Processes Intensification for Sustainability: Prospects and Opportunities

Abstract

Nowadays, any industrial process must not only respond to market requirements but also be sustainable. Process intensification (PI) offers promising opportunities toward enhancing the process performance while addressing sustainability objectives. Intensified process design and technologies take various forms including reduction in consumption of natural resources, increase in efficiency, decrease in physical size, increase in throughput, and reduction in environmental emissions. Thus, PI offers new opportunities for more sustainable processes. In this perspective article, the background, challenges, and opportunities of PI are presented to help identify options that lead to enhanced sustainability. The paper will also discuss emerging tools that can help intensify conventional processes and achieve a more sustainable performance.