Optimization of wastewater electrolysis using life cycle assessment and simulated annealing

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), that unifies the scale of various environmental impacts, and simulated annealing are applied to optimizing electrolysis of wastewater from PCB (Printed Circuit Board) production. The changes of environmental impact can be quantified with LCA and the total changes of environmental impacts can be expressed as a function of power consumed, Cu recycled, $Cl_2$, NOx and SOx discharged through restriction of feasible reactions. In a single-variate condition, the environmental optimum can be easily obtained through plotting and comparing each environmental impact value. In 8V potentiostatic electrolysis, the lowest environmental impact can be achieved after 90min. To optimize a multi-variate conditional system, simulated annealing can be applied and this can give the quick and near optimum in complex systems, where many input and output materials are involved, through experimentally measured values without a theoretical modeling.