MUSE: Industrial Solvents and Working Fluids-Industrial Ecology of Organic Materials

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

This one-year MUSES pilot study of industrial ecology is designed to define a workable framework for the analysis of new or environmentally beneficial solvents, considering the life cycle of industrial solvents and working fluids, the supply chain implications, and the factors that influence organizations' decisions to adopt new solvent technologies that improve the environment. In contrast to many organics, which are reacted, formed, or consumed in manufacturing, industrial solvents and working fluids are generally recycled within a process, and therefore have a clear, extended life cycle. Over this life cycle, the influences on human and ecological systems occur from chemical losses and from energy emissions, and are both local and global. Economic influences are also manifested over the entire life cycle supply chain and affect decisions regarding particular solvents and working fluids. This planning project will 1) evaluate specific tools that are available or need to be developed in order to determine the environmental emissions and energy requirements for the five subsystems of the manufacturing industrial ecology system, 2) establish a set of chemical, material, or technology alternatives that have environmental benefits for a case facility's product, 3) identify pivotal factors that influence organizational decisions regarding the use of environmentally friendly inputs. With respect to these organizational decisions, we will consider how various factors influence organizations to green their supply chains and improve human and ecological environment, assessing how environmental information is used over the supply chain to achieve economic improvement. Educational planning includes cross-training of students in this interdisciplinary topic.