Optimal design of cyclone/chimney system - Implementation within an olive pomace oil mill

Atmospheric pollution modeling is widely used in maintaining environmental standards within preset limits applicable to a wide national or international/transboundary area. At local level, however, additional parameters should be considered, such as the distribution and attitude of the population and the sensitivity of ecosystems. In the present work, we have developed a hierarchical model under the form of a GIS-based algorithmic procedure where local environmental parameters are taken under consideration; following a sub-procedure of successive numerical filtering, the most strict parameter defines the specifications that the agro-industrial polluting source should fulfill. The suggested procedure enables an iterative process for the design parameter estimation to achieve a balanced tradeoff between sustaining the environmental standards and keeping construction/operating cost of a cyclone/chimney system within acceptable limits, defined by the competition among the companies of the same sector. The implementation presented on the optimal cyclone/chimney design for an olive pomace oil unit that will operate within a NATURA region of Greece, indicates that these targets can be met through sensitivity analysis of the positive models used, which are transformed to normative ones by selecting those parameter values that produce the desired results.