Industrial ecology
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Categories: Wikipedia external links cleanup | Environment | Industrial ecology | Industrial engineering | Industry | Manufacturing | Sustainability | Systems ecology | Systems theory
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Industrial Ecology (IE) is a new research that rapidly gaining popularity worldwide. Industrial Ecology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the sustainable combination of environment, economy and technology. The central idea is the analogy between natural and socio-technical systems. The word 'industrial' does not only refer to industrial complexes but more generally to how humans use natural resources in the production of goods and services. Ecology refers to the concept that our industrial systems should incorporate principles exhibited within natural ecosystems.
PrinciplesOne of the central principles of Industrial Ecology is the view that societal and technological systems are bounded within the biosphere, and do not exist outside of it. Ecology is used as a metaphor due to the observation that natural systems reuse materials and have a largely closed loop cycling of nutrients. Industrial Ecology approaches problems with the hypothesis that by using similar principles as natural systems, industrial systems can be improved to reduce their impact on the natural environment as well. As well, IE examines societal issues and their relationship with both technical systems and the environment. Through this holistic view, IE recognizes that solving problems must involve understanding the connections that exist between these systems, and that various aspects cannot be viewed in isolation. Additionally, each of these systems must be understood in terms of the smaller pieces whose individual behavior is aggregated into these larger systems. Often changes in one part of the system can propagate and cause changes in another part. OverviewIndustrial ecology is the shifting of industrial process from linear (open loop) systems, in which resource and capital investments move through the system to become waste, to a closed loop system where wastes become inputs for new processes. Much of the research focuses on the following areas:[1]
Industrial ecology proposes not to see industrial systems (for example a factory, an ecoregion, or national or global economy) as being separate from the biosphere, but to consider it as a particular case of an ecosystem - but based on infrastructural capital rather than on natural capital. It is the idea that as natural systems do not have waste in them, we should model our systems after natural ones if we want them to be sustainable. Along with more general energy conservation and material conservation goals, and redefining commodity markets and product stewardship relations strictly as a service economy, industrial ecology is one of the four objectives of Natural Capitalism. This strategy discourages forms of amoral purchasing arising from ignorance of what goes on at a distance and implies a political economy that values natural capital highly and relies on more instructional capital to design and maintain each unique industrial ecology. HistoryIndustrial ecology was popularized in 1989 in a Scientific American article by Robert Frosch and Nicholas E. Gallopoulos. Frosch and Gallopoulos' vision was "why would not our industrial system behave like an ecosystem, where the wastes of a species may be resource to another species? Why would not the outputs of an industry be the inputs of another, thus reducing use of raw materials, pollution, and saving on waste treatment?"[2] A notable example resides in a Danish industrial park in the city of Kalundborg. Here several linkages of byproducts and waste heat can be found between numerous entities such as a large power plant, an oil refinery, a pharmaceutical plant, a plasterboard factory, an enzyme manufacturer, a waste company and the city itself.[3] The scientific field Industrial Ecology has grown fast in recent years. The Journal of Industrial Ecology (since 1997), the International Society for Industrial Ecology (since 2001), and the journal Progress in Industrial Ecology (since 2004) give Industrial Ecology a strong and dynamic position in the international scientific community. Industrial Ecology principles are also emerging in various policy realms such as the concept of the Circular Economy that is being promoted in China. Although the definition of the Circular Economy has yet to be formalized, generally the focus is on strategies such as creating a circular flow of materials, and cascading energy flows. An example of this would be using waste heat from one process to run another process that requires a lower temperature. This maximizes the efficiency of exergy use. The hope is that strategy such as this will create a more efficient economy with fewer pollutants and other unwanted by products.[4] Future directionsThe ecosystem metaphor popularized by Frosch and Gallopoulos [5] has been a valuable creative tool for helping researchers look for novel solutions to difficult problems. Recently, it has been pointed out that this metaphor is based largely on a model of classical ecology, and that advancements in understanding ecology based on complexity science have been made by researchers such as C. S. Holling and James J. Kay [6]. For industrial ecology, this may mean a shift from a more mechanistic view of systems, to one where sustainability is viewed as an emergent property of a complex system. [7] [8] To explore this further, several researchers are working with agent based modeling techniques [9] [10]. See also
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