产业生态学最新研究进展及趋势展望

传统末端治理方式的弊端和清洁生产技术的局限性促使人们探求新的污染防治模式,生态学尤其是仿生学的发展激发了人们仿照自然生态系统来改造人类生产系统的想法,基于这种背景,产业生态学应运而生。分析了产业生态学诞生的背景及其形成过程,并全面系统论述了产业生态学领域的国内外进展,识别了目前我国该领域面临的问题与困境,并给出了对策建议。在此基础上,文章从学科发展的角度对产业生态学的发展趋势和前景作了展望。     

产业生态学的回顾与展望

对产业生态学的基本概念、研究方法和研究热点进行了总结与评述,认为产业生态学是研究人类产业活动与自然环境相互关系的一门综合性、垮学科的应用科学。它采用工业代谢、生命周期评价和区域生态建设的方法对产业活动全过程(包括原材料采掘、原材料生产、产品制造、产品使用、产品用后处理)进行定性描述和定量模拟。产业生态学着眼于人类和生态系统的长远利益,追求经济效益、生态效益和社会效益的统一。     

产业生态学的回顾与展望

对产业生态学的基本概念、研究方法和研究热点进行了总结与评述,认为产业生态学是研究人类产业活动与自然环境相互关系的一门综合性、垮学科的应用科学．它采用工业代谢、生命周期评价和区域生态建设的方法对产业活动全过程（包括原材料采掘、原材料生产、产品制造、产品使用、产品用后处理）进行定性描述和定量模拟．产业生态学着眼于人类和生态系统的长远利益,追求经济效益、生态效益和社会效益的统一．     

The Ecosystem: Model or Metaphor?

Industrial ecology offers an original way of looking at economic activities. The approach is based on an analogy between certain objects studied by the science of ecology (ecosystems, metabolisms, symbiosis, biocenosis, etc.) and industrial systems. However, this analogical relationship raises difficulties due to the various interpretations to which it is open. Although there is agreement regarding its heuristic function, the analogy can nevertheless be understood either as a model or as a metaphor. The present article first attempts to show how models differ from metaphors. It then sets out to justify the epistemological relevance of this distinction for industrial ecology research. The reflection should thus contribute to clarifying the debate on the (supposed or desired) role of analogy in the field of industrial ecology and heighten the interest this field of investigation represents for implementing sustainable development.     

Redesigning the Industrial Ecology of the Automobile

This article explores the potential of industrial ecology to inform the redesign of an existing industry: that which is concerned with the production, sale, and support of automobiles. In so doing, it brings together the concepts embedded in industrial ecology with issues of economic scale, product design or technology, process technology, and the way in which new combinations of these features can result in an alternative structure for the automotive industry that has the potential to enhance sustainability performance. In so doing, the article advances the general argument that the economic, technical, and spatial organization of production and consumption are co-determined in a manner that collectively shapes the industrial ecology of an industry. In contradistinction to the prevailing industry, the article then advances the concept of micro factory retailing as an alternative framework for the industry that would result in significantly different performance in terms of industrial ecology.     

The Relevance of Circular Economy Practices to the Sustainable Development Goals

This paper identifies the extent to which circular economy (CE) practices are relevant for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results of a literature review and a matching exercise to determine the relationship between CE practices and SDG targets show that CE practices, potentially, can contribute directly to achieving a significant number of SDG targets. The strongest relationships exist between CE practices and the targets of SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). The paper also explores synergies that can be created through CE practices among several of the SDG targets. Furthermore, it identifies several potential trade‐offs between targets for decent work, safe working environments, human health and current CE practices relating to recycling of municipal waste, e‐waste and wastewater, and provides suggestions how these can be overcome. The paper concludes that CE practices can be applied as a “toolbox” and specific implementation approaches for achieving a sizeable number of SDG targets. Further empirical research is necessary to determine which specific types of partnerships and means of implementation are required to apply CE practices in the SDG context.     

Reinterpreting Industrial Ecology

This article argues that industrial ecology has, to date, largely engaged with the ecological sciences at a superficial level, which has both attracted criticism of the field and limited its practical application for sustainable industrial development. On the basis of an analysis of the principle of succession, the role of waste, and the concept of diversity, the article highlights some of the key misconceptions that have resulted from the superficial engagement with the science of ecology. It is argued that industrial ecology should not be seen as a metaphor for industrial development; industrial ecology is the ecology of industry and should be studied as such. There are manifold general principles of ecology that underpin our understanding of the world; however, the physical manifestation and causal effects of these principles are particular to the system and its constituent elements under analysis. It is thus proposed that context‐specific observation and analysis of industry are required before theoretical and practical advancement of the field can be achieved.     

An Indicator to Evaluate the Thermodynamic Maturity of Industrial Process Units in Industrial Ecology

The article suggests a measure to evaluate the thermodynamic maturity of industrial systems at the level of single process units. The measure can be quantified with reasonable confidence on the basis of entropy production as defined by irreversible thermodynamics theory. It quantifies, for one process unit, the distance between its actual state of operation and its state with minimum entropy production or optimum exergy efficiency, when the two states are constrained with a fixed production capacity of the process unit. We suggest that the minimum entropy production state is a mature state, or that processes that operate at this state are mature. We propose to call the measure "the thermodynamic maturity indicator" (π), and we define it as the ratio between the minimum entropy production and the actual entropy production. We calculated π on the basis of literature data for some examples of industrial process units in the chemical and process industry (i.e., heat exchanger, chemical reactor, distillation column, and paper drying machine). The proposed thermodynamic measure should be of interest for industrial ecology because it emerges from the entropy production rate, a dynamic function that can be optimized and used to understand the thermodynamic limit to improving the exergy efficiency of industrial processes. Although not a tool for replacing one process with another or comparing one technology to another, π may be used to assess actual operation states of single process units in industrial ecology.     

Few‐Layer Black Phosphorus Nanosheets as Electrocatalysts for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Black phosphorus (BP) is a new rediscovered layered material, which has attracted enormous interests in the field of electrocatalysis. Recent investigations reveal that bulk BP is a promising electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reactions (OER), whereas its bulk crystal structure restricts sufficient active sites for achieving highly efficient OER catalytic performances. Toward this end, few‐layer BP nanosheets prepared by facile liquid exfoliation are applied as electrocatalysts and exhibit preferable electrocatalytic OER activity in association with structural robustness; subsequently, the dependence of current density and applied bias potential on the concentration of OH^? has also been uncovered. Most importantly, we are aware that reduction in the thickness of BP nanosheets would generate extra active sites from the ultrathin planar structure and complimenting to the electrocatalytic activities. It is further anticipated that the current work might provide further implementation about the OER performance of BP nanosheets, thereby, offering extendable availabilities for BP‐based electrocatalysts in constructing high‐performance OER devices.     

Assessing the impacts of genetically modified microorganisms

The progression towards greater industrial sustainability involves the analysis of biotechnology as a means of achieving clean or cleaner products and processes. Because living systems manage their chemistry more efficiently than man-made factories, and their wastes tend to be recyclable and biodegradable, they can be expected to be more environmentally clean. Industry has begun to use enzymes instead of traditional catalysts in many industrial production processes. The future holds obstacles as well as opportunities for biotechnological applications. A greater ability to manipulate biological materials and processes will have significant impact on manufacturing industries. A growing proportion of biotechnologyderived processes and products is based on the use of genetically modified microorganisms. This extends the analysis from the aspect of cleanliness to the aspect of safety.     

Industrial Ecology and Competitiveness

In the emerging field of industrial ecology one of the unsettled questions is the degree to which design for the environment, closing energy and materials loops, and other industrial ecology concepts apply at the firm level. In this article we examine this issue with a particular focus on whether industrial ecology can guide company strategy and efforts to enhance competitiveness.
We conclude that industrial ecology thinking will often be useful for firms seeking to improve their resource productivity and thus their competitiveness. The systems perspective that industrial ecology promotes can help companies find ways to add value or reduce costs both within their own production processes and up and down the supply chain. But industrial ecology cannot always be counted upon to yield competitive advantage at the firm level. In some cases, the cost of closing loops will exceed the benefits. In other cases, regulatory requirements do not fully internalize environmental costs, and thus polluting firms may gain temporary or permanent cost advantages relative to companies that attempt to eliminate all emissions. Finally, because industrial ecology focuses attention on materials and energy flows, it may not optimize other variables that contribute to competitiveness within the corporate setting.     

Barriers to Promoting Eco‐Industrial Parks Development in China

For at least the past two decades, eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) have been promoted as policy and commercial instruments for achieving industrial sustainable development. Yet, few EIPs have seen successful operational implementation, especially if they begin as standard industrial parks. Rapid economic growth, commensurate with increasing environmental damage in China, has resulted in officials’ further pursuing EIP policy as a significant element of the broader circular economy and ecological modernization efforts. This article examines the barriers for EIP development from industrial park senior manager perspectives. Using resource dependence theory and the resource‐based view as theoretical lenses, we investigate the external and internal barriers for EIP development in 51 Chinese industrial parks. A number of barriers are identified and grouped through a factor analysis. Cluster analysis is utilized to help categorize and evaluate the perceived levels of barriers and hardships experienced by various senior officials that manage the EIPs. It is found that few respondents encounter no significant barriers. Barriers related to technological development and capacity building are the most prevalent. These results highlight the relative importance of various activities that may be necessary by policy makers and other stakeholders to overcome the barriers. For example, cooperation in developing technological solutions for EIPs seems to be a major thrust that should be pursued by EIP development stakeholders. Other policy and managerial insights based on the general findings of this study are also presented.     

Repurposing biomedical muscle tissue engineering for cellular agriculture: challenges and opportunities

Cellular agriculture is an emerging field rooted in engineering meat-mimicking cell-laden structures using tissue engineering practices that have been developed for biomedical applications, including regenerative medicine. Research and industrial efforts are focused on reducing the cost and improving the throughput of cultivated meat (CM) production using these conventional practices. Due to key differences in the goals of muscle tissue engineering for biomedical versus food applications, conventional strategies may not be economically and technologically viable or socially acceptable. In this review, these two fields are critically compared, and the limitations of biomedical tissue engineering practices in achieving the important requirements of food production are discussed. Additionally, the possible solutions and the most promising biomanufacturing strategies for cellular agriculture are highlighted.     

Renewable Eco‐industrial Development

This article reviews the scope of the discipline of industrial ecology and, in the context of an urgent requirement for substantial and rapid change in the face of global sustainability challenges, argues that the discipline could embrace a more proactive, interventionist stance in the form of renewable eco‐industrial development. Existing eco‐industrialism is presented as flawed, with many cases premised on the use of nonrenewable resources. Renewable eco‐industrial development, while still nascent, has the potential both to resolve some sustainability challenges and to offer a new area of endeavor for industrial ecology, albeit one with its own unique difficulties, such as conflict with food production. Renewable eco‐industrial development is further argued to bring industrial ecology into a more socially critical stance as it concerns the future allocation of scarce resources.     

Embedding Science in Politics: "Complex Utilization" and Industrial Ecology as Models of Natural Resource Use

Throughout the short history of industrial ecology, issues of implementation have been heavily emphasized. Less attention has been given to the ways in which the technical models of industrial ecology interact with social processes. Yet the practitioners of industrial ecology frequently encounter challenges pertaining to contextualization when embedding a general model in different local contexts. In addition, there are reasons to believe that the models of industrial ecological systems become politically meaningful only when they are carefully contextualized and linked to localized needs. In this article, we aim at a better understanding of the political embedding of industrial ecology. In order to demonstrate some general mechanisms of embedding, we first conduct a frame analysis of complex utilization—a scientific policy instrument analogous to industrial ecology, developed in the Kola Peninsula, Russia. We identify five frames in which complex utilization has been promoted between 1935 and 2005. These frames are then compared to six frames identified in the industrial symbiosis in Kalundborg, Denmark. We find that effective political embedding relies on frames that function both on a general level and in specific contexts. General frames, such as efficiency, economy, and environment, need to be aligned with localized perceptions of particular issues. What is more, sensitivity to purely context-specific frames is necessary for effective political embedding. Finally, the political processes of framing also shape the scientific-technical models that are being promoted.     

Rapid prototyping of microbial production strains for the biomanufacture of potential materials monomers

Bio-based production of industrial chemicals using synthetic biology can provide alternative green routes from renewable resources, allowing for cleaner production processes. To efficiently produce chemicals on-demand through microbial strain engineering, biomanufacturing foundries have developed automated pipelines that are largely compound agnostic in their time to delivery. Here we benchmark the capabilities of a biomanufacturing pipeline to enable rapid prototyping of microbial cell factories for the production of chemically diverse industrially relevant material building blocks. Over 85 days the pipeline was able to produce 17 potential material monomers and key intermediates by combining 160 genetic parts into 115 unique biosynthetic pathways. To explore the scale-up potential of our prototype production strains, we optimized the enantioselective production of mandelic acid and hydroxymandelic acid, achieving gram-scale production in fed-batch fermenters. The high success rate in the rapid design and prototyping of microbially-produced material building blocks reveals the potential role of biofoundries in leading the transition to sustainable materials production.     

Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century

Agroecology and industrial ecology can be viewed as complementary means for reducing the environmental footprint of animal farming systems: agroecology mainly by stimulating natural processes to reduce inputs, and industrial ecology by closing system loops, thereby reducing demand for raw materials, lowering pollution and saving on waste treatment. Surprisingly, animal farming systems have so far been ignored in most agroecological thinking. On the basis of a study by Altieri, who identified the key ecological processes to be optimized, we propose five principles for the design of sustainable animal production systems: (i) adopting management practices aiming to improve animal health, (ii) decreasing the inputs needed for production, (iii) decreasing pollution by optimizing the metabolic functioning of farming systems, (iv) enhancing diversity within animal production systems to strengthen their resilience and (v) preserving biological diversity in agroecosystems by adapting management practices. We then discuss how these different principles combine to generate environmental, social and economic performance in six animal production systems (ruminants, pigs, rabbits and aquaculture) covering a long gradient of intensification. The two principles concerning economy of inputs and reduction of pollution emerged in nearly all the case studies, a finding that can be explained by the economic and regulatory constraints affecting animal production. Integrated management of animal health was seldom mobilized, as alternatives to chemical drugs have only recently been investigated, and the results are not yet transferable to farming practices. A number of ecological functions and ecosystem services (recycling of nutrients, forage yield, pollination, resistance to weed invasion, etc.) are closely linked to biodiversity, and their persistence depends largely on maintaining biological diversity in agroecosystems. We conclude that the development of such ecology-based alternatives for animal production implies changes in the positions adopted by technicians and extension services, researchers and policymakers. Animal production systems should not only be considered holistically, but also in the diversity of their local and regional conditions. The ability of farmers to make their own decisions on the basis of the close monitoring of system performance is most important to ensure system sustainability.     

Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

Although fields such as industrial ecology have advanced our understanding of how cleaner technologies, recycling, and lifestyle changes can reduce the impacts of production and consumption on people and planet, environmental deterioration and social injustices stubbornly persist. New strategies are needed to achieve change in an era of increasing urgency. This paper proposes that academics study the supply chains of individual corporations and link them to environmental and social impacts in geographically specific areas. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have used this approach successfully, issuing reports about corporate activity related to deforestation, sweatshops, and other issues of social concern. But academics, by and large, have studied generic products, industries, and sectors. To verify this, after reviewing approximately 11,000 studies on supply chains, we identified just 27 academic papers that focused on individual corporations. These were primarily by NGOs and social scientists, with no studies by industrial ecologists meeting our review criteria. To uncover corporate supply chains, researchers used two distinct methodological approaches: in situ (interviews, surveys, and surveillance) and ex situ (trade data, document analysis, and maps). In this paper, we explain why and how academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations. This is done by combining approaches from industrial ecology, with those from geography, sociology, and other social sciences to develop a political‐industrial ecology of supply chains. This both physically links actual product flows with their environmental impacts, and explores how they affect justice, equity, and welfare. The work we propose offers clear collaborative linkages with NGOs, industry, and the media.