The rising price of natural gas and high emission rate of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels open new areas of research for sustainable alternatives. Sustainability costs are included with economic and environmental costs to demonstrate how new production facilities using nanotechnology and biotechnology can be integrated into sustainable chemical-production complexes. The complex of existing chemical plants in the lower Mississippi River corridor has been taken as a base case for this study. This complex has thirteen production units contained on more than one plant site with associated utilities for power, steam and cooling water and facilities for waste treatment. The integration of new plants into the base case was optimized to minimize the triple bottomline cost. New plants added to the base case include two that produce carbon nanotubes, eighteen that make products from carbon dioxide, and five that produce chemicals from biomass feedstock.

Carbon nanotubes production on a large scale faces a challenge in minimizing greenhouse gas emmissions. Carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, is produced in comparable quantity in the carbon nanotubes production processes by the disproportionation of carbon monoxide. Possible uses of this byproduct carbon dioxide are developed and implemented in the optimized chemical complex. Rising prices of natural gas has caused the shut down of several ammonia plants in Louisiana. However, the carbon dioxide generated in the production of ammonia was utilized in nearby methanol and urea plants. This shortage in carbon dioxide could be compensated by the carbon nanotube processes. New processes producing methylamines and acetic acid from carbon dioxide are also added to the base case structure.

A wide variety of industrial chemicals are produced from petroleum based feedstock, which could be produced instead from biomass-feedstock based industry. Louisiana, with 7% of the state's gross product is based on agriculture and forestry, has the potential to develop a biomass feedstock based industry. Louisiana's climate favors the growth of oilseeds like soybeans and cottonseeds. Biodiesel production plants are already in operation in Louisiana. A byproduct of biodiesel production using soybean oil is 10% by weight of glycerol which can be utilized for production of chemicals like propylene glycol. Cellulosic biomass from sugarcane can be used to produce chemicals like succinic acid and fumaric acid. The lignin stream from woody biomass in the paper industry and lignocellulosic waste biomass can be used for the production of mixed alcohols and ketones by microbial processes. Hemicellulose enriched aquatic biomass can be used for the production of xylitol, levulinic acid and arabinol. These processes are integrated into the base case structure with additional production units.

Multicriteria optimization was used with Monte Carlo simulation to determine the optimal configuration of plants in the chemical production complex and sensitivity to prices, costs and sustainability credits/costs. For each Pareto optimal solution, a cumulative probability distribution function was determined for the triple bottomline. These results were obtained with the Chemical Complex Analysis System, and this methodology can be applied to integrate other chemical complexes in the world.