IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v391y2019icp53-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A thermodynamic model for plant growth, validated with Pinus sylvestris data

Author

Listed:
  • Attorre, F.
  • Sciubba, E.
  • Vitale, M.

Abstract

Plants are open, irreversible and non-equilibrium systems that live via mass- and energy exchanges with the environment, and therefore, are amenable to a thermodynamic treatment: in fact, they may be considered “energy converters”, because their metabolism is nothing else than a controlled ability to transform energy from one form (solar) into another (chemical energy suitable to cell metabolism) and to activate and maintain reactions at cellular- and molecular level -promoting the plant growth. This paper presents an original model based on mass conservation and on the First- and Second Law of Thermodynamics, which results in a set of equations that allow for the calculation of the Primary Productivity (NPP) and consequently lead to a measure of the plant growth. The model is lumped, steady-state and totally deterministic, because no primary process is modelled in detail: the control volume is a portion of the universe that contains the plant and its immediate surroundings (atmosphere and the relevant portion of the soil), and the solution is strongly depending on the imposed boundary conditions. In such a formulation, the tree is considered as a non-equilibrium system evolving at a steady rate, and the only implicit assumption is the local equilibrium hypothesis. The general evolution equations are derived, and their steady-state form is analysed in detail. The approach is based on the calculation of the exergy in- and outflows from the control volume. Based on reasonably accurate empirical data, the exergy budget shows that the overall exergy conversion efficiency is quite low in plants and is very sensitive to even small changes in the environmental condition and to the adopted evapotranspiration model, as it would have been expected. The model is applied to a mature specimen of Pinus sylvestris and the results are compared with some literature data: despite neglecting the real chemo-physical details, the model reproduces the most salient characters of the tree growth. The sensitivity of the results to the tree age as well to the main model parameters is also calculated. The application of the same model to different species may reveal asymmetries in the “adaptability” of certain genotypes to different environments. On the more specific engineering side, the model may see an immediate application in the estimate of CO2 capture by plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Attorre, F. & Sciubba, E. & Vitale, M., 2019. "A thermodynamic model for plant growth, validated with Pinus sylvestris data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 391(C), pages 53-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:391:y:2019:i:c:p:53-62
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.10.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380018303594
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.10.022?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. Ayres, Robert U. & Ayres, Leslie W. & Martinás, Katalin, 1998. "Exergy, waste accounting, and life-cycle analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 355-363.
    2. Lucia, Umberto & Sciubba, Enrico, 2013. "From Lotka to the entropy generation approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(17), pages 3634-3639.
    3. Tsatsaronis, Georgios & Winhold, Michael, 1985. "Exergoeconomic analysis and evaluation of energy-conversion plants—II. Analysis of a coal-fired steam power plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 81-94.
    4. Enrico Sciubba & Federico Zullo, 2012. "An Exergy-Based Model for Population Dynamics: Adaptation, Mutualism, Commensalism and Selective Extinction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(10), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Maes, W.H. & Pashuysen, T. & Trabucco, A. & Veroustraete, F. & Muys, B., 2011. "Does energy dissipation increase with ecosystem succession? Testing the ecosystem exergy theory combining theoretical simulations and thermal remote sensing observations," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(23), pages 3917-3941.
    6. Bregaglio, Simone & Orlando, Francesca & Forni, Emanuela & De Gregorio, Tommaso & Falzoi, Simone & Boni, Chiara & Pisetta, Michele & Confalonieri, Roberto, 2016. "Development and evaluation of new modelling solutions to simulate hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) growth and development," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 329(C), pages 86-99.
    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. Felipe Godoy Righetto & Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady, 2023. "Exergy Analysis of a Sugarcane Crop: A Planting-to-Harvest Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-14, October.

    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. Chen, B. & Chen, G.Q., 2007. "Modified ecological footprint accounting and analysis based on embodied exergy--a case study of the Chinese society 1981-2001," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 355-376, March.
    2. Hao, Xiaoqing & An, Haizhong & Qi, Hai & Gao, Xiangyun, 2016. "Evolution of the exergy flow network embodied in the global fossil energy trade: Based on complex network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1515-1522.
    3. Picallo-Perez, Ana & Catrini, Pietro & Piacentino, Antonio & Sala, José-Mª, 2019. "A novel thermoeconomic analysis under dynamic operating conditions for space heating and cooling systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 819-837.
    4. Chen, G.Q. & Qi, Z.H., 2007. "Systems account of societal exergy utilization: China 2003," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 208(2), pages 102-118.
    5. Maryam Ghodrat & Bijan Samali & Muhammad Akbar Rhamdhani & Geoffrey Brooks, 2019. "Thermodynamic-Based Exergy Analysis of Precious Metal Recovery out of Waste Printed Circuit Board through Black Copper Smelting Process," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Dincer, Ibrahim & Rosen, Marc A., 2005. "Thermodynamic aspects of renewables and sustainable development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 169-189, April.
    7. Coban, Kahraman & Şöhret, Yasin & Colpan, C. Ozgur & Karakoç, T. Hikmet, 2017. "Exergetic and exergoeconomic assessment of a small-scale turbojet fuelled with biodiesel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P2), pages 1358-1367.
    8. Lee, Young Duk & Ahn, Kook Young & Morosuk, Tatiana & Tsatsaronis, George, 2018. "Exergetic and exergoeconomic evaluation of an SOFC-Engine hybrid power generation system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 810-822.
    9. Usón, Sergio & Kostowski, Wojciech J. & Stanek, Wojciech & Gazda, Wiesław, 2015. "Thermoecological cost of electricity, heat and cold generated in a trigeneration module fuelled with selected fossil and renewable fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 308-319.
    10. Cafaro, S. & Napoli, L. & Traverso, A. & Massardo, A.F., 2010. "Monitoring of the thermoeconomic performance in an actual combined cycle power plant bottoming cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 902-910.
    11. Asma Majeed & Syeda Adila Batool & Muhammad Nawaz Chaudhry, 2018. "Environmental Quantification of the Existing Waste Management System in a Developing World Municipality Using EaseTech: The Case of Bahawalpur, Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    12. Tonon, S. & Brown, M.T. & Luchi, F. & Mirandola, A. & Stoppato, A. & Ulgiati, S., 2006. "An integrated assessment of energy conversion processes by means of thermodynamic, economic and environmental parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 149-163.
    13. Grubbström, Robert W., 2015. "On the true value of resource consumption when using energy in industrial and other processes," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PB), pages 377-384.
    14. Lucia, Umberto, 2015. "Quanta and entropy generation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 419(C), pages 115-121.
    15. Rivero, Ricardo & Rendón, Consuelo & Gallegos, Salvador, 2004. "Exergy and exergoeconomic analysis of a crude oil combined distillation unit," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1909-1927.
    16. César Torres & Antonio Valero, 2021. "The Exergy Cost Theory Revisited," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-42, March.
    17. Piacentino, Antonio & Cardona, Fabio, 2010. "Scope-Oriented Thermoeconomic analysis of energy systems. Part I: Looking for a non-postulated cost accounting for the dissipative devices of a vapour compression chiller. Is it feasible?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 943-956, March.
    18. Luo, Xianglong & Hu, Jiahao & Zhao, Jun & Zhang, Bingjian & Chen, Ying & Mo, Songping, 2014. "Improved exergoeconomic analysis of a retrofitted natural gas-based cogeneration system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 459-475.
    19. Ayres, Robert U & Ayres, Leslie W & Warr, Benjamin, 2003. "Exergy, power and work in the US economy, 1900–1998," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 219-273.
    20. David I. Stern, 2010. "The Role of Energy in Economic Growth," CCEP Working Papers 0310, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

    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:391:y:2019:i:c:p:53-62. 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.