Ecosphere

1
Solar Radiation (Teff 6000K mainly UV, optical
and IR)
Earths Radiation(Teff 300K mainly IR)
Material Flows in the Economy
Needs Wants
Energy
Services
Sink for Wastes Emissions
Products
Materials
Production
Anthroposphere
Ecosphere

• All materials that enter the economic system
  will eventually leave it
• Large amounts of high-grade energy are needed to
  drive the economic system
• All economic activity is essentially dissipative
  of both energy and materials

2
Definition of Material/Substance Flow Analysis
(MFA/SFA)
According to Bringezu and Moriguchi (2002), MFA /
SFA can be defined as the quantitative
accounting of material / substance inputs and
outputs of processes in a systems or chain
perspective.

• According to Graedel (2002) MFA / SFA is usually
  employed to answer one or several of the
  following questions
• How much material enters the economic system?
• How is the material transformed?
• How much material is added to the stock in use?
• How much material is recycled?
• How much material escapes from the economic
  system to the environment?
• How much material ends up in land?ll?
• What trends exist in these stocks and ?ows?

• MFA / SFA comprises a variety of flow analysis
  types
• Stocks and flows of individual substances, e.g.
  chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, lead, etc.
• Stocks and flows of bulk materials, e.g. paper,
  plastics, aluminum, steel, copper, etc.
• Stocks and flows of products and their
  constituent materials, e.g. diapers, batteries,
  etc.
• Total material flows on different levels, e.g.
  national, sectoral, regional, household, etc.

3
History of MFA/SFA

• 1800-1850 Concept of metabolism is introduced to
  describe the sum of biochemical
  reactions on the level of cells, organs and
  organisms
• 1842 Formulation of the Law of Conservation of
  Energy
• 1860s The term metabolism is first applied to
  human societies by Marx to describe
  material exchanges between man and nature
• 1880s Geddes develops first national MFA
  (80 years ahead of his time and largely
  ignored)
• 1905 Mass-Energy-Equivalency is formulated by
  Einstein in his theory of special
  relativity
• 1910s Ostwald and Soddy discuss the importance
  of availability and conversion of
  energy to human societies and their development,
  but this never entered the social
  sciences mainstream
• 1930s Notion of the ecosystem is established
• 1940s The metabolism of ecosystems is first
  studied
• 1950-1960 Some discussion of the input aspects
  of societal metabolism (mainly by
  geographers and geologists)
• 1969 First modern MFA of a national economy
  presented by Ayres Kneese
• Apply mass balancing to MFA
• Environmental pollution and its control is a
  materials balance problem
• Reduction of wastes and emission by reduction of
  inputs

4
Methodology Macroeconomic Level
Domestic Environment
Foreign Hidden Flows
Air and Water
Water Vapor
Imports
Exports
Economic Processing
Domestic Extraction
Domestic Processed Output (DPO) (to Air, Land and
Water)
TDO
DMI
TMR
TMI
Stocks
TMO
Domestic Hidden Flows
Domestic Hidden Flows
5
Methodology Macroeconomic Level
Input flows
DMI
Foreign Hidden Flows
Direct Material Input Domestic Extraction
Imports
Imports
Domestic Extraction
TMI
DMI
Total Material Input Direct Material Input
Domestic Hidden Flows
TMR
TMI
TMR
Total Material Requirement Total Material
Input Foreign Hidden Flows
Domestic Hidden Flows
6
Methodology Macroeconomic Level
Output flows
Domestic Environment
DPO
Domestic Processed Output (DPO) Direct
Material Input Net Additions to Stock Exports
Exports
Domestic Processed Output (DPO) (to Air, Land and
Water)
TDO
TDO
Total Domestic Output (TDO) Domestic Processed
Output Domestic Hidden Flows
TMO
TMO
Total Material Output (TMO) Total Domestic
Output Exports
Domestic Hidden Flows
7
Methodology Macroeconomic Level
Input Flows (origin) Domestic extraction Fossil
fuels (coal, oil, etc.) Minerals (ores, gravel,
etc.) Biomass (timber, cereals, etc.)
Imports Fossil fuels, Minerals,
Biomass Semi-finished goods Final Goods Direct
material input (DMI) Unused domestic
extraction from mining/quarrying from biomass
harvest soil excavation Total material input
(TMI) Unused foreign extraction from
mining/quarrying from biomass harvest soil
excavation Total material requirements (TMR)
Output Flows (destination) Emissions and
wastes Emissions to air Waste to
land Emissions to water Dissipative use of
products (Fertilizer, manure, compost, seeds,
paints, pesticides, etc.) Domestic processed
output to nature (DPO) Disposal of unused
domestic extraction from mining quarrying from
biomass harvest soil excavation Total domestic
output to nature (TDO) Exports Fossil fuels,
Minerals, Biomass Semi-finished goods Final
Goods Total material output (TMO)
8
Methodology Macroeconomic Level
Mass balance equation Inflows Outflows Stock
Change
Net Additions to Stock (NAS) Domestic
extraction Imports Direct Processed Output
Exports
Net Additions to Stock (NAS)
Imports
Exports
Domestic Extraction
Domestic Processed Output (DPO) (to Air, Land and
Water)
Stocks
Net Additions to stock (NAS)
Infrastructure and buildings Machinery
durable goods etc.
9
Dematerialization
Material flow indicator
Decoupling from economic growth
GDP
Material flow indicator
Decoupling from population growth
Capita
Generic environmental indicator
Environmental Kuznets Curve
GDP per Capita
Hypothesis Dematerialization occurs naturally as
nations get wealthier

• Criticism
• Trans-materialization
• Re-materialization
• Earths carrying capacity is absolute not relative

• 3 main ways for dematerialization
• Increase primary resource productivity
• Increase reuse and recycling
• Decrease material consumption

10
Methodology Meso - and Microeconomic Level
Accounting methodology for material stocks
Transformation processes
Stocks of upstream materials
Stocks of downstream materials
Producing processes
Consuming processes
Material stock
Stocks outside of boundaries
Stocks outside of boundaries
Imports
Exports
Transportation processes
11
Methodology Meso - and Microeconomic Level
Imports / Exports
Material
Products
Components
Material production
Component fabrication
Product Assembly
Product Use
Raw Material
Potential Waste
Extraction
Release
Domestic Environment
12
Example Copper

• Copper has the highest electric and thermal
  conductivity after silver
• Highly corrosion resistant
• Primary production from ore 50-100 MJ/kg Cu
  (cradle-to-gate)
• Secondary production from scrap 20 MJ/kg Cu
  (cradle-to-gate)

Estimated world production in MMT / y

• End uses in the USA in 2000
• Building construction 42
• Electrical electronic products 27
• Industrial machinery equipment 10
• Transportation equipment 10
• Consumer general products 11

13
Example Copper Flows in North America in 1994
(in kt / y)
Import / Export
Old Scrap 190
Semis, Finished Products 17
Concentrate, Blister, Cathode 325
Ingots 3
Production Mill, Smelter, Refinery
Fabrication Manufacturing
Use
Waste Management
Discards 1410
Cathode 3270
Prod. Cu 2640
1920
3
Stock
Stock
Prod. Alloy 690
730
140
Ore 3130
New Scrap
???
180
330
Old Scrap
Landfilled Waste, Dissipated
Tailings Slag 365
Source CIE, Yale
Environment
Lithosphere
14
Copper entering use in 1994 (in kt / y)
280
3300
3000
3900
260
350
180
Source CIE, Yale
15
Copper entering use in 1994 (in kg / y and capita)
0.9
8.2
8.4
1.4
0.4
1.0
6.1
Source CIE, Yale
16
Copper leaving use in 1994 (in kg / y and capita)
0.7
3.4
2.2
0.4
0.2
0.5
2.0
Warning Highly uncertain data
Source CIE, Yale
17
Copper recycling rate in 1994
90
50
80
64
38
30
82
Warning Highly uncertain data
Source CIE, Yale