Proposal for the deploy of the concept of green industry: a case study in the petrochemical industry

Abstract

This paper presents a proposal of deploying processes of technical and environmental improvements in a petrochemical industry scenario, aiming to adopt cleaner technologies in their activities by focusing on reduction at the source in a preventive and control environmental aspects generated by the unit activities. This concept was designed with actions that include the introduction of practices to reduce water abstraction to be used in the process, air emissions reduction coming from the process of burning fossil fuels (furnaces, boilers etc.), the increase in process efficiency and thermal mechanical separation and processing of oil products, to improve waste management practices, and others. The planned actions demonstrated that the reduction at the source activities implementation aggregate economic gains, by having direct impacts on reducing the costs involved. Furthermore, these actions refer to a more rigorously control of the variables changes in issues involving: climate change, water scarcity and integrated management of industrial waste. However, the adoption of practices of a “green industry” make the organizations that follow this model, icons of environmental protection and technological development of cleaner energies, especially in the current industrial Brazilian scenario.