INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

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INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

• EEP 255
• NOVEMBER 25, 2003

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What is Ecology?

• Ecology can be defined as the study of
  relationships between organisms and the
  environment
• Ecologists study these relationships over a large
  range of temporal and spatial scales and using a
  variety of approaches.
• Scales
• Individual organisms,
• Populations
• Communities
• Ecosystems (biotic abiotic)
• Biomes
• Global

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SPACESHIP EARTH AS AN ECOSYSTEM

• A closed system except for solar energy
• A given natural capital stock of matter embodied
  in biotic and abiotic materials
• With a fixed stock it supports a fantastic number
  and variety of life forms in a complex dynamic
  equilibrium

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HOW?Ecosystem functions

• Ecosystem functions transform the quality or
  spatial location of matter and energy (similar to
  economic production functions).
• Photosynthesis solar energy capture and biomass
  production
• Food Chain or Web chemical cycling and energy
  flow
• Climate System solar energy capture and
  transfer, temperature control
• Hydrological Cycle water purification, storage,
  and transfer
• Biogeochemical Cycles (C, N, H,O and P) elemental
  matter cycling
• Evolution and adaptation

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Food Webs

• Aquatic
• Diatoms Phytoplankton
• Krill
• Whales,penguin
• Sharks, Seals
• Sea cucumbers

• Autotrophs (producers)
• Primary consumers
• Sec. Consumers
• Tertiary Consumers
• Decomposers

• Land Based
• Plants
• Herbivores
• Carnivores
• Carnivores
• Detrivores
• Fungi
• Centipedes

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Hydrological cycle

• A giant water purification system driven by solar
  energy
• Stocks
• Oceans 1.35 billion km3
• Atmosphere 13,000 km3
• Groundwater 8.2 million km3
• Polar ice 7.5 million Km3
• Surface water 3 million Km3
• Flows /yr
• Ocean evaporation 425,000 Km3
• Land evaporation 71,000 Km3
• Ocean rainfall 385,000 Km3
• Land rainfall 111,000 Km3
• River flows into ocean 40,000 Km3

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Carbon Cycle
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NITROGEN CYCLE
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ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING

• Input of renewable solar energy
• Closed loops in terms of material/nutrient flows
• Ecosystem members include producers, consumers,
  and recyclers
• No wastes efficient/perfect, Symbiosis between
  members
• Low intensity energy use and distributed
  production in-sync with local environment
• Toxins are not produced, stored or transported in
  bulk, but are synthesized and used as needed
  (snake poison)
• Population growth of members is limited by
  carrying capacity of the ecosystem
• Decentralized decision-making among members (no
  central planner)
• Self-sustaining
• Resilient

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Industrial/economic systems

• Transform energy and matter to meet human needs,
  but
• Open loop systems
• Dependence on non-renewable resources (non
  sustainable)
• Dumping Wastes (not recycled, non-recyclable,
  toxic, harmful)
• Adversarial/exploitative relationship with biotic
  and abiotic environment
• Growth with in the carrying capacity of local and
  global ecosystems?????????

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INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

• An emerging discipline (1990s)
• Industrial Ecology The study of relationships
  between industrial systems and the environment.
• Just like ecologists, the study of these
  relationships can be over a large range of
  temporal and spatial scales and using a variety
  of approaches.

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Industrial Ecology (Normative)

• Industrial ecology involves designing industrial
  infrastructure as if they were a series of
  interlocking man-made ecosystems interfacing with
  natural global ecosystem. Industrial ecology
  takes the pattern of the natural environment as a
  model for solving environmental problems,
  creating a new paradigm for the industrial system
  as a process
• Tibbs(1993)

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Industrial Ecology

• Industrial Ecology is the means by which humanity
  can deliberately and rationally approach and
  maintain a desirable carrying capacity, given
  continued economic, cultural and technological
  evolution. The concept requires that an
  industrial system be viewed not in isolation from
  its surrounding systems, but in concert with
  them.
• Allenby Gradel
  1993

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Key Concepts

• Systems analysis
• Material and Energy flows and transformations
• Analogies to natural systems (creation of
  industrial ecosystems)
• Dematerialization of industrial output (service
  flows, miniaturization)
• Closed loop systems
• Balancing industrial input and output to natural
  ecosystem capacity
• Multidisciplinary approach

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Models, Tools Techniques

• Industrial Metabolism
• The study of how matter and energy are
  transformed by economic activity into
  intermediate and final goods Industry analysis
• Goal is to understand and improve metabolic
  pathways
• Reducing number of steps
• Reducing material and energy intensity
• Biological transformation (low intensity,
  dispersed, renewable energy) v/s mechanical
  transformation (high intensity fossil fuel based)

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Models, Tools Techniques

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Analyzing resource and waste flows over the
  entire life cycle of a product or process
• Product level analysis
• Life cycle inventory
• Life cycle impact analysis
• Improvement analysis

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Tools and Techniques

• Environmental Accounting
• Firm level
• Accounting for wastes and resource use
• Full cost accounting (external costs as well)
• Life cycle costing
• Environmental performance metrics and
  eco-efficiency indicators

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Tools and Techniques

• Materials Flow Analysis (MFA)
• Environmental Accounting of critical material
  flows on a global/regional scale to determine
  potential problems
• Tracking mass flows, elemental transformation,
  embodiment in durable products, dissipation,
  disposal, and environmental component into which
  dissipated/disposed
• To identify opportunities where materials can be
  recycled, not dissipated and where material use
  can be reduced in the economy.
• Critical nutrients (C,N,P,), Global warming gases
  (C, CFC), Toxics like heavy metals (Ni, Cd),
  Arsenic, lead, Mercury, Chlorine, Energy flows

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Example Lead MFA
World Extraction, Use, and Disposal of Lead,
1990 (in thousand tons)
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Lead MFA

• Lead is a well recognized toxin contributing to
  IQ reduction in children, High blood pressure in
  adults,
• Annual refined Lead extraction 3.3 Million tons
  all of which essentially ends up in the
  environment
• We can not account exactly where and what are the
  effects (current cumulative)
• Dissipative uses leaded gasoline, pigments, shot
  and ammo(?), solders(?), refining wastes(?)
• Possibly recyclable batteries, durables
• How can we make it a closed loop? How can we make
  the economy less lead intensive? How can we
  reduce/substitute dissipative uses?

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Carbon Cycle
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Carbon Balance over past 150 years

• Atmospheric increase  Emissions from Fossil
  fuels  Net emissions from changes in land
  use - Oceanic uptake - Missing carbon sink
• 3.3(0.2)5.5(0.5)1.6(0.7)-2.0(0.8)-1.8(1.2)
   petagrams (billion MT)
• How can we offset the fossil fuel related
  emissions of C to atmosphere? Renewable energy?
  Carbon sequestration? Forests? Use coal and
  petroleum for materials that can be buried back?

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NITROGEN CYCLE
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Nitrogen Cycle

• Main reservoir atmosphere(79 N)
• Plants and animals need fixed nitrogen (NO3 ions,
  Ammonia, Urea)
• Lightening
• Bacterial fixing(legumes, alders, soil,
  cynobacteria in water)
• Industrial fixing
• Trophic levels (plant/animal proteins)
• Decay to ammonia
• Nitrifying bacteria (NH3 to nitrates)
• Denitrifying bacteria (nitrates to N2 gas)
• Industrial Fixation of N2 (fertilizers) and
  increasing flows into hydrosphere
• Are Denitrifiers keeping up or should they be?
• What are system-wide environmental implications?

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Tools and Techniques

• Design for the Environment (DfE)
• Design for dematerialization
• Design for efficiency (energy/materials)
• Design for material variety reduction
• Design for disassembly/separation
• Design for less toxic inputs
• Design for recycling/use by others
• Design for eco-compatible waste streams
• Design for non-dissipative waste stream
• Waste stream standardization!
• But all these while meeting product performance
  requirements

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Eco-Industrial Parks

• Application of ecosystem principles to the design
  of industrial parks and communities
• Industrial symbiosis (one industrys wastes are
  raw materials for others)
• Closed loops
• Geographical clustering that improves each
  others viability

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Example Kalundborg, Denmark
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Annual achievements from Kalundborg

• Reduction in resource consumption
• Oil 19,000 tons
• Coal 30,000 tons
• Water 1,200,000 m3
• Reduction in emissions
• CO2 130,000 tons
• SO2 25,000 tons
• Reuse of wastes
• Flyash 135,000 tons
• Sulfur 2,800 tons
• Gypsum 80,000 tons
• N2 from biosludge 800 tons
• P from biosludge 400 tons

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Why doesnt IE happen currently?

• Markets are the primary institutional mechanism
  of industrial systems
• Highly successful in meeting human needs, but
• Ecosystem resources are under-priced or at worst
  free (market failure)
• Overuse of natural resources and wasteful
  technology (No incentives)
• Economic instruments (taxes, tradable permits)
  can provide right incentives but need estimates
  of marginal damage!
• Lack of information about system wide
  implications/ damages/scarcity.