Development of environmental consequence index (ECI) using fuzzy composite programming.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Risk Assessment

Background:

• Estimating environmental impacts of hazardous substances in chemical industries is complex due to diverse hazards, locations, and data uncertainty.
• Existing environmental indices often fail to comprehensively consider all consequence factors, including material hazards, dispersion, environmental effects, and uncertainty.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically review existing environmental indices and identify their limitations.
• To propose a new methodology for developing an Environmental Consequence Index (ECI) that overcomes the limitations of current indices.
• To apply the proposed ECI to a benzene extraction unit in a petrochemical industry and compare its performance with established indices.

Main Methods:

• Critical literature review of existing environmental consequence indices.
• Development of a new Environmental Consequence Index (ECI) methodology.
• Application of Fuzzy Composite Programming (FCP) to handle uncertainty in estimations.
• Case study application to a benzene extraction unit (BEU) in an Indian petrochemical industry.

Main Results:

• The proposed ECI methodology effectively incorporates material hazard factors, dispersion factors, environmental effects, and uncertainty.
• ECI values were estimated and ranked for eight sections of the BEU.
• The proposed ECI demonstrated comparable performance to established indices like Dow fire and explosion index and EAI in the case study.

Conclusions:

• The developed ECI provides a more detailed and comprehensive assessment of environmental consequences compared to existing indices.
• The ECI, utilizing FCP, effectively manages uncertainty in environmental risk assessment.
• The proposed ECI shows promise for improving environmental risk management in the chemical industry.