Table 5.
Summary of tools and techniques that can be implemented for solvent recovery
| Methodology/Tool | Advantages | Deficiencies | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tools | |||
| GREET | Able to capture the emissions associated with the transportation system used by industry. Able to compare detailed alternate renewable sources of energy | Only geared toward LCIs for vehicular and fuel combinations | (Argonne GREET Model, 2021) |
| GREENSCOPE | Able to evaluate process sustainability in four main areas namely: material efficiency, energy, economics, and environment. Can be applied at both unit and system level | Over 139 indicators. Need expert interpretation of results for potential applications | (Ruiz-Mercado et al., 2012a, 2012b, 2013) |
| SimaPro | Used to estimate the life cycle inventories and impact assessment of processes. Helps in comparative assessment of alternate processes. Captures detailed health, climate, and resource impacts | Lack of detailed ecological analysis of the process | (Goedkoop et al., 2016) |
| REMADE | Simple and easy to use. Able to evaluate the impact change of the recycling process | Designed for energy and CO2-equivalent evaluation in plastics recycling | (REMADE Institute, 2020) |
| Methodology | |||
| Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) | Estimates the emissions associated with processes | Data gathering is tedious. Focuses only on emissions | (ISO 14040, 1997; ISO 14044, 2006) |
| Sustainable Process Index (SPI) | Estimates the ecological burden of processes. Detailed environmental cost of the process. Social impacts of processes are inherent during the estimation process | Not able to capture detailed energy demand of the process | (Krotscheck and Narodoslawsky, 1996; Narodoslawsky and Krotscheck, 1995) |
| Emergy | Presents an approach to estimating the available energy needed for the process. Helps in the determination of the economic pressure associated with imported resources for a process | Lack of detailed models for transformity estimation. Data collection and handling are laborious | (Odum, 1988; Odum and Odum, 2000; Ulgiati et al., 1994) |
| Techno-Ecological Synergy (TES) | Presents an approach to estimate the ecological overshoot of the process and the interdependencies of human activities and nature. Considers spatial distribution of ecosystem resources | Unable to encapsulate the dynamics of the ecological system | (Bakshi et al., 2015) |