Feasibility study of organochlorine waste processing and recycling in the vinyl chloride production unit: techno-economic assessment and emission estimation

In this work, two solutions for waste management of organochlorine waste in one industrial polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, (a) combustion by a high-performance incinerator and (b) separation by a distillation column sequence, were compared according to environmental and economic parameters. In the case of using high-performance (HP) incinerator and maintaining the existing incinerator, approximately 65% of the produced organochlorine waste must be disposed of in the new incinerator, whereas in the distillation column sequence for recovery of the organochlorine waste, 60 kg/h chloroform and 60 kg/h chloroform plus 60 kg/h nanocarbon can be produced in scenario 1 and 2, respectively. All the scenarios showed a fairly good internal rate of return (IRR) and positive net present value (NPV). Moreover, in terms of emission reduction, distillation techniques including chloroform and chloroform plus nanocarbon can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2062 and 4724 tons/year, respectively. Also, disposal by HP incinerator can lessen green house gas (GHG)s by 6948 tons/year. Also, the life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluation revealed that in view of the global warming impact category, the distillation scenarios have the better result in comparison to the existing condition, whereas in other impact categories, the existing condition is in a better situation.