Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies
Various processing routes are available for the treatment of lean VOC-air mixtures, and a cost-benefit analysis is the tool we propose to identify the most suitable technology. Two systems have been compared in this paper, namely a “traditional” plant, with a catalytic fixed-bed reactor with a heat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Environments |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/4/3/46 |
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| author | Gabriele Baldissone Micaela Demichela Davide Fissore |
| author_facet | Gabriele Baldissone Micaela Demichela Davide Fissore |
| author_sort | Gabriele Baldissone |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Various processing routes are available for the treatment of lean VOC-air mixtures, and a cost-benefit analysis is the tool we propose to identify the most suitable technology. Two systems have been compared in this paper, namely a “traditional” plant, with a catalytic fixed-bed reactor with a heat exchanger for heat recovery purposes, and a “non-traditional” plant, with a catalytic reverse-flow reactor, where regenerative heat recovery may be achieved thanks to the periodical reversal of the flow direction. To be useful for decisions-making, the cost-benefit analysis must be coupled to the reliability, or availability, analysis of the plant. Integrated Dynamic Decision Analysis is used for this purpose as it allows obtaining the full set of possible sequences of events that could result in plant unavailability, and, for each of them, the probability of occurrence is calculated. Benefits are thus expressed in terms of out-of-services times, that have to be minimized, while the costs are expressed in terms of extra-cost for maintenance activities and recovery actions. These variable costs must be considered together with the capital (fixed) cost required for building the plant. Results evidenced the pros and cons of the two plants. The “traditional” plant ensures a higher continuity of services, but also higher operational costs. The reverse-flow reactor-based plant exhibits lower operational costs, but a higher number of protection levels are needed to obtain a similar level of out-of-service. The quantification of risks and benefits allows the stakeholders to deal with a complete picture of the behavior of the plants, fostering a more effective decision-making process. With reference to the case under study and the relevant operational conditions, the regenerative system was demonstrated to be more suitable to treat lean mixtures: in terms of time losses following potential failures the two technologies are comparable (Fixed bed plant: 0.35 h/year and Reverse flow plant: 0.56 h/year), while in terms of operational costs, despite its higher complexity, the regenerative system shows lower costs (1200 €/year). |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T22:28:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-56541501e836485baaba2245f4ad068d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3298 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T22:28:24Z |
| publishDate | 2017-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environments |
| spelling | doaj.art-56541501e836485baaba2245f4ad068d2022-12-22T03:59:34ZengMDPI AGEnvironments2076-32982017-06-01434610.3390/environments4030046environments4030046Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing TechnologiesGabriele Baldissone0Micaela Demichela1Davide Fissore2Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, ItalyDipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, ItalyDipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, ItalyVarious processing routes are available for the treatment of lean VOC-air mixtures, and a cost-benefit analysis is the tool we propose to identify the most suitable technology. Two systems have been compared in this paper, namely a “traditional” plant, with a catalytic fixed-bed reactor with a heat exchanger for heat recovery purposes, and a “non-traditional” plant, with a catalytic reverse-flow reactor, where regenerative heat recovery may be achieved thanks to the periodical reversal of the flow direction. To be useful for decisions-making, the cost-benefit analysis must be coupled to the reliability, or availability, analysis of the plant. Integrated Dynamic Decision Analysis is used for this purpose as it allows obtaining the full set of possible sequences of events that could result in plant unavailability, and, for each of them, the probability of occurrence is calculated. Benefits are thus expressed in terms of out-of-services times, that have to be minimized, while the costs are expressed in terms of extra-cost for maintenance activities and recovery actions. These variable costs must be considered together with the capital (fixed) cost required for building the plant. Results evidenced the pros and cons of the two plants. The “traditional” plant ensures a higher continuity of services, but also higher operational costs. The reverse-flow reactor-based plant exhibits lower operational costs, but a higher number of protection levels are needed to obtain a similar level of out-of-service. The quantification of risks and benefits allows the stakeholders to deal with a complete picture of the behavior of the plants, fostering a more effective decision-making process. With reference to the case under study and the relevant operational conditions, the regenerative system was demonstrated to be more suitable to treat lean mixtures: in terms of time losses following potential failures the two technologies are comparable (Fixed bed plant: 0.35 h/year and Reverse flow plant: 0.56 h/year), while in terms of operational costs, despite its higher complexity, the regenerative system shows lower costs (1200 €/year).http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/4/3/46cost-benefit analysisVOC treatmentlean mixturesreverse-flow reactorIntegrated Dynamic Decision Analysis |
| spellingShingle | Gabriele Baldissone Micaela Demichela Davide Fissore Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies Environments cost-benefit analysis VOC treatment lean mixtures reverse-flow reactor Integrated Dynamic Decision Analysis |
| title | Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies |
| title_full | Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies |
| title_fullStr | Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies |
| title_short | Lean VOC-Air Mixtures Catalytic Treatment: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Competing Technologies |
| title_sort | lean voc air mixtures catalytic treatment cost benefit analysis of competing technologies |
| topic | cost-benefit analysis VOC treatment lean mixtures reverse-flow reactor Integrated Dynamic Decision Analysis |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3298/4/3/46 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gabrielebaldissone leanvocairmixturescatalytictreatmentcostbenefitanalysisofcompetingtechnologies AT micaelademichela leanvocairmixturescatalytictreatmentcostbenefitanalysisofcompetingtechnologies AT davidefissore leanvocairmixturescatalytictreatmentcostbenefitanalysisofcompetingtechnologies |