L. Connelly et Cp. Koshland, 2 ASPECTS OF CONSUMPTION - USING AN ENERGY-BASED MEASURE OF DEGRADATION TO ADVANCE THE THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Resources, conservation and recycling, 19(3), 1997, pp. 199-217
The theory of industrial ecology (IE) and the implementation of IE str
ategies are both hindered by inadequate definitions of consumption and
recycling, In this paper, we introduce a definition of consumption th
at separates the consumptive process into two independent, quantifiabl
e phenomena: throughput and degradation. We propose that exergy remova
l be used to provide a non-resource specific measure of material degra
dation, We also introduce an exergy-based definition of material cycli
ng -- cycling of material exergy (CME) -- and describe how it quantifi
es the differences among three distinct categories of material re-use:
upgrading, recirculation, and cascading, Finally, we use a simple, qu
antitative example involving three methanol-water waste streams to dem
onstrate exergy-based measures of consumption and material cycling. Co
pyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.