ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT of PAPER and PLASTIC GROCERY SACKS a Mass Balance Problem with Multiple Recycle Loops
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16• class and home problems ) The object of this column is to enhance our readers' collection of interesting and novel problems in chemical engineering. Problems of the type that can be used to motivate the student by presenting a particular principle in class, or in a new light, or that can be assigned as a novel home problem, are requested, as well as those that are more traditional in nature and which elucidate difficult concepts. Please submit them to Professors James 0. Wilkes and Mark A. Burns, Chemical Engineer ing Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2136. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF PAPER AND PLASTIC GROCERY SACKS A Mass Balance Problem with Multiple Recycle Loops D. T. ALLEN, N. B AKSHANI University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 covered in a mass and energy balance course, and the problem exposes students to the issue of product nvironmental issues are becoming increasingly life-cycle analysis. Specifically, the problem compares E important in the design of chemical processes paper and plastic grocery sacks based on energy and chemical products. Incorporating these issues requirements and environmental impacts. The prob into an already crowded chemical engineering cur lem is divided into five sections: riculum is a challenge. One way to address this 1. Background material challenge is to develop entire courses dedicated to 2. A problem statement environmental issues. An alternative strategy is to develop homework and design problems that can be 3. Open-ended questions for discussion used in existing chemical engineering courses, illus 4. A solution trating both fundamental engineering principles and 5. References and suggestions for further reading environmental issues Sections 1-3 and 5 can be distributed to the For the past year we have been developing such students as a homework assignment. The prob problems for the chemical engineering curriculum. lem solution takes between two and three hours for One of the problems developed for the mass and most students. energy balances course is given below. The problem BACKGROUND illustrates the concept of recycle, a topic normally At the supermarket checkout stand, consumers are asked to choose whether their purchases should N. Bakshani is a research fellow in the Chemical Engineering Department, University of California, be placed in unbleached paper grocery sacks or in Los Angeles. He holds a BS and MS in metallurgi polyethylene grocery bags. Many consumers make cal engineering from New Mexico Institute of Tech nology and a PhD in applied earth sciences from their choice based on their perception of the relative Stanford University. Current interests include the environmental impacts of these two products. process engineering tools required for pollution prevention in manufacturing and service indus The analysis framework for this problem will be tries. the mass flow diagram shown in Figure 1. For the problem, we can simplify Figure 1 considerably. First, David Allen is an associate professor of chemi consider the recycle loops. Almost all recycled gro cal engineering at the University of California, Los cery sacks are returned to the raw material formula Angeles. He received his BS degree, with distinc tion, from Cornell University (1979) and his MS tion stage, so we can ignore the product recycle and and PhD degrees from California Institute of Tech remanufacture loops. This simplification leads to the nology ( 1981 and 1983). He has also held visiting appointments at the California Institute of Tech mass flow diagram shown in Figure 2 (and Figure 3). nology and th e Department of Energy. © Copyright ChE Division of ASEE 1992 82 Chemical Engineering Education These two figures define our life-cycle analysis frame we must consider how the products are used. Al work for comparing paper and plastic grocery sacks. though both are designed to have a capacity of 1/6 In the figures we have listed the air emissions barrel, fewer groceries are generally placed in plas generated per unit of production for both plastic and tic sacks than in paper sacks, even if the practice of paper grocery sacks. Before a quantitative compari double-bagging (one sack inside the other), used in son between the two products can be made, however, some stores, is taken into account. There is no gen eral agreement on the num energy energy e nergy energy energy ber of plastic grocery sacks needed to hold the volume of groceries usually held by a pa raw materi als product acquisition manufacture per sack. Reported values atmos. range from 1.2 to 3. In this emission atmos . atmos. problem we will use-a value of emissions producl recycle em issions atmospheric emissions 2.0 plastic grocery sacks re- product remanulacturing quired to replace a paper gro materials recycle cery sack. Figure 1. The life cycle for manufactured goods: an analysis template PROBLEM STATEMENT BASIS: 1000 lbs of Polyethylene (PE) Sacks a) Using the data in Figures 2 since weight ol 1 PE sack • 0.2632 oz ., Energ y:185 Btu per sack {combined raw material acquis~ion and product disposa l) 100 0 lbs PE sacks • 60,790 sacks and 3, determine the amount of energy required and the quantity of air pollutants re Energy: 464 Btu per sack leased per 1,000 lb of produc tion of plastic sacks. Also de natural resou rces raw malerials materials manulacture, product manulac1ure product acquisition t----+I product use 1--~-.i disposal termine the amount of energy required and the quantity of air pollutants released for the Almos. Emissions: 0.01 46 oz . per sack quantity of paper sacks Recycle capable of carrying the same volume of groceries as the 1,000 lb of polyethylene sacks. Both the air emissions and the amount of energy required are Atmospher ic Emissions : 0.0045 oz . per sack (combined ra w material acquisihon and product disposal) functions of the recycle rate, Figure 2. The life cycle for manufactured goods: polyethylene (PE) grocery sacks (So urce: Franklin Associates, Ltd.-see suggestions for further reading.) so perform your calculations at three recycle rates, 0% BASIS: # of Paper sacks - 60 ,79012 recycled, 50% recycled, and or 30,395 sacks weight ol 1 paper sack • 2. 144 oz Energy: 724 Btu per sack (combined raw material acquiS~ion and product disposal) 100% recycled. b) Plot the results of part a) for both types of sacks. Com Energy: 905 Btu per sack pare the energy requirements natural and atmospheric emissions re sources raw materials materials manufacture, product manufacture product acquisition >--- - • product use J.-~-.i disposal of the paper and plastic gro cery sacks as a function of re cycle rate. Atmos. Emissio ns : 0.0516 oz. per sack c) Based on your results, dis Re cycl e cuss the relative environmen tal impacts of the two prod ucts. Note that in part b) of the problem, you compared the Atmospheric Emissions: 0.0510 oz. per sack (combined raw material acquis~ion an d product disposal) quantity of air emissions re Figure 3. The life cycle for manufactured goods: paper grocery sacks leased. As shown in Table 1, (Source: Franklin Associates, Ltd.-see suggestions fo r further reading.) the qualitative characteristics Spring 1992 83 of the air emissions due to paper sacks are different show the effect of recycle rate on energy require than those due to plastic sacks. In your discussion ments and atmospheric pollutants. At 0% recycle, you should consider whether or not it is· valid to PE sacks (on an equal-use basis, two PE sacks per compare directly the mass of atmospheric emissions paper sack) require approximately 20% less energy due to the two products. than paper sacks. However, as the recycle rate in d ) The material and energy requirements of the creases, this difference in energy requirement de plastic sacks are primarily satisfied using petroleum, creases linearly. At recycle rates above 80% there a non-renewable resource. In contrast, the paper appears to be no significant difference in energy sacks rely on petroleum only to a limited extent and requirements for PE and paper sacks. Therefore, on only for generating a small fraction of the manufac the basis of energy alone, paper sacks would be turing energy requirements.Ill Most of the energy considered competitive with PE sacks, at high (>80%) requirements of pulp and paper manufacturing are recycle rates. met by burning wood chips. The plot for total atmospheric emissions shows Compare the amount of petroleum required for a similar declining difference between the prod the manufacture of two plastic sacks ucts, with increasing recycle rates. At 0% recycle, to the amount of petroleum neces- sary to provide 10% of the energy TABLEl required in the manufacture of one Profile of Atmospheric Emissions for Paper and Plastic paper sack. Assume 0% recycle, and Grocery Sacks that 1.2 lb of petroleum is required (Source: Franklin Associates, Ltd.) to manufacture 1 lb of polyethylene. Atmospheric Pollutants Per Use (lb) The higher heating value of petro Atmospheric Emissions (lbs) Emissions for 2 Polyethylene Sacks Emissions for 1 Paper Sack leum is 20,000 BTU/lb. 0% Recycling 100% Recycling 0% Recycling 100% Recycling Questions for Discussion 4 4 Particulates 0.8 X 10-4 0.8 X 10" 24.6 X 10-4 2.8 X 10" 1) Is 100% recycle really feasible for the products being analyzed or for Nitrogen Oxides 2.1 X 10-4 1.7 X 10-4 9.2 X 10-4 8.0 X 10-4 any consumer products? Consider at Hydrocarbons 5.8 X 10-4 3.2 X 10-4 4.9 X 10-4 3.9 X 10-4 4 4 least two points in your analysis: con Sulfur Oxides 2.6 X 10- 2.7 X 10-4 13.6 X 10" 10.6 X 10-4 4 4 taminants on or within the sacks, Carbon Monoxide 0.7 X 10· 0.6 X 10- 7.0 X 10-4 6.5 X 10·• and mechanical wear and tear of the Aldehydes 0.0 0.0 0.1 X 10-4 0.1 X 10-4 4 4 grocery sacks.