IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v315y2015icp77-87.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emergy assessment of the benefits of closed-loop recycling accounting for material losses

Author

Listed:
  • Lacarrière, Bruno
  • Deutz, Kévin Ruben
  • Jamali-Zghal, Nadia
  • Le Corre, Olivier

Abstract

Emergy analysis is applied to closed-loop recycling processes. The emergy balance is written under the form of a discrete-time equation following a comparable approach to the Lagrangian particle tracking in fluid mechanics. Two material losses were taken into consideration, the first one at the level of treatment (collection, dismantling, recycling etc.) and the second one at the transformation level. As expected, the emergy of a product increases with the number of cycles (after the transformation processes). To assess the environmental stress at each recycling stage, relative emergy of the product ΔEp(n) was used after discussing the limitation of others solutions like the environmental loading ratio (ELR) or the recycle benefit ratio (RBR) which are not suitable for use in the cases of multiple recycling analysis. The values obtained showed that the ΔEp(n) has an increasing trend for successive recycles. Additionally, this approach allowed the study of different cases of theoretical closed-loop recycling and an application on aluminum. The results indicated that the several cycles in the first stage of recycling have a significant impact, and an asymptotic behavior of ΔEp(n) can be noted. In any cases recycling remains a better option compared to raw material use to compensate the material losses. Furthermore, the presented equations illustrate the impact of the material recycle rate and the percentage of losses during the both recycling and transformation processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lacarrière, Bruno & Deutz, Kévin Ruben & Jamali-Zghal, Nadia & Le Corre, Olivier, 2015. "Emergy assessment of the benefits of closed-loop recycling accounting for material losses," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 77-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:315:y:2015:i:c:p:77-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.01.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380015000344
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.01.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, M. T. & Herendeen, R. A., 1996. "Embodied energy analysis and EMERGY analysis: a comparative view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 219-235, December.
    2. Raugei, Marco & Rugani, Benedetto & Benetto, Enrico & Ingwersen, Wesley W., 2014. "Integrating emergy into LCA: Potential added value and lingering obstacles," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 271(C), pages 4-9.
    3. Marlen Bertram & Kenneth J. Martchek & Georg Rombach, 2009. "Material Flow Analysis in the Aluminum Industry," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 13(5), pages 650-654, October.
    4. Amponsah, N.Y. & Le Corre, O. & Lacarriere, B., 2011. "Recycling flows in emergy evaluation: A mathematical paradox?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(17), pages 3071-3081.
    5. Tilley, David R., 2011. "Dynamic accounting of emergy cycling," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(20), pages 3734-3742.
    6. Duan, N. & Liu, X.D. & Dai, J. & Lin, C. & Xia, X.H. & Gao, R.Y. & Wang, Y. & Chen, S.Q. & Yang, J. & Qi, J., 2011. "Evaluating the environmental impacts of an urban wetland park based on emergy accounting and life cycle assessment: A case study in Beijing," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(2), pages 351-359.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ajun Wan & Runqiu Tu & Weidong Yue & Yixuan Liu & Yunpeng Wu, 2021. "Construction and case study of rural environmental value-added evaluation system based on emergy theory," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 4715-4734, March.
    2. Nimmanterdwong, Prathana & Chalermsinsuwan, Benjapon & Piumsomboon, Pornpote, 2017. "Emergy analysis of three alternative carbon dioxide capture processes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 101-108.
    3. Thabo Gerald Maleka & Gibson Nyirenda & Michael Bamidele Fakoya, 2017. "The Relationship between Waste Management Expenditure and Waste Reduction Targets on Selected JSE Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Ting Chang & Degang Yang & Jinwei Huo & Fuqiang Xia & Zhiping Zhang, 2018. "Evaluation of Oasis Sustainability Based on Emergy and Decomposition Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Ajun Wan & Xiaolei Qi & Weidong Yue & Runqiu Tu, 2022. "Construction and case verification of rural environmental value-added evaluation system," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1781-1797, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agostinho, Feni & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Bonilla, Silvia H. & Sacomano, José B. & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2013. "Urban solid waste plant treatment in Brazil: Is there a net emergy yield on the recovered materials?," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 143-155.
    2. Zhang, Xiaohong & Wu, Liqian & Zhang, Rong & Deng, Shihuai & Zhang, Yanzong & Wu, Jun & Li, Yuanwei & Lin, Lili & Li, Li & Wang, Yinjun & Wang, Lilin, 2013. "Evaluating the relationships among economic growth, energy consumption, air emissions and air environmental protection investment in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 259-270.
    3. Wang, Xiaolong & Li, Zhejin & Long, Pan & Yan, Lingling & Gao, Wangsheng & Chen, Yuanquan & Sui, Peng, 2017. "Sustainability evaluation of recycling in agricultural systems by emergy accounting," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 114-124.
    4. Qingsong Wang & Hongkun Xiao & Qiao Ma & Xueliang Yuan & Jian Zuo & Jian Zhang & Shuguang Wang & Mansen Wang, 2020. "Review of Emergy Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment: Coupling Development Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Zhang, XiaoHong & Hu, He & Zhang, Rong & Deng, ShiHuai, 2014. "Interactions between China׳s economy, energy and the air emissions and their policy implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 624-638.
    6. Jamali-Zghal, N. & Lacarrière, B. & Le Corre, O., 2015. "Metallurgical recycling processes: Sustainability ratios and environmental performance assessment," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 66-75.
    7. Gala, Alba Bala & Raugei, Marco & Ripa, Maddalena & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Dealing with waste products and flows in life cycle assessment and emergy accounting: Methodological overview and synergies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 69-76.
    8. Tilley, David R., 2014. "Exploration of Odum's dynamic emergy accounting rules for suggested refinements," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 279(C), pages 36-44.
    9. Zarbá, Lucía & Brown, Mark T., 2015. "Cycling emergy: computing emergy in trophic networks," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 37-45.
    10. Zhang, Can & Su, Bo & Beckmann, Michael & Volk, Martin, 2024. "Emergy-based evaluation of ecosystem services: Progress and perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    11. Cristiano, S. & Ulgiati, S. & Gonella, F., 2021. "Systemic sustainability and resilience assessment of health systems, addressing global societal priorities: Learnings from a top nonprofit hospital in a bioclimatic building in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Liao, Wenjie & Heijungs, Reinout & Huppes, Gjalt, 2012. "Thermodynamic analysis of human–environment systems: A review focused on industrial ecology," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 76-88.
    13. Gustavo Bustamante & Biagio Fernando Giannetti & Feni Agostinho & Gengyuan Liu & Cecília M. V. B. Almeida, 2022. "Prioritizing Cleaner Production Actions towards Circularity: Combining LCA and Emergy in the PET Production Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-15, June.
    14. Chen, Wei & Liu, Wenjing & Geng, Yong & Brown, Mark T. & Gao, Cuixia & Wu, Rui, 2017. "Recent progress on emergy research: A bibliometric analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1051-1060.
    15. Marvuglia, Antonino & Benetto, Enrico & Rios, Gordon & Rugani, Benedetto, 2013. "SCALE: Software for CALculating Emergy based on life cycle inventories," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 80-91.
    16. Keena, Naomi & Raugei, Marco & Aly Etman, Mohamed & Ruan, Daniel & Dyson, Anna, 2018. "Clark’s Crow: A design plugin to support emergy analysis decision making towards sustainable urban ecologies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 367(C), pages 42-57.
    17. Lyu, Yanfeng & Raugei, Marco & Zhang, Xiaohong & Mellino, Salvatore & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2021. "Environmental cost and impacts of chemicals used in agriculture: An integration of emergy and Life Cycle Assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    18. Mayumi, Kozo & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2012. "Going beyond energy accounting for sustainability: Energy, fund elements and the economic process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 18-26.
    19. Giannantoni, Corrado, 2009. "Ordinal benefits vs economic benefits as a reference guide for policy decision making. The case of hydrogen technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2230-2239.
    20. Lixiao Zhang & Qiuhong Hu & Fan Zhang, 2014. "Input-Output Modeling for Urban Energy Consumption in Beijing: Dynamics and Comparison," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-11, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:315:y:2015:i:c:p:77-87. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.