Clean technology reduces need for waste treatment

In the struggle to balance environmental concerns with industrial operations, clean technology may provide a solution. Clean technology favors efficient management of chemicals and their related processes. However, it has its constraints, particularly in chemical and petroleum manufacturing, where changes in process engineering require years of research and long-range planning. In industrial processes that produce waste acids, they must be treated by combining them with bases. As with any treatment process, this involves the risk that the system will fail, allowing the liquids to escape untreated, or leaks or spills to occur. Rather than budget money for treatment, Elf Atochem, a French company with 100 chemical and petroleum production facilities in Europe, applies clean technology to reduce acid waste in the production of chlorinated hydrocarbons, which uses methanol as a feedstock and results in the production of hydrochloric acid and chloromethanes.