Hybrid Risk-based LCA: An innovative holistic approach to improve the acid gas to syngas (AG2S) process

The sustainable development has recently become the cornerstone of the environmental policy worldwide and a leading principle for resource management. The philosophy lies in a continuous demand of innovative choices able to ensure the existing productive systems survival through a new design paradigm shift. In this regard, the technological innovation should be always driven by the sustainability concept: the economic, societal and environmental impact ought to be continuously fostered to the systems’ sustainable improvement. This demanding goal can be accomplished with a blended Life Cycle (LCA) and Life Risk (LRA) Assessment to highlight the process potential health and environmental impacts. LRA is the process in which imposed risks by the inherent hazards linked to a process are continuously assessed (quantitatively or qualitatively). LCA instead is the process that analyses and assesses the environmental impact of a material, product or service throughout its entire life cycle. LCA and LRA are typically driven by two different approaches, respectively a deterministic and a stochastic approach. This usually drives an unconnected use of LCA and LRA in the quantification of products and processes potential impact and determines controversial decisions with respect to a balance between environmental impacts and operational risks. The new paradigm suggests a unified blended LCA – LRA approach that is applied at a preliminary stage to an innovative Acid Gas to Syngas (AG2S) process for CO2 emission reduction and on-site reuse, avoiding the costly and hazardous transportation step.