Module 6 Industrial Ecologists

1
Module 6 Industrial Ecologists

• Introduction to Industrial Ecology
• Robert Ayres

2
Overview

• Background and definition
• Major themes in industrial ecology (IE)
• Authors contributing to this volume
• Case studies
• Summary and conclusion

3
Background of Industrial Ecology
4
Historical Views on Population and Growth

• Cornucopians Those who favor extreme technology
  and growth. (Herman Kahn, the Hudson Institute
• Cowboys Those who favor the endless frontier
  viewpoint. (Boulding)
• Spaceship Economy Those who see the world as
  possessing finite resources.

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Cornucopians

• Belief that technology will solve all problems.
• Given a reasonably free market, technology can
  generally be depended on to find a substitute for
  almost any scarce material resource input (except
  for energy itself.)

6
Cowboys

• Resource scarcity seems to be a non-issue.
• There will always be virgin lands to tame and
  exploit for human consumption.

7
Spaceship Economy

• Advocates believe in the importance of mutual
  cooperation and conservation
• They agree that technology has positive potential
  but does not ensure sustainability

8
Background

• Minimizing Environmental Impact
• The IPAT Equation
• (Environmental) Impact P GP IG where
• P Population
• GP Per capita GNP (Affluence)
• IG Environmental impact per unit of GP
  (Technology)

(Graedel and Allenby, 5)
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Background

• Minimizing Environmental Impact
• Population is a social, not a technological issue
• Standard of living (as expressed by per capita
  GDP) can be expected to continue rising slightly
• Reducing IG offers the best hope for reducing
  global environmental impact, transition to
  sustainable development

(Graedel and Allenby, 8)
10
Background

• Industry Environment Relationship
• Past REMEDIATION of effects of poor waste
  disposal methods
• Present CONTROLS on toxics, emissions
• Future DESIGN for benevolent interaction between
  industrial and environmental systems
• Yesterdays Need Yesterdays Solution Todays
  Problem

(Graedel and Allenby, xvii and 9)
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Industrial Ecology

• Seeks the essential integration of human systems
  into natural systems
• Minimizes energy and materials usage
• Minimizes the ecological impact of human activity
  to levels that natural systems can sustainably
  absorb

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Industrial Ecology

• Is a deliberate, rational effort to achieve and
  perpetuate a desirable carrying capacity i.e.
  a sustainable high quality of life for all
• Considers industrial systems as integral with and
  interdependent on the systems around them
• Seeks to optimize the total materials cycle
• Involves resources, energy, AND capital
• Rejects the concept of waste (instead residues)

(Graedel and Allenby, 9)
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Major themes in IE

• Systems (environmental, industrial, social)
• Technology Environment interactions
• Issues of scale
• Generic vs. specific IE
• Life-cycle assessment
• Specific studies individual sectors of the
  economy, or individual products and processes
• Design for Environment (DFE)
• Generic involves system-wide solutions based on
  life-cycle analysis

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Elements of IE
Interactions between industry and environment
Environmental Metabolism
Industrial Metabolism
(Studied by environmental scientists)
(Studied by industrial engineers)
Industrial Ecology
(Graedel and Allenby, 11)
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System Types

• Type I Linear Large flows of energy and
  material both in and out flow from one stage to
  the next virtually independent of all other flows
• Type II Quasicyclic Feedback and cycling
  loops develop as a response to scarcity flows
  within the system large while input and output
  are small. Still not sustainable running
  down, increasing entropy
• Type III Cyclic Complete recycling of
  resources across multiple scales energy input
  (solar) is used to maintain organization, combat
  entropy (Review Peterson, Chapter 5 on system
  resilience)

(Graedel and Allenby, 93 95)
16
Trends in Technology

• Dematerialization
• Materials substitution
• Decarbonization
• Computerization of information and technology

(Graedel and Allenby, 22)
17
Technology Environment Interactions

• Biomass combustion
• Crop production
• Domestic animals
• Fossil fuel production and use
• Disposal of residues
• Industrial manufacturing processes
• Built environment

(Graedel and Allenby, 25-29)
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Issues of Scale

• Global
• Global climate change ozone depletion loss of
  habitat reduction in biodiversity
• Regional
• Surface water chemistry changes soil
  degradation precipitation acidity visibility
  herbicides and pesticides
• Local
• Photochemical smog groundwater pollution
  radionuclides toxics in sludge oil spills
  toxics in sediments hazardous waste sites

(Graedel and Allenby, 37 47)
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Specific IE Life-Cycle Assessment

• Inventory Analysis Identifies (1) levels and
  types of energy and material inputs to an
  industrial system (2) resultant environmental
  releases.
• Impact Analysis Identifies and quantifies the
  relationship between the outputs of the
  industrial system and effects in the external
  world.
• Improvement Analysis Identifies and describes
  the needs and opportunities in the system for a
  reduction in environmental impacts. Called DFE
  in its implementation phase.

(Graedel and Allenby, 109)
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Generic IE Design for Environment

• Long-term aspect of IE (short term goal of IE is
  pollution prevention)
• Deals with products and processes prior to their
  introduction
• Typical actions
• Development of modularity
• Minimization of materials diversity
• Process substitutions
• Environmental issues become strategic in the same
  sense that economic issues currently are.

(Graedel and Allenby, 308)
21
Generic IE Design For Environment

• Structural mechanisms involved
• Standardized components lists
• Standard purchasing contracts
• Customer specifications and standards (i.e.
  changing the customers expectations)
• Corporate environmental management structures
  (acknowledgement of the strategic importance of
  environmental issues)
• Product-specific DFE applications (e.g. data
  collection, rule sets, checklists)

(Graedel and Allenby, 309 310)
22
Contributing Authors

• Iddo Wernick
• Stefan Bringezu
• Fritz Balkau
• Robert U. Ayres

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Iddo Wernick

• Industrial ecology should embrace the strategy of
  minimizing the use of materials resources and
  disturbance to natural systems
• Dematerialization is possible through efficient
  design of structures, systematic recovery of
  materials

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Iddo Wernick

• Use of land should be monitored by a sustainable
  process index or ecological footprint, taking
  into account the quality of the land using the
  net primary production
• Design of the built environment should consider
  the interface with nature, the model provided by
  nature, and the direct use of natural systems

25
Stefan Bringezu

• Increased resource efficiency utilizing
• Materials Intensity per Service Unit (MIPS)
• Integrated Resource Management (IRM)

26
Fritz Balkau

• Use of Integrated Environmental Management
  Systems (EMS)
• Definition of industrial ecology the study of
  material and energy flows, population dynamics,
  and the operational rules and interrelationships
  of the entire production system

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Robert U. Ayres

• Takes a spaceship approach
• Currently, there are no plausible technological
  substitutes for
• Climatic stability
• Stratospheric ozone
• Air
• Water
• Topsoil
• Vegetation
• Species diversity
• These should be seen as nonrenewable resources

28
Robert U. Ayres

• Degradation of the Earths life support systems
  are virtually irreversible in our lifetime.
• Total loss in each case may prove potentially
  lethal for the human race.

29
Robert U. Ayres

• Criticizes those who share an over-optimistic
  viewpoint on technology and those who believe in
  infinite resources
• Cites the new environmental problems created by
  technological answers such as
• Nuclear power/Chernobyl/Three Mile Island
• Hydrologic power/dams

30
Robert U. Ayres

• We must minimize our wastes
• The ability of the environment to neutralize or
  recycle industrial wastes into nutrients is also
  a kind of natural resource, known as
  assimilative capacity.
• Bioaccumulation toxic materials are entering
  our food stream as we release industrial
  effluents into our environment.

31
Robert U. Ayres

• Economic growth may be illusory as it keeps up
  with a growing world population.
• Does not take into account the loss of
  irreplaceable environmental resources such as
  fertile land and healthy rivers, e.g. the Ganges
  (at right) and the Hudson.

32
Robert U. Ayres

• The global community should reduce anthropogenic
  interference with natural systems.
• This will not only favor ecosystems, but will
  ensure the survival of the human species as well.
• The techniques of Industrial Ecology can combine
  technology and nature in a harmonious,
  sustainable manner.

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Robert U. Ayres

• Focuses on emissions from the built environment
  and establishes strategies for their eventual
  elimination
• Recycling will reduce mass materials movement,
  save energy in production versus virgin resources

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Importance of renewability

• Every ton of metal that is reused,
• remanufactured, or recycledor whose use is
• avoided by more efficient designreplaces a
• ton that would otherwise have to be mined
• and smelted, with all of the intermediate
• energy and material requirements associated
• with those activities -Ayres from text

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Robert U. Ayres

• Causes of Environmental Damage
• Impacts of wastes produced in extracting and
  manufacturing materials for construction
• Consumption of fuel by the built environment

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Environmental Impact Emissions

• Extraction emissions
• Dust (grinding)
• Combustion Wastes (fossil fuel usage)
• Manufacturing emissions
• Fuel Consumption (from all materials)

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Fuel Consumption of Materials

• Portland Cement (1993)
• Consumed 12 MMT of fuel
• Produced 66 MMT of Portland Cement
• One ton of carbon dioxide emitted per ton
  produced, or 66 MMT

38
Fuel Consumption of Materials

• Brick and Tile (1993)
• Consumed 2 MMT of fuel
• Produced 9 MMT of brick and tile
• 0.55 tons of carbon dioxide emitted per ton
  produced, or 5.1 MMT

39
Fuel Consumption of Materials

• Glass (1993)
• Consumed between 3 and 4 MMT of fuel
• Produced 15 MMT of glass
• One ton of carbon dioxide emitted per ton
  produced, or 15 MMT

40
Fuel Consumption of Materials

• Calcined Gypsum (1993)
• Produced 18 MMT of plaster wallboard
• 0.167 tons of carbon dioxide emitted per ton
  produced, or 3 MMT

41
Fuel Consumption of Materials

• Steel (1993)
• Consumed fuel in many wayshard to quantify
• 1.1 tons of carbon dioxide emitted per ton of
  steel produced, plus 1.1 tons of over burden, and
  1.5 tons of concentration waste

42
Case Studies

• Indigo Development
• Novo Nordisk, Kalundborg, Denmark
• ChemCity, South Africa
• Others for Consideration

43
Indigo Development

• Indigo functions as an action-oriented think tank
  linking the conceptual design of our innovations
  with strategic plans for implementation
• Works on sustainable towns, sustainable
  agriculture, green chemistry and eco-industrial
  parks

44
Indigo Development

• The transition to sustainable societies requires
• design at the level of
• Products, services
• Business organizations/missions/strategies
• NGOs and grassroots strategies
• Societal institutions and policies
• Community and regional planning
• Materials and energy flows
• Facilities, infrastructure and processes

45
Indigo Development

• Emphasizes incorporating these tools into overall
• project design
• Industrial metabolism
• Urban footprint
• Dynamic input-output model
• Life-cycle assessment
• Design for environment
• Pollution prevention
• Product life extension and the service economy

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Novo Nordisk, Kalundborg, Denmark

• Behaving in a socially responsible manner is an
  integral part of our Triple Bottom Line
  commitment to sustainable development.
• Triple Bottom Line Economics, Society,
  Environment

47
Novo Nordisk

• A global pharmaceutical company
• Exhibits a strong commitment to environmental and
  bioethics
• Recognized the competitive advantage of
  developing biologically based industrial
  materials termed Novozymes

48
Novo Nordisk

• The Novozymes (enzymes)
• Are biodegradable
• Function best in mild conditions, requiring up to
  1/3 less energy than their synthetic counterparts
• Used in detergent, fabric, food processing, pulp
  and paper, leather, industrial cleaning and
  agricultural applications

49
ChemCity, South Africa

• An eco-industrial park designed by Sasol Chemical
  Industries
• Provides an exchange of chemical and non-chemical
  by-products among the industries in the region
• Features a business hive to inspire the growth
  of new Sasol enterprises

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ChemCity

• Park building materials will utilize fly ash
  outputs from Sasols coal gasification process.
• Landscaping will feature herbs that can be used
  for extraction of essential oils, such as
  lavender and jasmine.

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Others for Consideration

• Styria, Austrias Recycling Network
• Composed of a complex network of exchanges among
  over 50 facilities
• Xerox Asset Recycle Management Program
• Defines its mission as achieving 100
  recyclability of all manufactured parts and
  assemblies
• Chaparral Steel
• Relies on recycled steel as its feedstock

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Summary and Conclusions

• Materials selection
• Lessons for Construction Ecology

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Materials Selection

• Choose abundant, nontoxic, nonregulated materials
  where possible. If toxics are required, generate
  on site instead of shipping.
• Choose natural rather than synthetic materials
  where possible.
• Design for minimum use of materials in products,
  processes, and services.
• Obtain the majority of materials from the
  recycling stream in preference to virgin
  materials or raw material extraction.

(Graedel and Allenby, 240)
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Lessons for Construction Ecology

• Optimize resource productivity
• Minimize emissions
• Develop management systems for implementation
• Maximize rematerialization
• Improve passive design
• Use hyper-efficient appliances