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M.R.A. Radzuan et al.

/ Materials Today: Proceedings 19 (2019) 1693–1702 1695

2. Methodology

The methodologies of this research project are of simulation and evaluation. The simulation was done using
process simulation, also known as Aspen HYSYS, whilst the sustainability evaluation was done using Sustainability
Evaluator (SE).

2.1 General Method

There are three steps for this research project. The first step is to select two base cases of the production of
cyclohexane to be simulated in the Aspen HYSYS. The operating parameters for this simulation were extracted
from the literature reviews. Next, the own-developed SE was used to evaluate the impacts of economic,
environmental, and social from the production of cyclohexane. The last step is to identify the best production of
cyclohexane based on the sustainability impact.

2.2 Aspen HYSYS

There were two plants of cyclohexane production from hydrogen and benzene simulated using Aspen HYSYS
software. The first step was to specify all of the components involved in the simulation, including reactant, product,
by-product, utilities, and waste. Second, the suitable fluid package, also known as thermodynamic packaged, was
chosen based on the production. Next step was to specify the reaction set by identified the stoichiometry of the
reaction. Next phase is to start with the simulation by selecting the unit operation involves such as compressor,
reactor, column, valve, and many more. The final step was to generate the consolidated report to compare them with
the manual calculation.

2.3 Sustainability Evaluator (SE)

The own-established SE was used as a tool to evaluate the process for sustainability. The score for each
evaluation is generated from the scorecard [16]. This tool used the designated metrics and indices that address health,
environmental, economic, and safety issues. The SE was developed in on the Microsoft-Excel based. The data for
the SE was extracted from the report generated in Aspen HYSYS.

2.3.1. Economic Impact

Economic sustainability is inextricably connected to both social and environmental [6]. In order to facilitate the
assessment of the sustainability of entities, every entity must be responsible to its stakeholders for the results of its
activities [7]. In contrast, to attain sustainability, every entity should be commended responsible to all or any its
stakeholders for consequences of its actions on the setting, on society and on the economy. This economic metrics,
the set that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the cost of a process are: product revenue, the costs of raw,
material, the waste treatment costs, the operating costs, the material value added, the annualized capital costs, profit
and profit relative to investment (PRI). PRI can be calculated as Eq (1)

𝑃𝑅𝐼 = × 100 (1)

2.3.2. Environmental Impact

When the economic impact has been made, the next step to evaluate in the evaluator is an environmental
impact. The environmental impact is the possible adverse effects caused by a development, industrial, or
infrastructural project or by the discharge of a substance within the surroundings. There are three types of metrics
that can help to evaluate the environmental impact. The three types of metrics that involve are the metrics developed

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