INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY AND ENERGY-SYSTEMS - A FIRST STEP

This work is intended to contribute to the foundations for formalizing industrial ecology analyses of energy systems (systems for energy gen eration, transfer, or transformation) and to examine how the tools for performing these analyses can also enhance the field of industrial ec ology in other applications. We discuss requirements for studying mate rials and energy cycling in industrial processes, with particular emph asis on energy generating systems, through explicit inclusion of entro py concepts in industrial ecology considerations. This perspective is intended to contribute to the theoretical basis for industrial ecology , to the development of tools for comparing the ecological (human and environmental health, and institutional) impacts of energy generating and other industrial processes, and to possible changes in engineering curricula with emphasis on design. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.