ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND EXERGY ENHANCED APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT

Growing concerns about the environmental and ecological implications of industrial and other systems, as well as the impact of energy resource utilization, are fostering increasing interest in environmental and ecological protection. Such understanding is crucial to advancing the quest for a cleaner environment and sustainability. New approaches to ecology and the environment that provide an engineering perspective and a scientific basis to activities are of particular interest. The integration of the thermodynamic quantity exergy with the environment and ecology provides a novel approach that offers significant potential to improve environmental and ecological management. In the analysis of environmental impact and improvement of ecological systems, techniques can be used which combine scientific disciplines (mainly thermodynamics) with environmental and ecological disciplines. In such analyses, assessments usually consider thermodynamics via energy quantities. Many researchers recommend, however, that ecological and environmental factors are better assessed using the thermodynamic quantity exergy. One rationale for this statement is that exergy, but not energy, can provide, or form the basis of, a measure of the potential for ecological and environmental impact. Several exergy-based ecological and environmental methodologies exist (e.g., environomics, exergy-based life cycle analysis and exergy-based ecological indicators). A brief summary is presented here of existing analysis techniques which integrate exergy with ecological and environmental factors. One approach, for instance, identifies as important the exergy emitted from smokestacks and assesses the potential impact of that exergy using exergy-based tolerance measures. The goals of most such analysis techniques include improving our understanding of the impact on ecological systems and the environment of processes and the determination of appropriate ecological and environmental improvement measures. In this book, we focus on the relations linking ecological and environmental impacts and indicators with exergy. Several examples are considered, including electricity generation, cogeneration, transportation and biofuels processing, illustrating the insights provided by integrating thermodynamics into ecological and environmental management. Thermodynamic, ecological and environmental data for various devices and systems are examined, and show that correlations exist between exergy and environmental and ecological parameters. The existence of such correlations suggests that aspects of exergy factor into environmental improvement and ecological management.This book has four parts. In the first, introductory and background material is presented, including an explanation of the motivation for the book, a brief review of the disparate but relevant topics that it combines (e.g., energy, environment, society and sustainability), an introduction to exergy, the environment and ecology, and a history of exergy-based environmental and ecological methods. In the second part, key concepts and methods are described. This includes exergy analysis, as well as suitable reference environments for environmental and ecological assessments. Furthermore, exergy and its relations to the environment and ecology are examined, and correlations between exergy and other indicators of environmental impact are presented. Finally, exergy-based environmental and ecological methods are identified and described, and extensions of the relations between exergy, environment and ecology to economics are examined. Various applications are presented in third part of the book. These range from applications of exergy analysis on its own, to applications of the linkages between exergy and both the environment and ecology. Some specific applications are considered in greater depth, including assessments using exergy of Earth‘s resources, polluted materials, carbon dioxide emissions allocations for cogeneration and the environmental impact of aerospace operations. This section closes by describing environmental planning with exergy. The final part of the book examines numerous case studies to provide detailed examinations of the integration of exergy with environmental and ecological management, in order to clarify the importance and potential benefits of such an approach. The case studies considered span a range of fields including energy conversion (e.g., coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation, and cogeneration), fuels processing (e.g., biofuels processing and hydrogen production, smokestack operations, and transportation (e.g., automotive operations). A broader case study is also included, which examines exergy-guided environmental management for countries, regions and sectors. The case studies provide useful information for practical applications. Finally, closing remarks are provided along with speculations on future directions and, to help direct the curious and interested reader to appropriate resources, an extensive list of references is provided. This book is intended for use by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in various disciplines ranging from environmental engineering, environmental studies, ecology and environmental science, to general engineering and science as well as energy studies. Additionally, the book is intended to provide a useful reference for practicing environmental and ecological experts, engineers and scientists. Given the fact that the field of exergy, environment and ecology is in many ways in its infancy, this book is in part oriented towards research, permitting it to provide practical features often not included in purely academic books. The coverage is broad, and the amount of information presented, if studied in depth, can be sufficient for more than one course. This book is expected to be of importance to students, engineers, and scientists, as well as those who wish to know more about the growing area of this enhanced approach to environmental and ecological management.