This monograph provides foundations, methods, guidelines and examples for monitoring and improving resource efficiency during the operation of processing plants and for improving their design.

The measures taken to improve their energy and resource efficiency are strongly influenced by regulations and standards which are covered in Part I of this book. Without changing the actual processing equipment, the way how the processes are operated can have a strong influence on the resource efficiency of the plants and this potential can be exploited with much smaller investments than needed for the introduction of new process technologies. This aspect is the focus of Part II. In Part III we discuss physical changes of the process technology such as heat integration, synthesis and realization of optimal processes, and industrial symbiosis.

The last part deals with the people that are needed to make these changes possible and discusses the path towards a resource efficiency culture.

Written with industrial solutions in mind, this text will benefit practitioners as well as the academic community.