Environ-economic analysis of conceptual intensification alternatives applied to the ethylbenzene production

Globally, industries constantly search for technological innovations in order to reduce environmental impacts and provide better economic results. Accordingly, improvement approaches by the use of process intensification techniques have been developed. Hence, considering the goal of applying such developments, it is elementary to evaluate the economic performance of these technologies. In this context, an environmental and economic evaluation of five conceptual intensified designs for the production of ethylbenzene was carried out in order to compare them with the conventional process. The double-effect distillation alternative resulted in a more profitable configuration in all evaluated economic indexes, resulting in a 15%, a 1% and a 2% higher Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, and Profitability Index, respectively, while having a 2.9% shorter payback period in comparison to the conventional design. In addition, said technology presented a reduction of 21.9% and 21% in the CO2 emissions and energy consumption, respectively. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.