Cost engineering for pollution prevention and control / by Paul Mac Berthouex and Linfield C. Brown

Includes index (p. 451-457

Environmental engineers work to increase the level of health and happiness in the world by designing, building, and operating process and systems for water treatment, water pollution control, air pollution control, and solid waste management. These projects compete for resources with projects in medicine, transportation, education, and other fields that have a similar objective. The challenge is to make the investments efficient- to get the best project outputs with a minimum of inputs. Cost Engineering for Pollution Prevention and Control examines how monetary and non-monetary factors are evaluated to select the best alternative from competitive engineering proposals- judged with respect to some measure of system performance, such as total capital cost, annual cost, annual net profit, return on investment, cost-benefit ratio, net present worth, minimum production time, maximum production rate, minimum energy utilization, and so on. Features: Explains how to estimate preliminary costs, how to compare the life-cycle costs of alternate projects, how to find the optimal balance between capital costs and operating costs. Emphasis is placed on formulating the problem rather than on the mathematical details of how the calculations are done. Provides numerous practical examples and case studies. Includes end-of-chapter exercises dealing with water, wastewater, air pollution, solid wastes, and remediation projects. The important concepts presented in this book can be understood by those students who have taken an introductory course in environmental engineering. Advanced knowledge of process design is not required. The material can also be utilized by engineers, managers, and others who would benefit from a better understanding of how engineers look at problems.