SOME GUIDELINES FOR ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF GEOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROJECTS

Most geochemical engineering projects aim at commercial application. T he proper economical analysis during the initial stages of the enginee ring process are of the utmost importance for the successful realisati on of such projects. Many of the costs are committed at this stage. Im portant issues are: the scale of the project, the product quality and the choice of raw materials. For chemical plants, the Zevnik/Buchanan method is often used to make a rough estimation of the economic viabil ity in an early stage. After the preliminary design of a geochemical p rocess or other application has been completed, a more accurate estima tion can be made by means of an economic balance. Guidelines for vario us costs are given in this article. Generally two criteria are used by companies to make a decision about further commercial realisation. On e is the return on investment (R.O.I.), the annual profit divided by t he total investment. The other is the pay-out time, the inverse of the R.O.I., the time needed to earn back the invested sum. This article p rovides geochemical engineers with some basic tools, that can be used to make an estimation of the economic potential of new geochemical eng ineering methods. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.