Industrial ecology system

Figure 1.7. Comparison of materials flow in natural and industrial ecological systems.

In the consumer sector, products are sold or leased to the consimiers who use them. The duration and intensity of use vary widely with the product paper towels are used only once, whereas an automobile may be used thousands of times over many years. In all cases, however, the end of the useful lifetime of the product is reached and it is either (1) discarded or (2) recycled. The success of a total industrial ecology system can be measured largely by the degree to which recycling predominates over disposal. 

By its nature, industrial production has an impact upon the environment. Whenever raw materials are extracted, processed, used, and eventually discarded, some enviromnental impacts will occur. In designing an industrial ecological system, several major kinds of environmental impacts must be considered in order to minimize them and keep them within acceptable limits. These impacts and the measures taken to alleviate them are discussed below. 

The energy sector of industrial ecosystems often suffers from a lack of robustness. Examples of energy vulnerability have become obvious with several energy crises during recent history. Another requirement of a healthy industrial ecology system that is vulnerable in some societies is water. In some regions of the world, both the... 

The global geochemical background and enormous industrial environmental pollution have increased, thus, there are all the bases to speak about the beginning of biogeochemical formation development which has a direct influence on the ecological system condition in general as well as on the population health. 

A larger scale example is the involvement of the cement industry in the growing field of industrial ecology. This takes the idea of an ecosystem with its many intersecting loops of materials and energy and applies it to industrial systems. Why use virgin raw materials and take them through a linear system to produce waste, when an imused material from one industry can be a feedstock for another ... 

TSCATS is an online index to unpublished, nonconfidential studies covering chemical testing results and adverse effects of chemicals on health and ecological systems. The studies are submitted by US industry to EPA under several sections of the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). There are four types of documents in the database Section 4 chemical testing results, Section 8(d) health and safety studies, Section 8(e) substantial risk of injury to health or the environment notices, and voluntary documents submitted to EPA known as a For Your Information (FYI) notice. 

The recent introduction of the term industrial ecology stems from its use by Frosch and Gallopoulos [10] in a paper on environmentally favorable strategies for manufacturing. Industrial ecology (IE) is now a branch of systems science for sustainability, or a framework for designing and operating industrial systems as sustainable and interdependent with natural... 

The idea of industrial ecology is that former waste materials, rather than being automatically sent for disposal, should be regarded as raw materials - useful sources of materials and energy for other processes and products. The overall idea is to consider how the industrial system might evolve in the direction of an interconnected food web, analogous to the natural system, so that waste minimization becomes a property of the industrial system even when it is not completely a property of a individual process, plant, or industry. ... 

Indigo Development. Creating Systems Solution for Sustainable Development through Industrial Ecology, RPP International Oakland, California, elowe indigodev.com, June 5, 2000. 

Wang, L.K. Industrial ecology. In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems Hazardous Waste Management, Chapter 15 Grasso, D., Vogel, T., Smets, B., Eds. Eolss PubUshers Co., Ltd. London, 2003 www.eolss.net/E-l-08-toc.aspx. 

The chemical industry must rethink the next set of standards and not simply push Responsible Care to the next incremental step. Sustainable development means economic growth that does not deplete irreplaceable resonrces, does not destroy ecological systems, and helps reduce some of the world s gross social inequalities. 

JETOC (1997) Mutagenicity Test Data of Existing Chemical Substances (Based on the Toxicity Investigation System of the Industrial Safety and Health Law), Supplement, Tokyo, Japan Chemical Industry Ecology-Toxicology and Information Center, pp. 253-255... 

Geochemistry deals with chemical species, reactions, and processes in the lithosphere and their interactions with the atmosphere and hydrosphere. The branch of geochemistry that explores the complex interactions among the rock-water-air-life (and human) systems that determine the chemical characteristics of the surface environment is environmental geochemistry. Obviously, geochemistry and its environmental subdiscipline are very important in environmental science and in considerations of industrial ecology. 

Sustainability is often defined as the use of resources in such a way that the foreseeable needs of future generations are not seriously affected. Industrial ecology provides a systems-based view of how, where, and why environmental improvements can move toward an environmentally sustainable economy. 

In chemistry, labelled compounds are used to elucidate reaction mechanisms and to investigate diffusion and transport processes. Other applications are the study of transport processes in the geosphere, the biosphere and in special ecological systems, and the investigation of corrosion processes and of transport processes in industrial plants, in pipes or in motors. 

Industrial ecology A systems-oriented subject that seeks to optimize resources, energy, and capital through the study of industrial and economic systems and their interactions with the natural ecosystems. Graedel and Allenby, 2003... 

M. Wright, D. Allen, R. Clift and H. Sas, Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance The ICI Environmental Burden System, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 1(4), 117-127 (1997). 

Seppala, J., Basson, L., Norris, G.A. Decision analysis frameworks for life-cycle impact assessment. Journal of Industrial Ecology 5, 45-68 (2001) Shanks, G., Seddon, P. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Journal of Information Technology 15, 243-244 (2000)... 

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