Minimizing pollutants with multimedia strategies

A multimedia approach to pollution prevention that focuses on minimizing or eliminating production of pollutants is one of the most advantageous strategies to adopt in preparing an overall facility environmental plan. If processes are optimized to preclude or minimize the manufacture of streams containing pollutants, or to reduce the levels of pollutants in waste streams, then the task of multimedia pollution prevention becomes more manageable simply as a result of a smaller problem needing to be addressed. An orderly and systematic approach to waste minimization can result in a comprehensive strategy to reduce the production of waste streams and simultaneously improve the profitability of a process or industrial operation. There are a number of miscellaneous strategies for a waste minimization that attack the problem via process chemistry or engineering. Examples include installation of low-NO{sub x} burners, selection of valves that minimize fugitive emissions, high-level switches on storage tanks, the use of in-plant stills for recycling and reusing solvents and using water-based products instead of hydrocarbon-based products wherever possible. Other waste minimization countermeasures can focus on O and M issues.