Material Flow

1
Material Flow

• Carol Timson
• 4/12/2004

2
Overview

• Biogeochemical Systems
• Mass Balance
• Ecosystem
• Closed Loop
• Anthroposystem
• Open System
• Material Flow Transfer Matrices
• Track flow of contaminants throughout the World
• 4 Environmental Spheres - all spheres are
  interdependent
• Biosphere-pump
• Atmosphere-transporter
• Lithosphere-storage compartment
• Hydrosphere-transporter (rivers) storage
  (oceans)

3
Biogeochemical Systems

• The study of how living systems influence, and
  are controlled by, the geology and chemistry of
  the earth
• Fundamental principles to analyze flow of
  materials through air, land, and water
• Mass balance - describes the state of a system
• NET CHANGE INPUT OUTPUT INTERNAL CHANGE

4
Ecosystem

• The sun is the energy source
• Plants use the sun to produce food
• Animals are the consumers
• The decomposers (recyclers) are the fungi and
  bacteria.

The ecosystem is capable of recycling most of
the waste products is produces.
http//www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchangel/cu
rrent/lectures/kling/ecosystem/ecosystem.html
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Antroposystem
Open Loop System

• Fossil Fuels are the energy for the system
• Producers include manufacturing and farming
• Consumers are humans
• Decomposing (recycling) is very minor
• Includes recycling of material and wastewater
  treatment

by-products are disposed into the physical
environment
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Material Flow

• Humans and biota are responsible for
  redistribution of chemicals on Earth.
• In an ecosystem much of the material is
  transferred directly from the producers to the
  recyclers, this is not the case in the
  anthroposystem as it would be pointless to
  produce material and immediately recycle it.

7
Material Flow Transfer Matrices

• Matter is transferred from producer to consumer.
• The transfer is a one-to-many relationship that
  can be quantified by the transfer matrix.
• In case of fuel producers (mining) and consumers
  (combustion), the transfer is described by the
  surface transfer matrix sij
• Pollution is transferred from the consumer
  (emitter) to the environmental receptor
  (pollutant is emitted)
• i producer
• j consumer
• k receptor

8
Concentration of mercury in coal
cappalachian0.20 cinterior0.10 cgulfcoast0.22 c
rockymountains0.09 cgreatplains0.12
http//capita.wustl.edu/capita/capitareports/Mercu
ry/_Toc12781822
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Production of Mercury from Coal
Pi millions Mg/yr
Estimated for 1999 Pappalachian600 Pinterior150
Pgulfcoast650 Prockymountain1000 Pgreatplains50

http//capita.wustl.edu/capita/capitareports/Mercu
ry/_Toc12781822
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Matrix Example
Mi -mass contaminant that is mobilized by each
producer ci-concentration of the contaminant
sulfur in coal Pi-raw material production
rate sij-transfer of coal sulfur from producer to
consumer Uij-amount of matter originating at the
producer and used at the consumer.
MiciPi
UijsijMi
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Mercury Mobilization
Trend of mercury mobilized in coal. High (75)
and low (50) estimates of mercury atmospheric
emissions are also shown to be around 25 to 50
retention.
http//capita.wustl.edu/capita/capitareports/Mercu
ry/_Toc12781822
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Matrix Example
ajk is the atmospheric transfer
I need help understanding the ajk part of this
matrix.
13
http//capita.wustl.edu/capita/capitareports/Mercu
ry/_Toc12781822
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Four Environmental SpheresMaterials in the
environment are distributed in 4 environmental
compartments (spheres), materials flow between
and within each compartment.

• Biosphere
• The pump, allows matter to flow through nature
• thin shell of organic matter on the earths
  surface
• Atmosphere
• Transport-conveyor compartment
• Large capability for redistributing matter
• Lithosphere
• solid shell of inorganic material at the earths
  surface
• Hydrosphere
• can be seen as two compartments rivers are
  transporters and oceans are storage

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Mercury traveling through the Spheres

• Released by anthropogenic sources into
• land
• air
• soil
• Mercury in Atmosphere mixes with cloud water and
  is deposited on the land and in water sources
• On land it is stored in the soil and also
  deposited into water sources from runoff
• Mercury is re-emitted into the atmosphere from
  the ocean through evasion

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Mercury

• Mercury in the soil is also taken up by plants
  and these plants are consumed by animals.
• Mercury can get into freshwater systems through
  direct deposition, runoff, or through groundwater
  flow in the upper soil layers
• Mercury in water in ingested by water animals
  also.

www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpglt3/reports/volume3.pdf
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Mercury Transport

• Approximately one third of total mercury
  emissions are thought to cycle from oceans to the
  atmosphere and back again to the ocean.
• The reservoir holding time is approximately 6
  months to 2 years
• Hg(0) emitted transforms to Hg(II) in cloud
  water.
• Hg(0) has an average residence time in the
  atmosphere of about 1 year.
• Hg(II) is deposited by dry or wet deposition
  process.
• Atmospheric residence time of hours to months

www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpglt3/reports/volume3.pdf
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Conclusion

• Ecosystem makes use of all material
• The anthroposystem differs from the ecosystem in
  the fact that they do not recycle as much
• Sustainable development can be achieved if humans
  can operate more like the ecosystem by becoming
  more efficient.
• Either use less material, recycle more, or place
  material where it is not harmful to the
  environment