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Computer based design & economic evaluation for air pollution control
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It was decided that our research project team could produce the most useful results by concentrating on developing a excavation/removal, pumping, separation/size reduction and other types of materials handling problems. A database system and data structure are being created to help analyze hazardous materials handling requirements of Superfund sites, and relate those requirements to existing equipment. The third year of the project will involve development of a sufficient knowledge base and software to have an operational knowledge based expert system for materials handling equipment selection. COMPUTER BASED DESIGN & ECONOMIC EVALUATION FOR AIR POLLUTION CONTROL Frank Worley and Elvis E. Deal Department of Chemical Engineering, Universityof Houston, 4800 Calhoun, Houston, Texas 77204, U.S.A.
Over the past several years significant changes in federal environmental regulations have resulted in a growing number of small to medium-size manufacturing and service industries that will be required to meet emission standards. Unfortunately, many of these companies were unable to anticipate the magnitude of these changes and do not possess adequate staffing and/or knowledge to estimate their impact. In particular, many lack the experience necessary to perform control methodologies analysis or economic impact assessment and, in general, to carry out a remediation strategy evaluation. The objective in the work proposed herein is to continue the development a software decision-support tool that can assist in formulating acceptable air pollution control strategies and in training their technical staff to identify and assess options. By acceptable strategy, we mean a cost-effective plan, employing reliable technology, which achieves emission and/or ambient air standards. The methodology to be employed in this effort will be an extension of that undertaken in our initial work. In this initial stage of research, the investigators are presently involved in developing a software system targeted at removal of particulates from a gas stream; in the continuation effort, focus will be expanded to include emission control of certain gaseous components. The software system itself is partitioned in order to perform two major functions. In the first step, information is collected from the
ABSTRACTS
user so as to formulate specific objectives and constraints. These data are processed along with decision rules in the expert system in order to reduce the group of feasible equipment options to a preferred set of candidates. In the second step design and costing functions are carried out with the objective of reporting to the recommended solution, including economic and equipment specification data. SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR THE SELECTION OF THE LEAST-COST TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR AQUEOUS ORGANIC HAZARDOUS WASTE Desmond F. Lawler and Gerald E. Speitel, Jr. Department of Civil Engineering, Universityof Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.
Decisions concerning the technologies to be used to treat waters contaminated by hazardous organic chemicals are complex. The complexity stems from the mixture of chemicals in contaminated waters, the range of concentrations encountered, the variety of available treatment technologies, the maze of regulatory constraints, and the multitude of process configurations that give technically feasible solutions. Faced with this complexity, designers usually aim for a reasonable but not necessarily least-cost design. This research, which has been funded for two years and for which funding is now sought for a final year, was designed with three objectives: 1. to create a unified decision tool, a computer-based system, which will allow designers to investigate systematically a wide variety of technically-feasible solutions and arrive at the least cost option. 2.to increase our understanding of simultaneous biodegradation and liquid-phase adsorption. 3. to synthesize results developed from the first two objectives into useful insights, generalizations and methodologies for treatment process selection. A significant amount of progress has been accomplished toward all three objectives. Simulation models for each treatment process have been, or are, being written or improved. Six treatment processes are included: air stripping (including both countercurrent and crosscurrent configurations), air stripping with off-gas treatment (with three different gas-phase treatments), liquid-phase adsorption,
It was decided that our research project team could produce the most useful results by concentrating on developing a excavation/removal, pumping, separation/size reduction and other types of materials handling problems. A database system and data structure are being created to help analyze hazardous materials handling requirements of Superfund sites, and relate those requirements to existing equipment. The third year of the project will involve development of a sufficient knowledge base and software to have an operational knowledge based expert system for materials handling equipment selection. COMPUTER BASED DESIGN & ECONOMIC EVALUATION FOR AIR POLLUTION CONTROL Frank Worley and Elvis E. Deal Department of Chemical Engineering, Universityof Houston, 4800 Calhoun, Houston, Texas 77204, U.S.A.
Over the past several years significant changes in federal environmental regulations have resulted in a growing number of small to medium-size manufacturing and service industries that will be required to meet emission standards. Unfortunately, many of these companies were unable to anticipate the magnitude of these changes and do not possess adequate staffing and/or knowledge to estimate their impact. In particular, many lack the experience necessary to perform control methodologies analysis or economic impact assessment and, in general, to carry out a remediation strategy evaluation. The objective in the work proposed herein is to continue the development a software decision-support tool that can assist in formulating acceptable air pollution control strategies and in training their technical staff to identify and assess options. By acceptable strategy, we mean a cost-effective plan, employing reliable technology, which achieves emission and/or ambient air standards. The methodology to be employed in this effort will be an extension of that undertaken in our initial work. In this initial stage of research, the investigators are presently involved in developing a software system targeted at removal of particulates from a gas stream; in the continuation effort, focus will be expanded to include emission control of certain gaseous components. The software system itself is partitioned in order to perform two major functions. In the first step, information is collected from the
ABSTRACTS
user so as to formulate specific objectives and constraints. These data are processed along with decision rules in the expert system in order to reduce the group of feasible equipment options to a preferred set of candidates. In the second step design and costing functions are carried out with the objective of reporting to the recommended solution, including economic and equipment specification data. SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR THE SELECTION OF THE LEAST-COST TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR AQUEOUS ORGANIC HAZARDOUS WASTE Desmond F. Lawler and Gerald E. Speitel, Jr. Department of Civil Engineering, Universityof Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.
Decisions concerning the technologies to be used to treat waters contaminated by hazardous organic chemicals are complex. The complexity stems from the mixture of chemicals in contaminated waters, the range of concentrations encountered, the variety of available treatment technologies, the maze of regulatory constraints, and the multitude of process configurations that give technically feasible solutions. Faced with this complexity, designers usually aim for a reasonable but not necessarily least-cost design. This research, which has been funded for two years and for which funding is now sought for a final year, was designed with three objectives: 1. to create a unified decision tool, a computer-based system, which will allow designers to investigate systematically a wide variety of technically-feasible solutions and arrive at the least cost option. 2.to increase our understanding of simultaneous biodegradation and liquid-phase adsorption. 3. to synthesize results developed from the first two objectives into useful insights, generalizations and methodologies for treatment process selection. A significant amount of progress has been accomplished toward all three objectives. Simulation models for each treatment process have been, or are, being written or improved. Six treatment processes are included: air stripping (including both countercurrent and crosscurrent configurations), air stripping with off-gas treatment (with three different gas-phase treatments), liquid-phase adsorption,