Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industrial pollution (prevention)'

Multi-medium pollution control has finally transcended the boundary from its roots in traditional manufacturing industry, and has entered the realm of intensive pig farming. This research has revealed the problems that face pig farmers when confronted by the Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control (IPPC) Directive (1996/61/EC). It has developed approaches that could assist intensive pig farmers in making important choices. A parallel study of the re-licensing of landfill facilities, an industry that is a veteran of licensing, has provided an ideal comparator. The literature on both industries was extensively searched for what was previously known. This has been supported by original research, including interviews with both landfill managers and pig farmers. These interviews were preceded by tours of landfill sites and pig farms - something that is seldom performed within the data collection stage of research where interviews are used. Differences between words and actions became apparent. These were analysed and their motivating factors considered. These discrepancies, evident through this verification process, serves to caution other researchers about the distortions that can arise when interviews alone are used. Identifying these discrepancies is also important because policy is often formulated using information collected though interview-based surveys. It may be the case that policy outcome deficit can result from the difference between words and actions. For decades farming has been moulded by society's desires in a similar vein to a nationalised industry. However, it is not a nationalised industry, but a collection of private individuals, family businesses, and larger companies. Multi-medium pollution control has been tried before. Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) was pioneered in England and Wales in 1991. Comparing the first years of that regime with the experiences that the Environment Agency are currently having reveals that many of the lessons have not been learnt. The funding available to the regulator, and the charges levied against the regulated are negotiated through compromises whereby environmental protection may be the loser. In this study, industry structures have been examined, revealing that the landfill industry is biased towards large operating companies. Re-licensing for the landfill industry is essentially a tightening of existing emission control, with relatively few additions. Landfill operators have the ability to pass costs on. Different experiences have been found between small and large landfill operators. Many small operators will go out of business. In this context it is noted that the structure of the intensive pig farming industry is biased towards smaller operators. Existing literature demonstrates that Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have difficulty implementing environmental regulation. Through this study, this knowledge has been supplemented by close examination of two industries that have hitherto been omitted from the SME - environmental regulation debate. Industry characteristics are important factors that are here explored in detail, through inter-industry comparisons based upon size and through size comparisons within each industry. Within both industries large size is not just a scaled-up version of a small business. In fact the cultures and organisational structures are different. Essentially, intensive pig farmers have limited choices. Those at the small end of the scale may be able to de-stock and temporarily escape the threshold beyond which strict environmental controls come into play. Many at this scale may decide to retire and abandon pig farming. Alternatives for these farmers include pursuing niche or more specialised markets. Intermediate in size, Family Farming Businesses exhibit characteristics of both large and small businesses. Their future is a little more uncertain as there is a momentum to continue farming - a key characteristic which makes family businesses different. The largest businesses are better placed to implement the controls, or to challenge and to find the least cost compliance route. However, the competition from imports, and an inability to gain more for the meat they produce may force this category to increase the size of operation even further, so as to lower unit costs.

O conceito de prevenção da poluição, já abordado em estudos sobre efluentes e outros tipos de resíduos, deve se estender também à questão das embalagens utilizadas em indústrias. Isto porque, com o aumento na complexidade dos processos produtivos, as embalagens passaram a ser empregadas também para abrigar componentes durante a fabricação e o transporte, e não mais apenas para conter o produto final; assim, sua utilização pode acarretar a geração de grandes quantidades de resíduos, caso o princípio da prevenção não seja adotado. É neste quadro que o presente trabalho se insere: inicialmente, apresenta considerações relativas às embalagens e à evolução dos conceitos do gerenciamento de resíduos, destacando a presença da prevenção da poluição em norma ISO 14001 e em dispositivos legais do Brasil e de países da Comunidade Econômica Européia.Através de estudo de caso realizado em uma empresa montadora de motores localizada em São Carlos (SP), foram identificados procedimentos adequados à prevenção da poluição por embalagens de uso industrial, como a utilização de embalagens retornáveis; observou-se, no entanto, a geração de resíduos a partir de acessórios que acompanham as embalagens, como filmes e cintas plásticas. Por fim, a partir da escolha de um modelo de motor produzido na empresa, foram analisadas as embalagens cujos componentes estão envolvidos em sua fabricação; com os dados obtidos, foram propostos e determinados índices de desempenho relativos à ocorrência de descartes de acessórios em termos quantitativos e qualitativos, segundo o tipo de material
The increasing complexity of the production processes ended up leading to an increasing need for packages of several shapes and materials. They are nowadays used not only for finished products, but also during fabrication and transportation phases, in order to protect raw materials, components and semi-finished products. Thus, the use of packages may also result in the generation of waste during production processes. The historically-new trend of priorizing pollution-prevention activities must, of course include all the packaging used in the industry. However, studies of the possibilities of pollution prevention have been concentrated on the waste originated directly from the production processes (effluents, metal scrap). At same time, studies on the pollution prevention applied to packaging have been focused on the packaging of consumer goods. There's a need for researches on packaging-related waste generated indirectly by production processes. More specifically, one must evaluate the possibilities and results of the application of pollution prevention concepts to this kind of waste, so that it can be dealt with in a proper way, and the industrial sector be informed about the new waste management paradigm. Starting with basic packaging-related definitions, and a description of the evolution of solid waste management concepts, from disposal to pollution prevention, this work, through a case study, identifies procedures directed towards waste prevention e proposes some performance indicators, related to the amount of waste generated in the fabrication of one unit of product. It also presents and establishes a comparison between brazilian and european environmental laws

A prevenção à poluição é uma abordagem de gerenciamento ambiental que prioriza a redução dos resíduos na fonte como forma de preservar os recursos naturais e reduzir o desperdício de materiais, água e energia, em contraposição à abordagem tradicional, que se apóia nas tecnologias de controle e tratamento de resíduos. Apesar de resultar em benefícios ambientais e econômicos, existem uma série de barreiras que impedem uma maior disseminação das práticas de prevenção à poluição nas indústrias, dentre as quais a principal é a falta de conscientização em relação aos benefícios. Para eliminar esta barreira, faz-se necessário o desenvolvimento e a divulgação dos conceitos e ferramentas de apoio ao processo de identificação de oportunidades, ferramentas para o monitoramento e avaliação da performance ambiental dos processos produtivos, bem como de estudos de caso propondo alternativas de prevenção à poluição para os diferentes setores industriais. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo fundamental apresentar os conceitos, sistemáticas e ferramentas necessárias ao entendimento da abordagem de prevenção à poluição, e ao desenvolvimento, implantação e monitoramento de programas de prevenção à poluição em processos industriais. Como forma de avaliar a aplicação do conceito e das ferramentas de identificação de oportunidades, e os benefícios e barreiras, foi realizada a avaliação de um processo produtivo industrial. Os resultados obtidos fornecem embasamento teórico para que outros trabalhos semelhantes sejam desenvolvidos, e servem como incentivo para que a empresa na qual foi realizada a avaliação, passe a adotar o conceito de prevenção à poluição como princípio norteador nas suas atividades de gestão ambiental.
Pollution prevention is an environmental management approach that prioritizes the source reduction of wastes as a way to preserve natural resources and reduce material, water and energy losses, conversely to the traditional approach, based on end of pipe technologies. In spite of the environmental and economic benefits, many barriers can impede the widespreading of pollution prevention practices at industry, among them, the most important one is the lack of consciousness on the pollution prevention benefits. To overcome this barrier, it is necessary to develop and report concepts and tools to support the opportunity assessment process, tools to monitor and evaluate industrial processes environmental performance, as well as case studies on pollution prevention alternatives to different industrial sectors. This research fundamental aim is to present the concepts, approaches and tools necessary to understand the pollution prevention approach and to develop, implement and monitor industrial pollution prevention plans. A case study was conducted in a company to evaluate the concept application, the utilization of the apportunities assessment tools, and the benefits and barriers. The results provide a theoric framework so that other similar studies can be conducted, and also serve as an incentive for the company where the case study was conducted, to improve its environmental management activities by adopting pollution prevention concept as a guiding principle.

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Esta dissertação consiste em uma revisão crítica da literatura sobre a prevenção da poluição na fonte geradora. Teve como objetivos: compor uma fonte adicional de informação sobre o tema, em língua portuguesa, uma vez que as disponíveis são muito limitadas, e discutir as implicações da incorporação ou não da prevenção, em função de seus resultados ambientais e econômicos e das diferenças de possibilidades entre os países. Inicialmente, analisa-se as discussões relativas à sustentabilidade, vulnerabilidade e incertezas ambientais, que situam o problema e ressaltam a necessidade de prevenir a poluição. Em seguida, discute-se as correntes intituladas Produção Mais Limpa e a Ecologia Industrial: conceitos e tecnologias; vantagens ambientais e econômicas; resultados já obtidos e dificuldades encontradas; instrumentos que induzem a adoção da prevenção; convergências e divergências entre as proposições. Por último, discute-se a orientação das leis ambientais brasileiras em relação a prevenção da poluição e as possíveis implicações para os países em desenvolvimento, como conseqüência da incorporação ou não das tecnologias mais eficientes de prevenção. Conclui-se que a Produção Mais Limpa e a Ecologia Industrial podem ser complementares e que a consideração das duas alternativas, acresce opções ao complexo problema da busca da sustentabilidade. Conclui-se, ainda que, ante a lógica econômica predominante, as vantagens ambientais e econômicas proporcionadas pela lógica da prevenção, tendem a aumentar as diferenças entre os países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento. Mas que as diferenças serão ainda maiores em relação àqueles que se atenham aos procedimentos menos eficientes de fim de linha. Que os países em desenvolvimento precisam identificar possibilidades de incorporação da lógica da prevenção e buscar a ampliação do seu acesso às novas tecnologias.
Salvador

A Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) é uma ferramenta da gestão ambiental que identifica os aspectos ambientais e avalia os impactos ambientais associados aos produtos, durante todo o seu ciclo de vida, em outras palavras, do berço ao túmulo. O ciclo de vida inicia-se quando todos os recursos requeridos (sejam eles materiais ou energéticos) para a manufatura de determinado produto são extraídos da natureza e finaliza-se após o cumprimento da função pelo produto, retornando ao meio ambiente. Devido à quantidade de dados que necessita ser coletada, um estudo de Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida somente torna-se viável caso exista a disponibilidade de um banco de dados nacional constituído por inventários do ciclo de vida dos principais insumos empregados pela sociedade - matérias primas, energia, etc. Estes inventários possuem caráter de regionalidade e representatividade, podendo tornar novos estudos mais completos, confiáveis e fáceis de serem concluídos. A ACV vem assumindo uma importância a nível global, o Brasil vem se aprimorando na capacitação e uso desta técnica. O GP2 - Grupo de Prevenção da Poluição do Departamento de Engenharia Química da Escola Politécnica da USP, tem como seu principal objetivo a contribuição para o aprimoramento de recursos humanos necessários e consolidação do uso da ACV no Brasil. Desse modo, as atividades do GP2 têm se concentrado na construção de um banco de dados que deve ser adequado, obrigatoriamente, às condições regionais. O presente estudo está inserido nessa linha de pesquisa e tem como propósito a elaboração do Inventário do Ciclo de Vida (ICV) para o papel offset produzido no Brasil. O papel offset pertence a categoria de papéis de imprimir e, atualmente, representa o tipo de papel mais produzido no país. O resultado deste estudo consiste em um inventário consolidado dos aspectos ambientais considerados significativos para a produção da madeira, a extração da celulose, a fabricação do papel offset e outros subsistemas associados, sob as condições tecnológicas típicas dominantes no Brasil. A qualidade do estudo está intrinsecamente ligada à cadeia produtiva do papel offset, que se baseou primordialmente em dados primários. Os resultados do estudo mostraram-se coerentes com um estudo parcial realizado no Chile. Uma análise mais apurada para os resultados encontrados no estudo, com base em pesquisas internacionais, não se fez necessária, considerando as diferenças tecnológicas e de matérias-primas empregadas no ciclo de vida do papel de outros países.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for the environmental management which identifies its aspects and evaluates its environmental impacts related to the products during its whole life cycle. In other words, a cycle that goes from cradle to grave. The life cycle begins when all the required resources (material or energetic) to manufacture a certain product are extracted from the nature and it ends after accomplishing its function, returning to the environment. Due to the amount of data to be collected, a study of the life cycle assessment is only viable in case there is a national data base available formed by inventories of the main input used by the society, such as raw material, energy, and so on. These inventories have a regional and representative character, allowing new studies to be fuller, more reliable and easier to be concluded. The LCA has taken on a world wise importance. Brazil has been improving its competence and usage of such technique. The GP2 - Preventing Pollution Group from the Chemical Engineering Department of Escola Politécnica at USP - has as its primal objective the contribution to an improvement of necessary Human Resources and the consolidation of the LCA usage. In this manner, GP2 activities have to be focused on a data base construction, which should be compulsorily adequate to the regional conditions. The present study is inserted in such line of research and has as its purpose the elaboration on a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) for the offset paper made in Brazil. The offset paper belongs to the printing paper category and, lately, represents the most used type of paper in this country. The result of such study consists in a solid inventory of the environmental aspects considered meaningful for wood production, cellulose extraction, offset paper manufacture and other related subsystems under typical predominant technological conditions in Brazil. The quality of this study is significantly related to the production chain of the offset paper, which was based mainly on primary data. The results of this study showed to be coherent to the ones achieved in a Chilean study, even though they were partial results. A more refined analysis on the pursued results in the study, based on international researches, isn't necessary, considering the technological differences and raw material used in the paper life cycle in other countries.

Orientador: Emilia W. Rutkowski
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
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Resumo: O ramo automotivo do segmento metal-mecânico é composto majoritariamente por pequenas empresas que estão expostas a uma exigência competitiva global: aprimorar seu padrão de qualidade ambiental. Todavia, ainda se observa, para estas empresas, uma discrepante participação na adoção de instrumentos voluntários de gestão ambiental quando comparadas, por exemplo, a grandes empresas. Dentre estes, a produção mais limpa (p+l) destaca-se como uma estratégia robusta de gestão ambiental corporativa por se estabelecer a partir de uma plataforma integrada e com foco na prevenção. Sob esta perspectiva, o presente trabalho propõe desenvolver e aplicar uma metodologia interativa para implementação de p+l; esta metodologia é composta por um programa de implementação de p+l, concebido e construído especialmente para o perfil de uma pequena empresa e por um conjunto de perguntas e respostas que se vinculam estruturalmente às fases e atividades deste programa e permite, desse modo, sua aplicação interativa valorizando o capital humano, o conhecimento e a linguagem neste segmento de empresas
Abstract: The Brazilian metals sector and, mainly its automotive section, is mostly composed by small enterprises which are exposed to a competitive global demand: permanently improve their environmental quality standard. However, for such enterprises, there is still a meaningful discrepancy in participation as far as self-regulatory environmental management instruments adoption is concerned when compared, for instance, to large companies. Amongst these instruments, the cleaner production stands out as a vigorous environmental management approach based on an integrated platform with a preventive focus. Under this point of view, this study proposes to develop and to apply an interactive cleaner production implementation methodology. This methodology is built by a cleaner production implementation program, especially conceived and created for the small enterprises profile and by a set of questions and answers structurally connected to the phases and activities of such program allowing its interactive implementation as well as increasing value for the human capital, the knowledge and the language in small enterprises
Mestrado
Saneamento e Ambiente
Mestre em Engenharia Civil

This thesis investigates the use of a combined set of quantitative and qualitative tools to help address known barriers associated with adopting and sustaining pollution prevention (P2) in an industrial manufacturing setting. The research was conducted at an Ontario dairy processing facility in the form of a case study. P2 is an alternative approach to traditional pollution control or abatement techniques. P2 is a preferred method for pollution management, both environmentally and economically, as it focuses on the efficient use of resources to prevent pollution at the source. The tools used in this research included: wastewater treatability testing, hierarchical process mapping, employee interviews, and causal loop diagrams (CLDs). The application of these tools assisted the participating facility in better characterizing its existing environmental problems, uncovering concrete resource saving opportunities within its processes, and providing more adaptive visual approaches of documenting and conveying P2 concepts.
OMAFRA Agri-Food and Rural Link KTT Funding Program

Within the greater movement of sustainable development, industrial practices have been identified as a key area in which much improvement is both necessary and possible. The development and operation of industrial parks have become a focus of these efforts. The basic premise of this thesis is that a sustainable industrial park should function in an economically competitive manner that provides for human needs through market mechanisms while doing so in alliance with the local community, in congruence with the local ecosystem and within the carrying capacity of the planet. From a municipal planning and economic development perspective, this thesis focuses upon the development of a municipal strategy to effectuate sustainable industrial development and operations. Utilizing a blended theoretical approach incorporating general systems theory and planning theories, the proposed industrial park surrounding the Hamilton International Airport, in the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has been analyzed to develop a viable sustainability vision for the park, identify barriers to implementing and achieving that vision, and formulate a municipal strategy to promote and enable the pursuit and realization of that vision. It was found that there is an important role for the municipality to assume and numerous opportunities for concrete municipal action throughout the planning, development and operational stages of the industrial park. Upon reflection of the research process, the findings were extrapolated to garner wider applicability and relevance to other municipalities provincially, nationally, and internationally, as well as to the professional and academic community involved in industrial sustainability.

Pollution prevention is promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other governmental agencies as a method of reducing the generation of wastes and pollutants. Pollution prevention is also called source reduction because it reduces wastes early in the production process. Source reduction has been used by some industries to comply with governmental regulations and decrease costs associated with the management of hazardous materials. Nationally, the electronics industry generates a large quantity of hazardous waste. Similarly in Oregon, the electronics industry has recently been identified by the DEQ as one of the top five polluters in the state. The purpose of this research was to identify pollution prevention strategies that are currently being used by the electronics industry in Oregon and to assess the industry's interest in switching to less hazardous practices. A questionnaire was distributed to 180 businesses, which included all industries affiliated with the Oregon Electronics Association and additional electronics firms listed in Oregon phone directories. From those responding to the survey, the results indicated that electronics organizations in Oregon manufacture a wide variety of products including circuit boards, cable assemblies, software, laser equipment, printers, and control panels. Over half of those participating in the survey reported that the largest quantity of hazardous materials were generated early in the manufacturing process. Forty-seven percent of the respondents indicated they had attempted incorporating less hazardous compounds to those used previously. Common problems encountered which discouraged the industry from switching to less hazardous products or processes were revealed by the participants to include: The new product/process did not work as well (37%), did not believe current practices were harmful (18%), cost factors (14%), pressure from governmental agencies (3%), and other factors (28%). Fifty percent of those responding revealed that their company recycles materials within the facility. Participants indicated the products which were most likely to be recycled included cardboard (19%), office paper (18%), tin/aluminum (13%), newspaper (12%), and used chemicals (11%). The largest number of participants (43%) defined "green" or "environmentally safe/friendly" products as those that contain no known hazardous chemicals. Using this chosen definition, sixty-five percent of those responding indicated their organization did use these "green" products. It was indicated by those returning completed surveys that one reason the industry has attempted to incorporate less hazardous products and processes into their production process is primarily because of long term financial benefits. Other factors influencing the use of less hazardous materials included ethical concerns and the desire to find safer products that work as well as current products. A vast majority of respondents indicated more should be done in the area of pollution prevention and want leadership to come from within the industry itself. It is recommended that top executives in this field meet to share methods of overcoming obstacles to pollution prevention, clarify current terminology as it relates to new products, develop a system of rewarding those who are engaging in pollution prevention activities and promote technology transfer.
Graduation date: 1995

Countries and governments around the world have accepted the scientific argument on the prevalence and the possible effect of global warming and climate change on the environment, world economy and ultimately human life (Nhamo, 2011). Amongst all industrial corporations, the mining industry is the biggest environmental polluter due to its extractive nature and energy intensive operations. However because of its economic importance, it cannot be abandoned, instead it needs to find a win-win situation, where it continues to succeed but minimizes environmental damage. This thesis aims to examine the possible impact of clean technology on the sustainability of South African gold mining sector. Specifically, the study aims to determine the drivers behind the move towards clean technologies and methods, identify challenges and opportunities associated with this transition at Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu mine. This was achieved through using Kusasalethu as a case study to which investigations of the effectiveness of clean technology and methods were carried out. The case study was multidimensional; exploring the effect of clean technology on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission (GHG), water consumption, cyanide management and Kusasalethu’s financial performance. While the case study was largely qualitative it involved quantitative data analysis that had to be triangulated with other data sources and data gathering instruments to achieve legitimacy. This meant that the study had to adopt the mixed research methods. The instruments used included; key informant interviews, and document analysis, structured questionnaire and a set of open ended questions that served as interview guide. The qualitative data were analyzed by means of coding, descriptions, typologies, taxonomies and visual representations, whilst quantitative data were processed through Microsoft Excel to generate various forms of descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that resource consumption (energy, water, cyanide) depends on the mine design and gold output rate. Clean technology implementation at Kusasalethu helped the mine reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions. However scope 2 (indirect GHG emissions associated with energy consumption) is also determined by coal production technologies and methods used by coal mines. Although data on Kusasalethu water and cyanide management and related technologies was not available, the aggregate data for all Harmony Gold mines indicated higher annual water and cyanide consumption during 2010 and 2012. In terms of Kusasalethu’s financial performance and clean technology adaptation, acquisition of clean technologies increased capital expenditure temporarily. However, the positive effects of the clean technology transition and implementation minimized operational cost and increased operational profit greatly. Although adopting clean technologies calls for increased capital expenditure, this study reveals that this expenditure pays off in lower operation costs for the mine and the environment benefits through lower GHG emission. However, clean technologies are yet to impact significantly in lowering water and cyanide consumption levels as they do with energy consumption. The study concluded that clean technology and methods played a positive role on Kusasalethu’s environmental impact and financial performance by reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions. Though, more need to be done in terms of water and cyanide management.
Environmental Sciences
M. Sc. (Environmental Management)