16-11-2012, 11:06 AM
Industrial Ecology
Industrial Ecology final.pptx (Size: 1.8 MB / Downloads: 42)
Definition
Biological ecology “The study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions with the physical world”.
Industrial ecology “The study of technological organisms, their use of resources, their potential environmental impacts, and the ways in which their interactions with the natural world could be restructured to enable global sustainability”.
(Popularized in 1989 by Robert Frosch and Nicholas E. Gallopoulos)
Industrial Ecosystem
The idea of the industrial ecosystem focuses on the efficient interchange of by-products and intermediates between industrial players, which roughly correspond to the individuals of a species in the biological ecosystem
Economic Benefits of IE
Hidden Resource Productivity Gains
Within Firm: eliminating waste
Making plant more efficient
Within Value Chain: reducing costs
Synergies between production and distribution
Beyond Production Chain: closed loop
Eco-Industrial Parks and inter-firm relations
Barriers to Development
Suitability of materials to reuse
High cost of recycling (internalize negative externalities)
Information Barriers (must set up reciprocal relationships between sectors)
Organizational Obstacles
Institutional Barriers (need fiscal and regulatory government intervention)
Industrial Ecology practices- Lafarge
Lafarge is one biggest cement producer of the world. The company has been committed to industrial ecology since the mid-70s by rethinking industrial processes to transform some industries' waste products into other industries' resources.
Lafarge observed that reduction in the amount of clinkers during the production of cement offers two advantages :
Reduction in the in the consumption of natural non renewable fuel.
Reduction in the emission of Green House gases.
Lafarge’s research concluded that cement
produced with 30% admixtures uses 27% less CO2
than a conventional cement produced without
admixtures.
Cement admixtures may be of: - natural origin: limestone or pozzolanic rock or manmade : fly ash.
Lafarge’s Arasmeta cement plant in Chhattisgarh uses fly ash from power plants in the cement manufacturing process. The plant has contributed to nearly 70,000 tons of CO2 saving per year.
By 2010, 84% of it’s plants used alternative fuels allowing the Group to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of cement by 21.7%.
IE Research -Leather Industry
Tamil Nadu has a very high density of Leather Industries and it is a major source of employment and foreign exchange.
The industry has a very high consumption of water. About 30,000 – 50,000 liters of water is required for processing a ton of hide/skin.
The waste water produced by the industry is extremely saline. The sludge after treatment from a leather plant is estimated as 250 kgs per 1000 kgs of hide processed.
With the study of the problem through the framework of Industrial Ecology researchers were able to suggest ways to mitigate the problem.
One of the options was to relocate the industry to the sea shore where the industry uses sea water as an input after desalination and discharges the affluent to the sea after treatment.
As the process of desalination is expensive, industries can resort to using the waste heat generated by the thermal power plants to reduce the cost of desalination.