Substance formed incidentally during the manufacture of some other substance; for example, slag is a byproduct of the production of iron in a blast furnace. For industrial processes to be economical, byproducts must be recycled or used in other ways as far as possible; in this example, slag is used for making roads.
Often, a poisonous byproduct is removed by transforming it into another substance, which although less harmful is often still inconvenient. For example, the sulfur dioxide produced as a byyproduct of electricity generation can be removed from the smoke stack using flue-gas desulfurization. This process produces large amounts of gypsum, some of which can be used in the building industry.
1. A secondary and sometimes unexpected consequence.
2. Made during the manufacture of something else; SYN. spin-off. byproduct