Industrial Ecology of Earth Resources

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Industrial Ecology of Earth Resources
EAEE E4001
Measures of environmental performance
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• Broad stages of industrial activities
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• Extraction of materials mining, oil drilling,
  agriculture, forestry, fishery
• Processing of primary materials cement and
  metal production, oil refining, food and wood
  processing
• Primary fabricating tube and wire, plastics,
  paper construction
• Manufacturing motors, cars, plastic and paper
  cups
• Use of materials and products by public
• Recycling or disposal of used materials

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• Classes of environmental concerns regarding the
  potential impacts of each class of activities
•   Human health carcinogenic, respiratory,
  eye/ear, esthetic
•   Ecosystems biodiversity, animals, fish,
  plants
•   Materials/energy resources ore and fossil
  fuel reserves, forests
•   Solid residues municipal or industrial solid
  wastes
•   Liquid emissions inorganic and organic
  contaminants of fresh and ocean waters
•   Gas emissions inorganic and organic gases and
  particulate matter emitted to the atmosphere

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Classes of Environmental Concerns
Human health (e.g, carcinogenic, respiratory, eye/ear, esthetic) Ecosystems (e.g., biodiversity, animals, fish, plants) Materials/ energy resources (e.g., ore and fossil fuel reserves, forests) Solid residues (municipal or industrial solid wastes) Emissions in water (inorganic and organic contaminants of fresh and ocean waters) Emissions in air (inorganic and organic gases particulate matter emitted to the atmosphere)
Extraction of materials (e.g., mining, oil drilling, agriculture, forestry, fishery) 0-10 0-10 0-10 0-10 0-10 0-10
Primary processing of materials (e.g., cement and metal production, oil refining, food and wood processing)
Primary fabricating (e.g., tube and wire, plastics, paper construction)
Manufacturing (motors, cars, plastic and paper cups)
Use of materials and products by public
Recycling or disposal of used materials
Stage of industrial activity
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Dimensional and dimensionless environmental
metrics It is useful to express environmental
performance indices, or environmental metrics,
as ratios of one quantity, e.g., kilograms of
emissions of NOx or CO2, to another, e.g. per kwh
produced. This particular measure has the
dimensions of mass/energy (kg/kWh) and is called
dimensional. Also the metric kg copper in
copper product A per kg of copper mined for
manufacture of product A has the dimensions of
mass/mass and, therefore, is dimensionless
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• The master environmental equation
• It consists of three terms
•   population
•   material standard of living (Gross Domestic
  Product or GDP, in ) per person
•   environmental impact per unit of material
  standard of living
• _ ? reflects the level of
  technology used in industrial activities
• With respect to global warming, the last term can
  be expressed as tons of carbon dioxide
  equivalent, CO2,equ per of GDP where CO2,equ
  sums up all carbon dioxide and all other
  greenhouse gases (GHG) that have an equivalent
  effect

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• The three contributing factors are
• the size of population (e.g., China)
• ? can be reduced by public awareness or
  government action
• very high material standard of living (e.g. the
  U.S.)
• ?The GDP/capita term represents the material
  standard of living
• and inefficient technology for fuel combustion
  and gas emission control (e.g. in developing
  nations).
• ? indicative of the technology used to produce
  materials and energy and to control emissions.

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The master environmental equation in algebraic
form National environmental impact
(national population) x (GDP/capita) x
(environmental impact/GDP)
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Population growth slide
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Proposal The incremental master environmental
equation The population of developing nations
in Asia and Africa has exploded since the
beginning of what we may call the 2nd industrial
revolution in the 1950s. If this trend
continues, the globe will face many severe
problems besides global warming. Therefore, it
is necessary for the developed nations to curb
their use of material and energy resources and
also for the developing ones to curb population
growth or for both to be prepared to pay the
consequences of irresponsible behavior.
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Proposal It may be useful to establish an
incremental master environmental equation that
uses the year 1950 as a time reference point and
to compute the change in the three contributing
terms from1950 to present or future time, t
?t (National environmental impact) ?t
(national population) x (GDP/capita) x
(environmental impact/GDP)   where the increment
?t represents the product of the three terms at
time t minus the same product in 1950.
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1991 inputs in the U.S. economy (after Wernick
and Ausubel 1995) (part 1)
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1991 inputs in the U.S. economy (after Wernick
and Ausubel 1995) part 2
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1991 material outputs of the U.S. economy (after
Wernick and Ausubel 1995)
 
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Mining and mineral concentration wastes generated
per unit of production
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National material flows One of the most useful
metrics is the annual use of various materials
per person. It is readily obtained from published
census and production records that all nations
keep.
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1991 domestic consumption of materials in
industrial countries (Fischer-Kowalski and
Hutter, 1998)
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Some useful indices of environmental performance
(after Wernick and Ausubel, 1995)
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Fraction of global production of materials used
by the U.S. economy (1990,
ref.), part 1
   
 
 
 
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Fraction of global production of materials used
by the U.S. economy (1990,
ref.), part 2
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Relation of an industrial subsystem to the
economic, social and Earth systems
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Environmental indicators at the firm
level Economic indicator of productivity
efficiency Parameters
System En Energy Environment R
Raw materials W Waste
L Labor
Social Em Employment
M Marketable output
C Capital
Economic VA Value added

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Environmental indicators at the firm
level Social productivity efficiency
Parameters System En Energy
Environment R Raw materials
W Waste
L Labor
Social Em Employment M
Marketable output C Capital
Economic VA Value added

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Environmental indicators at the firm
level Environmental productivity efficiency
Parameters System En Energy
Environment R Raw materials
W Waste
L Labor
Social Em Employment
M Marketable output C
Capital Economic VA
Value added
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Environmental Load Units for resource
availability(ELU/kg)
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Environmental Load Units for emissions in
water(ELU/kg)
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Environmental Load Units for emissions in
air(ELU/kg)