Integrated synthesis, modeling, and assessment of waste-to-resource alternatives

Abstract

To address the urgent need to transform the current economic paradigm towards a more circular one, this contribution proposes a framework for assisting the selection of the most promising waste-to-resource alternatives. An ontology-based approach is used to manage and centralize the knowledge across the different stages of this methodology. Feasible combinations of operations lead to processing routes connecting waste with products and the paths are assessed to pre-select the most suitable ones. Then, the network is optimized, and a set of configurations are obtained in order to maximize economic profit and minimize environmental impact. The performance of the proposed framework is illustrated through a case study for the treatment of mixed plastic waste. Results show how pyrolysis-based treatments lead to suitable options according to some specified objectives but also reveal the main drawbacks and conditions that these treatments should improve. The work also demonstrates how to efficiently assess a large number of options, and discusses how to build and improve new processing networks.