Introduction
Improving the safety of chemical production, use, and disposal is a critical component of activities to safeguard human health and the environment. This report highlights the environmental, sustainability, and safety measures for the chemical safety of Coates Chemicals. The focus is on the decision-support tools considered to address the need for an environmentally friendly and safe environment while promoting novel approaches to plan management. The steps are conducted to minimize hazards from operations and manage output, focusing on water consumption management, carbon dioxide management, zero waste in landfills, and a quality work environment. Environmental, sustainability, and safety considerations are vital in ensuring Coates Chemicals contributes to the growth of the UK’s manufacturing economy.
Essential Sustainability and Safety Indicators
With the introduction of E10 fuel in the United Kingdom, the corporation intends to expand its fuel interests by developing a bio-ethanol facility that will create ethanol fuel from glucose. The cost trends show that a 10,000 Terephthalic Acid facility would be economically feasible. Coates Chemicals has sought a front-end engineering design package to create a 30% cost estimate for the facility, built on a greenfield location close to the River Trent in Newark. The design proposals are evaluated against international standards for environmentally sustainable and safe operations with keep interest, including water use management.
Water Consumption Management
The reduction of water consumption can be achieved through heat exchange network optimization. Coates Chemicals recognizes the water-intensive processes that would be fundamental in a successful process necessitating conscious designs that would reduce the water footprint by decreasing energy consumption (Posthuma et al., 2019). The bioethanol will be produced from a bulk glucose solution prepared by others and delivered to the production plant battery limit by pipe from the adjacent sugar refinery for processing within the company.
The proposed design takes large volumes of water typical in Bioethanol processing. Producing bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass involves four steps: pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and separation (Tse e al., 2021). Enzymatic hydrolysis is a critical stage in the manufacture of bioethanol since it is how fermentable sugars are obtained in the final fermentation process. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a method that is constantly being improved to offer a more cost-effective approach (Posthuma et al., 2019). The Coates Chemicals designs optimize water recycling from the River Trent in Newark and subsequent treatment before release back into the natural environment.
Carbon Dioxide Management
Coates Chemical’s plan designs consider the necessity to regulate carbon dioxide to improve air quality and minimize carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The manufacturing facility is made of a bulk glucose storage tank with a capacity of five days’ operation and a pumped transfer and dilution system to the high-carbon fermentation reactors. The design has four parallel saccharification and fermentation reactors where the glucose solution is combined with yeast (Zabihi et al., 2021). Yeast turns carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and water in aerobic conditions. The yeast in an anaerobic environment converts glucose to carbon dioxide and ethanol. In the designs, minimizing ethanol loss during fermentation involves trapping carbon dioxide in the reactor and releasing it through a vent condenser in specific conditions. Coates Chemicals decreases carbon IV oxide emissions from its processing facilities by 20%. Carbon dioxide is recycled inside the facility to accomplish the decrease.
Zero Waste in Landfills
Additionally, Coates Chemicals strives to achieve zero waste in landfills, which is required for environmental sustainability. Recycling trash will aid in preventing the buildup of waste items in open places (Posthuma et al., 2019). The recycling program is designed to assist the organization in reducing production and manufacturing expenses by ensuring that some of the resources necessary to manufacture ethanol are easily accessible. However, access to resources may directly impact the quality of the company’s local surroundings. The design features recycling as a critical technique for environmental management and a revolutionary approach to material resource management.
Quality Work Environment
Coates Chemicals recognizes the need for a safe environment for its workers and the local community. The organization aims at creating a conducive climate among its workers and contractors (Tse e al., 2021). Coates Chemicals is an ethical organization expecting higher standards from its supply chain and human resource management. The concept is achieved with the organization’s push for green production. The organization has made deliberate efforts to minimize its emissions, which can otherwise lead to pollution of the environment.
Conclusion
Coates Chemicals is devoted to the company’s long-term growth and holds itself responsible for the quality of the environment and its shareholders. The corporation has committed to the following company-wide goals by 2025, including a 20% reduction in energy and water use, a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions from production and processing locations, and zero waste in landfills. Coates Chemicals is also committed to ensuring the safety of all workers and contractors on our premises and to ethically doing business. Coates Chemicals scientists and collaborators adopt green chemistry concepts to develop safer chemicals via novel techniques. The management combines many scientific disciplines to create novel prediction methodologies, pioneering technology for chemical toxicity assessment, and developing tools to enhance chemical risk management. For sustainability, chemical management research entails computational toxicology, biotechnology, endocrine-disrupting pharmaceuticals, and public health.
Reference List
Posthuma, L., van Gils, J., Zijp, M.C., van De Meent, D. and de Zwart, D., 2019. Species sensitivity distributions for use in environmental protection, assessment, and management of aquatic ecosystems for 12 386 chemicals. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 38(4), pp.905-917. Web.
Tse, T. J., Wiens, D. J., & Reaney, M. J. (2021). Production of bioethanol—A review of factors affecting ethanol yield. Fermentation, 7(4), 268. Web.
Zabihi, S., Sharafi, A., Motamedi, H., Esmaeilzadeh, F., and Doherty, W.O., 2021. Environmentally friendly acetic acid/steam explosion/supercritical carbon dioxide system for the pretreatment of wheat straw. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(28), pp.37867-37881.