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Economic vs Environmental evaluation of regional infrastructures for chemical recycling of Polystyrene waste
In this thesis, you will optimize the layout of a regional plastic recycling infrastructure with respect to either maximizing the total economic surplus or minimizing the environmental impact.
Keywords: Plastic Recycling, Optimization, Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering, Economic Evaluation, Ecological evaluation, Life Cycle Assessment
The analysis will begin by outlining the basic steps required for chemically recycling polystyrene, such as sorting, shredding, transportation, pyrolysis, and polymerization. Then an optimization problem that maximizes the total economic surplus of a mixed plastic waste recycling value chain will be adapted to polystyrene recycling. Next, this optimization problem has to be reformulated to minimize the total environmental impact of polystyrene recycling. As an optional step, expanding the recycling value chain to include other treatment options, such as waste incineration with energy recovery and utilization in cement kilns, could be considered.
The analysis will begin by outlining the basic steps required for chemically recycling polystyrene, such as sorting, shredding, transportation, pyrolysis, and polymerization. Then an optimization problem that maximizes the total economic surplus of a mixed plastic waste recycling value chain will be adapted to polystyrene recycling. Next, this optimization problem has to be reformulated to minimize the total environmental impact of polystyrene recycling. As an optional step, expanding the recycling value chain to include other treatment options, such as waste incineration with energy recovery and utilization in cement kilns, could be considered.
The goal of this project is to evaluate and compare various regional recycling infrastructure designs for polystyrene, which were optimized to either achieve the highest total economic surplus or the lowest environmental impact.
The goal of this project is to evaluate and compare various regional recycling infrastructure designs for polystyrene, which were optimized to either achieve the highest total economic surplus or the lowest environmental impact.