhancements and emissions control at gas plants, pre-combustion decarbonisation for polygenertion from fossil fuels, minimisation of CO₂ emissions in steam and power plants, a study of co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic wastes, waste-to-energy system design (with a focus on incineration and gasification technologies), optimal design of wastewater treatment systems, and integrated production of sugar and biofuels from sugar beet. Among these topics, The Special Issue includes demonstration of the technologies in the form of Advanced Case studies.     

Assessing the environmental impact of five Pd-based catalytic technologies in removing of nitrates

Emerging technologies involving chemical catalytic processes to remove nitrate from water have proven efficient and cost-effective. However, the environmental impact of noble metals and metals at the nanoscale used in these processes has become a topic of serious concern. The aim of this research was to develop a system for evaluating the environmental impact of technologies associated with Pd-based catalytic denitrification. This research performed life cycle assessment (LCA) based on a detailed analysis of the technologies to examine the environmental burden associated with all stages of the removal process. We then applied analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of various burdens. We implemented the proposed system to determine the relative environmental friendliness of 5 processes used for the removal of nitrate. These five methods use Cu-Pd/TNTs, H₂ + Pd-Cu/TiO₂, Pd-Cu/TiO₂, Pd/ZnO, and Pd-Cu/FeO as catalysts for the removal of nitrate. The results indicate that the use of palladium and the consumption of electricity have a major environmental impact; while the use of Pd-Cu/TiO₂ as catalyst was the most environmentally friendly of the five processes evaluated.     

Towards robustness of response times: minimising the maximum inter-completion time on parallel machines

Motivated by scheduling practices that require a response to unplanned high-priority jobs as soon as possible without preempting any in-processing jobs, this paper considers a deterministic identical parallel machine scheduling problem to achieve robustness with regard to a worst-case response time. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to study the objective of minimising the maximum inter-completion time, i.e. the maximum time difference between any two consecutive completion times of jobs. For this novel scheduling problem, we first show its NP-hardness, and then propose an integer linear programming formulation and three heuristic approaches. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our solution methods.     

Materials selection for cleaner production: An environmental evaluation approach

This paper demonstrates an integrated approach to the selection of materials for cleaner production, using binary dominance matrix and grey relational analysis to aid decision-making by engineers. The starting point of this study is to determine the environmental evaluation criteria and to assign weights reflecting their relative importance. In order to assist engineers in the application of the grey evaluation process, and to simplify the computational complexity, a calculating tool based on spreadsheet application has been developed. A case example is provided, in which five poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) materials are subjected to environmental evaluation to determine their sustainability for handbag manufacture. The result of the grey relational analysis and the limitations of the approach are discussed, laying a foundation for further work.     

Towards appropriate indicators of journal impact

This paper reviews a range of studies conducted by the authors on indicators reflecting scholarly journal impact. A critical examination of the journal impact data in theJournal Citation Reports (JCR), published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has shown that the JCR impact factor is inaccurate and biased towards journals revealing a rapid maturing or decline in impact. In addition, it was found that the JCR cited half life is an inappropriate measure of decline of journal impact. More appropriate impact measures of scholarly journals are proposed. A new classification system is explored, describing both maturing and decline of journal impact as measured through citations. Suggestions for future research are made, analysing in more detail the distribution of citations among papers in a journal.     

Towards effective scoping in strategic environmental assessment

The scoping phase in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is considered a central issue for the effectiveness of the whole SEA process, enhancing decision-making. Understanding SEA should be context-specific and scoping is paramount for a robust SEA; the main goal of this research was to develop a framework for the evaluation of the procedural effectiveness of the scoping stage in a specific political and planning system context – Portugal. The framework developed comprises a set of 21 criteria divided into six broad themes and was applied to 20 Portuguese SEA scoping reports, through content analysis. Overall, it was found that mandatory issues in the Portuguese SEA context were met and the scoping reports used mainly national guidelines. However, issues of public participation are often discarded and there is no evidence that scoping starts early in the decision-making process, or if it is done concurrently. Nonetheless, the framework developed establishes best practice for the SEA scoping phase, needing to be adapted to the different political and planning system contexts in order to reflect legal and institutional specificities.     

The quality of environmental impact statements and environmental impact assessment practice in Bangladesh

This paper investigates the quality of environmental impact statements (EISs) and gives us an understanding about the performance of environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice in Bangladesh. EIA has been formally practised in Bangladesh since 1995.However, no study has yet been conducted on the quality of EISs. This study fills this gap. This empirical study shows that the quality of EISs in Bangladesh is ‘just satisfactory’ only. A significant proportion of EISs (34%) are still unsatisfactory. Finally, possible factors affecting the quality of EISs are examined and measures to improve the quality of EISs are recommended. The findings will be useful to EIA practitioners and other stakeholders in Bangladesh. This study will also provide a general guideline for other developing countries with similar socio-economic context.     

Assessing the impact of strategic environmental assessment

This paper examines the impact of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) – its direct impact on policies, plans and programs (PPPs) and its indirect and longer-term impacts. Criteria for assessing SEA's impact are developed and applied in the Canadian context based on a survey of SEA practitioners, and the perceived opportunities and challenges to realizing the full impact of SEA explored. Results indicate that SEA does have a direct impact on PPPs, but its indirect impacts are either constrained or difficult to distinguish from an agency's normal policies, practices and innovations. Amongst the most significant challenges to realizing the indirect impacts of SEA is the lack of shared vision for SEA by those responsible for implementation, and incongruences between the need for rapid results by way of PPP approval versus the long-term commitment required to realize many of the benefits of SEA. Indirect impacts require more explicit consideration at the outset of the SEA design process than what is currently the case if the benefits of SEA are to be fully recognized.     

环境检测能力验证样品的制备技术

一、前言 环境保护领域涉及的检测样品非常复杂.一方面需要检测的污染物种类比较多,既有化学污染物、也有大肠杆菌、电导率等生物和物理特性污染物,另一方面,需要检测的污染物浓度水平范围比较大,既有痕量甚至超痕量的环境背景检测,也有微量至常量的污染源检测.     

Supply chain management and environmental technologies: the role of integration

As corporations attempt to move toward environmental sustainability, management must extend their efforts to improve environmental practices across their supply chain. To date, the literature characterising environmental management within the supply chain has been slowly building, but remains sparse. Moreover, investment by plants in environmental technologies cannot be made independently of other organisations in the supply chain. The linkage between supply chain characteristics, such as the degree of integration with primary suppliers and major customers, and the resources invested in different environmental technologies is assessed with plant-level survey data. The results indicate that resources were increasingly allocated toward pollution prevention when plants developed extensive strategic-level integration with suppliers, including such aspects as product development and knowledge sharing. However, these effects were not mirrored with customers. Instead, greater supply chain integration with customers was significantly related to pollution control. Collectively, these findings suggested that downstream supply chain members tend to favour prevention while simultaneously shifting the burden for control to upstream members.     

Towards a national strategic environmental assessment system in Lebanon

In an effort to mainstream environmental sustainability in the national development agenda, the Government of Lebanon is among the pioneers in the Middle East to launch the development of a national strategic environmental assessment (SEA) system that caters to the particularities of the Lebanese planning, regulatory and institutional context. This paper provides a critical overview of the approach followed by the Ministry of Environment for the development of an SEA system and its regulation. It also makes recommendations for facilitating SEA implementation and presents some of the early outcomes resultingfrom awareness raising during consultation on the development of the proposed system     

Evaluating the life cycle environmental performance of chlorine disinfection and ultraviolet technologies

With increasing emphasis on promoting a sustainable ecological future and concern over introducing a toxic chemical in the water, the design of the disinfection process is increasingly leaning toward technologies that destroy the pathogens while balancing the effects of this disinfected wastewater on the population of aquatic biota or a drinking water supply. Since ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is not a chemical additive, it does not leave or produce any by-product toxic compounds in the wastewater, like traditional chlorination and de-chlorination processes do. Therefore, the use of UV does not affect a drinking water supply or the aquatic biota in receiving waters. Life cycle assessment or analysis (LCA) is used to quantify the environmental benefits of using UV disinfection technology (as well as better protecting public health), instead of chlorination and de-chlorination methods. LCA tools are being used to evaluate the short and long term environmental effects of both processes, and to select the best sustainable process. The approach here combines environmental LCA with these disinfection processes incorporating economic criteria and all aspects of the environment: chemical use, electricity use, and releases to water, air, and land. The environmental, health, and economic benefits and other effects show the greater sustainability of UV technology (a "clean" ecological disinfection process) in comparison to that of traditional disinfection with chlorine. Electronic Publication     

Project splitting in environmental impact assessment

Abstract

This paper discusses project splitting in environmental impact assessment (EIA), investigating the current state of knowledge through literature, legislation, case-law and practice, discussing problems and providing solutions. The focus is on Spain, but many of the conclusions are applicable worldwide. Project splitting is a much more common practice than generally accepted. The main efforts have been focused on preventing salami-slicing as a mechanism to avoid the EIA, but it is a much more complex problem, with different ways of splitting and reasons for doing so. Measures to avoid this practice should include strengthening the strategic environmental assessment, a greater involvement of the approval authority, specific prohibitions in regulations, using case-by-case examinations instead of thresholds, compulsory scoping and avoid the exclusion of project parts during the EIA.     

Evaluation of the environmental impact assessment system in Egypt

A formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) system was introduced in Egypt through Environmental Protection Law No. 4 of 1994. This paper evaluates the EIA system in Egypt by using both ‘systemic’ and ‘foundation’ evaluation criteria. The methodology is based on an investigation of EIA legislation, a review of guidelines and relevant documents, and interviews with EIA practitioners. The main factors affecting EIA best practice in Egypt are the limited numbers of local experts, inadequate public consultation, lack of environmental data, weak follow-up, and the absence of long- term land-use plans. Recommendations to strengthen the system include improving capacity building, implementing an effective EIA consultants' accreditation system, ensuring effective public participation and access to EIA reports, applying systematic environmental impact statement (EIS) review criteria and promoting environmental awareness.