Thermodynamics of Energy Production from Biomass

With high quality petroleum running out in the next 50 years, the world governments and petrochemical industry alike are looking at biomass as a substitute refinery feedstock for liquid fuels and other bulk chemicals. New large plantations are being established in many countries, mostly in the tropics, but also in China, North America, Northern Europe, and in Russia. These industrial plantations will impact the global carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water cycles in complex ways. The purpose of this paper is to use thermodynamics to quantify a few of the many global problems created by industrial forestry and agriculture. It is assumed that a typical tree biomass-for-energy plantation is combined with an efficient local pelleting facility to produce wood pellets for overseas export. The highest biomass-to-energy conversion efficiency is afforded by an efficient electrical power plant, followed by a combination of the FISCHER-TROPSCH diesel fuel burned in a 35%-efficient car, plus electricity. Wood pellet conversion to ethanol fuel is always the worst option. It is then shown that neither a prolific acacia stand in Indonesia nor an adjacent eucalypt stand is “sustainable.” The acacia stand can be made “sustainable” in a limited sense if the cumulative free energy consumption in wood drying and chipping is cut by a factor of two by increased reliance on sun-drying of raw wood. The average industrial sugarcane-for-ethanol plantation in Brazil could be “sustainable” if the cane ethanol powered a 60%-efficient fuel cell that, we show, does not exist. With some differences (ethanol distillation vs. pellet production), this sugarcane plantation performs very similarly to the acacia plantation, and is unsustainable in conjunction with efficient internal combustion engines.     

生态学研究中的分析与能值分析理论

与能值是研究生态系统自组织过程的两个重要的目标函数。分析与能值分析理论在 2 0世纪 70年代开始应用于生态学研究 ,它们有各自的理论起点 ,在应用上从不同的角度表现生态系统功能 ,两者的互补关系受到了生态学家的关注 ,并在实际应用中取得了有益的研究成果。从与能值各自的理论基础与研究成果出发 ,概述了两者在描述生态系统功能上的互补关系 ,并分析了其在生态学理论研究及实际应用上的重要意义     

Trends in Austrian Resource Efficiency: An Exergy and Useful Work Analysis in Comparison to Material Use,CO2 Emissions,and Land Use

In the past few years, resource use and resource efficiency have been implemented in the European Union (EU) environmental policy programs as well as international sustainable development programs. In their programs, the EU focuses on four resource types that should be addressed: materials, energy (or carbon dioxide [CO₂] emissions), water, and land. In this article, we first discuss different perspectives on energy use and present the results of a long‐term exergy and useful work analysis of the Austrian economy for the period 1900–2012, using the methodology developed by Ayres and Warr. Second, we discuss Austrian resource efficiency by comparing the presented exergy and useful work data with material use, CO₂ emissions, and land‐use data taken from statistical sources. This comparison provides, for the first time, a long‐term analysis of Austrian resource efficiency based on a broad understanding thereof and evaluates Austrian development in relation to EU and Austrian policy targets.     

基于生命周期的户用沼气系统可用能核算——以广西恭城瑶族自治县为例

发展沼气生态农业可以实现资源的综合利用,带来经济效益与生态效益,同时解决我国农村地区能源短缺和环境污染问题。明确沼气系统内部的物质能量转化利用情况,可为沼气农业系统优化和效益提升提供科学依据。提出基于生命周期的户用沼气系统可用能核算方法,并以全国生态农业示范县——广西恭城瑶族自治县为例,核算了该县典型户用沼气系统建设、运行和利用单元投入产出的可用能流,分析了整个系统的可用能转化与利用效率。结果表明:系统的可用能投入为(1.06×108)kJ/a,可用能产出为(5.00×107)kJ/a,主要产出形式为沼渣;可用能转化率为48.82%,利用率为21.60%,其中沼气利用效率最高;系统产生的环境排放为(3.42×105)kJ/a,主要形式为系统利用单元沼气燃烧产生的CO2。由此可见,沼气生态农业可通过增加转化环节实现农业废弃物的再利用,系统可用能效率具备极大的提升空间,系统可持续性有待加强。可以考虑从改进工艺技术和改善发酵环境两方面提高户用沼气系统能量转化的能力,通过沼渣沼液综合利用技术方面的创新提高户用沼气系统的可用能利用效率。生命周期可用能核算方法可以更全面的反映系统的能量利用效率,便于诊断薄弱环节,为系统优化提供依据。     

Use of Symbiosis Products from Integrated Pulp and Paper and Carbon Steel Mills: Legal Status and Environmental Burdens

This study assesses the policy/legal status of both multistream residues and potential secondary products (“symbiosis products”) and whether there could be environmental benefits associated with the utilization of residues from integrated pulp and paper and carbon steel mills as raw materials for such secondary products. Waste‐related European Union (EU) and Finnish policy and legal instruments were reviewed to identify potential constraints for, and suggested next steps in, the development of potential process industry residue‐based symbiosis products. The products were soil amendment pellets, low‐grade concrete, and mine filler. A global warming potential (GWP) assessment and an exergy analysis were applied to these potential symbiosis products. Some indicative GWP calculations of greenhouse gas emissions associating similar and/or analogous products based on virgin primary raw materials, more energy‐intensive processes, and the alternative treatment of these residues as wastes are also presented. This study addresses GWP, exergy, and legal aspects in a holistic manner to determine the potential environmental benefits of secondary products within the EU legal framework. The GWP assessment and exergy analysis indicate that the utilization of multistream residues causes very low environmental burdens in terms of GWP. The utilization option can have potential environmental benefits in terms of GWP through process replacement and avoided landfilling and waste treatment impacts, as well as potentially through emission reductions from product replacement if suitable and safe applications can be identified. Waste regulation does not define the legal requirements under which utilizing residues in such novel concepts as introduced in this study would be possible, nor how waste status could be removed and product‐based legislation be applied to the potential products instead.     

Necessity and Inefficiency in the Generation of Waste

The laws of thermodynamics are employed as an analytical framework within which results about society's metabolism may be rigorously deduced in energetic and material terms. We demonstrate that the occurrence of waste is an unavoidable necessity in the industrial production of desired goods. Although waste is thus an essential qualitative element of industrial production, the quantitative extent to which waste occurs may vary within certain limits according to the degree of thermodynamic (in) efficiency with which these processes are operated. We discuss the question of which proportion of the amount of waste currently generated is due to thermodynamic necessity and which proportion is due to thermodynamic inefficiency.     

From Engineering Economics to Extended Exergy Accounting: A Possible Path from Monetary to Resource-Based Costing

The article describes the extended exergy accounting technique (EEA), a novel method for computing the cost of a commodity based on its resource-base equivalent value (as opposed to its monetary cost) that enables the analyst to perform more complete and meaningful assessments of a complex system. The claim made here is that the novelty, as well as the decisive advantage, of EEA consists in its being entirely and uniformly resource based, thanks to the inclusion in the system balance of exergetic fluxes equivalent to labor, capital, and environmental remediation costs. In this respect, EEA owes some of its structural formalism to Sraffa's network representation of the economic production of commodities by means of other commodities, which it extends by accounting for the unavoidable energy dissipation in the productive chain (whose economic implications were first discussed by Georgescu-Roegen), to Daly's pioneering work in resource-oriented economics, and to Szargut's cumulative exergy consumption method.
The representation of a process by means of its extended exergy flow diagram is discussed in this article, and it is argued that some of the issues that are difficult to address with a purely monetary approach can be properly resolved by EEA. The main shortcomings of EEA are its intrinsic locality in time and space: They are demonstrated to be necessary and not casual consequences of its very definition and of the nonuniformity of societal conditions. In the conclusions, some indications are given as to the possibility of using this new technique to complement (and extend) other current tools, such as life-cycle assessment or environmental footprint analysis.     

Life Cycle Assessment of Biomass‐based Combined Heat and Power Plants

Norway, like many countries, has realized the need to extensively plan its renewable energy future sooner rather than later. Combined heat and power (CHP) through gasification of forest residues is one technology that is expected to aid Norway in achieving a desired doubling of bioenergy production by 2020. To assess the environmental impacts to determine the most suitable CHP size, we performed a unit process‐based attributional life cycle assessment (LCA), in which we compared three scales of CHP over ten environmental impact categories—micro (0.1 megawatts electricity [MWe]), small (1 MWe), and medium (50 MWe) scale. The functional units used were 1 megajoule (MJ) of electricity and 1 MJ of district heating delivered to the end user (two functional units), and therefore, the environmental impacts from distribution of electricity and hot water to the consumer were also considered. This study focuses on a regional perspective situated in middle‐Norway's Nord‐ and Sør‐Trøndelag counties. Overall, the unit‐based environmental impacts between the scales of CHP were quite mixed and within the same magnitude. The results indicated that energy distribution from CHP plant to end user creates from less than 1% to nearly 90% of the total system impacts, depending on impact category and energy product. Also, an optimal small‐scale CHP plant may be the best environmental option. The CHP systems had a global warming potential ranging from 2.4 to 2.8 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of thermal (g CO₂‐eq/MJ_th) district heating and from 8.8 to 10.5 grams carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of electricity (g CO₂‐eq/MJ_el) to the end user.     

扩展火用方法在区域生态经济驱动机制及效率研究中的应用

为分析区域生态退化的经济社会原因,针对以往扩展火用分析(EEA)应用以国家尺度为主,存在流通网络庞杂、规律辨识困难等问题,缩小空间尺度至县域,以宁夏彭阳为例,将生态经济系统划分为7个相互联系的部门,分别计算流通的物质、劳动力、资本的火用值,以分析驱动部门、要素和路径的扩展火用流特征并评价生态效率.结果表明: 彭阳县生态经济系统主要由农业和居民部门驱动,部门间31条流通路径平均扩展火用流值为0.80 PJ,高于该值的仅有8条流通路径,主要通过“居民部门劳动力输出和其他部门支持居民部门需求”两条连续路径驱动发展.矿产资源开采规模大,但直接输出区域外,无法从内部推动县域发展,反而由于资源开采加重了生态环境压力.县域2014年生态效率为68.1%,相当于10年前国内外国家尺度的中间水平,主要由服务和居民部门效率低造成.扩展火用分析有网络化、结构化的优势,可明确部门、要素和路径,突破驱动机制研究的“瓶颈”,对探究区域生态经济系统运行原理和选择优化模式具有一定适应性.区域尺度较国家大空间尺度分析更易识别生态经济系统驱动机制,能够明确指导区域管理部门改善生态环境压力.