A new Hazardous Waste Index.
TL;DR: A new Hazardous Waste Index (HWI) is proposed in this paper, which measures hazards related to flammability, reactivity, toxicity and corrosivity as well as the pH value for a hazardous waste.
Abstract: Hazardous wastes, once generated, have to be stored, transported, treated, disposed off, recycled, depending upon the situation. With laws being tightened, all of the above operations have to be done safely without causing harm to people and environment. Before any operation is carried out, it is vital to know the hazardous characteristics of the waste to be handled. Because waste, generally, is a mixture instead of a pure compound, its hazardous characteristics are difficult to determine and generalize because each waste is specific. A new Hazardous Waste Index (HWI) is proposed in this paper. The index measures hazards related to flammability, reactivity, toxicity and corrosivity as well as the pH value for a hazardous waste. Two examples are given for its use. The index can be modified to include radioactive or mixed waste.
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TL;DR: The generation of discarded household hazardous waste (HHW) is another important source of hazardous waste and has come into being a huge challenge faced to Chinese environmental management.
Abstract: Associated with the rapid economic growth and tremendous industrial prosperity, continues to be the accelerated increase of hazardous waste generation in China. The reported generation of industrial hazardous waste (IHW) was 11.62 million tons in 2005, which accounted for 1.1% of industrial solid waste (ISW) volume. An average of 43.4% of IHW was recycled, 33.0% was stored, 23.0% was securely disposed, and 0.6% was discharged without pollution controlling. By the end of 2004, there were 177 formal treatment and disposal centers for IHW management. The reported quantity of IHW disposed in these centers was only 416,000 tons, 65% of which was landfilled, 35% was incinerated. The quantity of waste alkali and acid ranked the first among IHW categories, which accounted for 30.9%. And 39.0% of IHW was generated from the raw chemical materials and chemical products industry sectors. South west China had the maximum generation of IHW, accounted for 40.0%. In addition, it was extrapolated that 740,000 tons of medical wastes were generated per year, of which only 10% was soundly managed. The generation of discarded household hazardous waste (HHW) is another important source of hazardous waste. A great proportion of HHW was managed as municipal solid waste (MSW). Hazardous waste pollution controlling has come into being a huge challenge faced to Chinese environmental management.
155 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a conceptual framework of an integrated inherent safety index (I2SI), which is composed of subindices which account for hazard potential, inherent safety potential, and add-on control requirements.
Abstract: Inherent safety is a proactive approach for loss prevention and risk management. Considering the lifetime costs of a process and its operation, an inherent safety approach can lead to a cost-optimal option. Inherent safety may be achieved at any stage of process design; however, its application at the early stages of process design yields the best results. Despite being an attractive and cost-effective approach, the inherent safety methodology is not widely used. Many reasons have been attributed to this lack of widespread use; the nonavailability of systematic tools for the application of inherent safety principles is perhaps the most important reason.
This paper presents a conceptual framework of an integrated inherent safety index (I2SI). It is called an integrated index because the procedure, when fully developed, is intended to consider the life cycle of the process with economic evaluation and hazard potential identification for each option. The I2SI is composed of subindices which account for hazard potential, inherent safety potential, and add-on control requirements. An application of the I2SI is also discussed. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 23: 136–148, 2004
150 citations
Cites background from "A new Hazardous Waste Index."
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TL;DR: In recent years, there has been an increased effort to develop inherently safer chemical processes, focusing on changing the process to eliminate hazards, rather than accepting the hazards and developing add-on features to control them as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In recent years there has been an increased effort to develop inherently safer chemical processes, focusing on changing the process to eliminate hazards, rather than accepting the hazards and developing add-on features to control them. This paper discusses design approaches to inherently safer processing, including examples of inherent safety principles. The paper also presents a state-of-the-art review of the initiatives taken by various groups and agencies worldwide to promote inherent safety, and the tools developed to measure inherent safety for chemical processes. The discussion concludes with thoughts on why inherent safety is not yet a routine practice for accomplishing risk reduction, and suggestions for ways to make it routine (with reference to a brief case study).
147 citations
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TL;DR: A new automated algorithm for waste classification that takes into account physicochemical and toxicity effects of the constituent chemicals to humans and ecosystems, in addition, to the exposure potency and waste quantity is proposed.
Abstract: In the literature on hazardous waste classification, the criteria used are mostly based on physical properties, such as quantity (weight), form (solids, liquid, aqueous or gaseous), the type of processes generating them, or a set of predefined lists. Such classification criteria are inherently inadequate to account for the influence of toxic and hazard characteristics of the constituent chemicals in the wastes, as well as their exposure potency in multimedia environments, terrestrial mammals and other biota. Second, none of these algorithms in the literature has explicitly presented waste classification by examining the contribution of individual constituent components of the composite wastes. In this two-part paper, we propose a new automated algorithm for waste classification that takes into account physicochemical and toxicity effects of the constituent chemicals to humans and ecosystems, in addition, to the exposure potency and waste quantity. In part I, available data on the physicochemical and toxicity properties of individual chemicals in humans and ecosystems, their exposure potency in environmental systems and the effect of waste quantity are described, because they fundamentally contribute to the final waste ranking. Knowledge acquisition in this study was accomplished through the extensive review of published and specialized literature to establish facts necessary for the development of fuzzy rule-bases. Owing to the uncertainty and imprecision of various forms of data (both quantitative and qualitative) essential for waste classification, and the complexity resulting from knowledge incompleteness, the use of fuzzy set theory for the aggregation and computation of waste classification ranking index is proposed. A computer-aided intelligent decision tool is described in part II of this paper and the functionality of the fuzzy waste classification algorithm is illustrated through nine worked examples.
36 citations
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TL;DR: A framework for risk assessment due to offsite transportation of hazardous wastes is designed based on the type of event that can be triggered from an accident of a hazardous waste carrier and computes the impacts due to a volatile cloud explosion based on TNO Multi-energy model.
Abstract: A framework for risk assessment due to offsite transportation of hazardous wastes is designed based on the type of event that can be triggered from an accident of a hazardous waste carrier. The objective of this study is to design a framework for computing the risk to population associated with offsite transportation of inflammable and volatile wastes. The framework is based on traditional definition of risk and is designed for conditions where accident databases are not available. The probability based variable in risk assessment framework is substituted by a composite accident index proposed in this study. The framework computes the impacts due to a volatile cloud explosion based on TNO Multi-energy model. The methodology also estimates the vulnerable population in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALY) which takes into consideration the demographic profile of the population and the degree of injury on mortality and morbidity sustained. The methodology is illustrated using a case study of a pharmaceutical industry in the Kolkata metropolitan area.
31 citations
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