Handbook of Material Flow Analysis

For Environmental, Resource, and Waste Engineers, Second Edition

Paul H. Brunner, Helmut Rechberger

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315313436
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In this second edition of a bestseller, authors Paul H. Brunner and Helmut Rechberger guide professional newcomers as well as experienced engineers and scientists towards mastering the art of material flow analysis (MFA) from the very beginning to an advanced state of material balances of complex systems. Handbook of Material Flow Analysis: For Environmental, Resource, and Waste Engineers, Second Edition serves as a concise and reproducible methodology as well as a basis for analysis, assessment and improvement of anthropogenic systems through an approach that is helpfully uniform and standardized. The methodology featured in this book is a vital resource for generating new data, fostering understanding, and increasing knowledge to benefit the growing MFA community working in the fields of industrial ecology, resource management, waste management, and environmental protection. This new second edition takes into account all new developments and readers will profit from a new exploration of STAN software, newly added citations, and thoroughly described case studies that reveal the potential of MFA to solve industrial ecology challenges.

1

Introduction

1.1 Objectives and Scope

The meeting was long and intense. After all, more than $50 million had been invested in this waste treatment plant, and still, the objective of the treatment, namely, to produce recycling materials with a certain quality, could not be reached. Engineers, plant operators, waste management experts, financiers, and representatives from government were discussing means to improve the plant to reach the goals set. A chemical engineer took a piece of paper and asked about the content of mercury, cadmium, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and some other hazardous substances in the incoming waste. The waste experts had no problem indicating a range of concentrations. The engineer then asked about the existing standards for the products, namely, cellulose fibers, plastic fraction, and compost. Again, he got the information needed. After a few calculations, he said, “If the plant is to produce a significant amount of recycling material at the desired specifications, it must be able to divert more than 80% of the hazardous substances from the waste received to the fraction that is incinerated. Does anybody know of a mechanical treatment process capable of such partitioning?” Since none of the experts present was aware of a technology to solve the problem at affordable costs, the financiers and government representatives started to question why such an expensive and state-of-the-art plant could not reach the objective. It was the old mayor of the local community, who experienced most problems with the plant because of citizens complaining about odors and product quality, who said, “It seems obvious: garbage in, garbage out; what else can you expect?”

The purpose of this book is to prevent such debacles. The methods presented here enable the reader to design processes and systems in view of careful resource management. Resources in this context stands for materials, energy, the environment, and wastes. Emphasis is laid on the linkage between sources, pathways, and sinks of materials, observing the law of conservation of matter. The book is a practical handbook; it is directed toward the practitioner. Hence, many case studies, examples, and problems are included. If the readers take advantage of these means for exercise, they will soon become well acquainted with the techniques needed for successful application of material flow analysis (MFA).

In addition to serving as a practical handbook, this volume also contains directions for those readers who are looking for sustainable resource management. The authors share the opinion that economic and technological progress will be most beneficial to mankind if long-term protection of the environment is assured, and if resources are used in a careful, little-dissipative way. In this book, we give evidence that current management of the anthroposphere may result in serious long-term burdens and that changes are needed to improve opportunities of today’s and future generations. Such changes are already taking place, they are feasible, and they will eventually improve the quality of life. The authors are convinced that if decisions for changes are based, among others, on MFA, they will yield better results. They see the need for balance not only for technical systems but also for social and economic systems. However, this book has been written for a technical readership. Since the authors are engineers and chemists, social and economic science issues are sometimes mentioned in this volume but are never discussed to the necessary depth.

This book is directed toward engineers in the fields of resource management, environmental management, and waste management. Professionals active in the design of new goods, processes and systems will profit from MFA-based approaches because they facilitate incorporating environmental and resource consideration into the design process. The potential audience comprises private companies and consulting engineers operating in the aforementioned fields, government authorities, and educational institutions at the graduate and postgraduate level. In particular, the book is designed as a textbook for engineering students who are looking for a comprehensive and in-depth education in the field of MFA. It is strongly recommended to focus on the case studies and problems: they show best how MFA is applied in practice and how to interpret and use the results. At the end of each chapter, a problem section allows readers to exercise the newly acquired knowledge, to learn application of MFA, to gain experience, and to check one’s ability to solve MFA problems.

The book is structured into four chapters: In the introductory chapter, a short overview of MFA is given in order to facilitate understanding of the main body of this chapter, the history, objectives, and application range of MFA. From a methodological point of view, Chapter 2 is the most important: it explains comprehensively the terms, definitions, and procedures of MFA, and discusses the software STAN best suited for MFA. Case studies are given in Chapter 3. They are essential in enabling the reader to experience the application range of MFA (STAN, 2016; Cencic, Rechberger, and Kovacs, 2006). The case studies make clear that the concept of MFA goes beyond simple input and output balances of single processes, and that analyzing flows and stocks of a complex real-world system is a challenging and often interdisciplinary task. The book ends in Chapter 4 with an outlook to potential future developments. Literature references are given at the end of the book. Problem sections accompany subchapters where appropriate.

1.2 What Are Material Flow Analysis and Substance Flow Analysis?

Material flow analysis (MFA), sometimes referred to as substance flow analysis (SFA) if a specific substance is the focus, is a systematic assessment of the state and changes of flows and stocks of materials within a system defined in space and time. MFA connects the sources, the pathways, and the intermediate and final sinks of a material. Because of the law of conservation of matter, the results of an MFA can be controlled by a simple mass balance comparing all inputs, stocks, and outputs of a process. It is this distinct characteristic of MFA that makes the method attractive as a decision-support tool in resource management, waste management, environmental management, and policy assessment.

An MFA delivers a complete and consistent set of information about all flows and stocks of a particular material over time within a spatially defined system. Through balancing inputs and outputs, the flows of wastes and environmental loadings become visible, and their sources can be identified. The depletion or accumulation of material stocks is recognized early enough, either to take countermeasures or to promote further buildup and future utilization (such as for urban mining). Moreover, if MFAs are performed for longer time periods, minor changes that are too small to be measured in short time scales but that could slowly lead to long-term damage also become evident.

Anthropogenic systems consist of more than material flows and stocks (Figure 1.1). Energy, space, information, and socioeconomic issues must also be included if the anthroposphere is to be managed in a responsible way. MFA can be performed without considering these aspects, but in most cases, these other factors are needed to interpret and make use of the MFA results. Thus, MFA is frequently coupled with the analysis of energy, economy, urban planning, and the like.

FIGURE 1.1
The two systems anthroposphere and environment exchange flows of materials (M), energy (E), living organisms (LO), and information (I).

A common language is needed for the investigation into anthropogenic systems. Such commonality facilitates comparison of results from different MFAs in a transparent and reproducible way. In this handbook, terms and procedures to analyze, describe, and model material flow systems are defined, enabling a comprehensive, reproducible, and transparent account of all flows and stocks of materials within a system. The methodology, presented in greater detail in Chapter 2, is completely employed in the software STAN (see Chapter 2, Section 2.4).

The term material stands for both substances and goods. In chemistry, a substance is defined as a single type of matter consisting of uniform units (Atkins and Beran, 1992). If the units are atoms, the substance is called an element, such as carbon or iron; if they are molecules, it is called a chemical compound, such as carbon dioxide or iron chloride. Goods are substances or mixtures of substances that have economic values assigned by markets. The value can be positive (car, fuel, wood) or negative (municipal solid waste, sewage sludge). In economic terms, the word goods is more broadly defined to include immaterial goods such as energy (e.g., electricity), services, or information. In MFA terminology, however, the term goods stands for material goods only. Nevertheless, the link between goods as defined by MFA and other goods as used by economists can be important when MFA is applied, for example, for decisions regarding resource conservation.

A process is defined as a transport, transformation, or storage of materials. The transport process can be a natural process, such as the movement of dissolved phosphorous in a river, or it can be man-made, such as the flow of gas in a pipeline or waste collection. The same applies to transformations (e.g., oxidation of carbon to carbon dioxide by natural forest fires versus man-made heating systems) and storages (e.g., natural sedimentation versus man-made landfilling).

Stocks are defined as material reservoirs (mass) within the analyzed system, and they have the physical unit of kilograms. A stock is part of a process comprising the mass that is stored within the process. Stocks are essential characteristics of a system’s metabolism. For steady-state conditions (input equals output), the mean residence time of a material in the stock can be calculated by dividing the material mass in the stock by the material flow in or out of the stock. Stocks can stay constant, or they can increase (accumulation of materials) or decrease (depletion of materials) in size.

Processes are linked by flows (mass per time) or fluxes (mass per time and cross section) of materials. Flows/fluxes across system boundaries are called imports or exports. Flows/fluxes of materials entering a process are named inputs, while those exiting are called outputs.

A system comprises a set of material flows, stocks, and processes within a defined boundary. The smallest possible system consists of just a single process. Examples of common systems for investigations by MFA are a region, a municipal incinerator, a private household, a factory, a farm, etc. The system boundary is defined in space and time. It can consist of geographical borders (region) or virtual limits (e.g., private households, including processes serving the private household such as transportation, waste collection, and sewer systems). When the system boundary in time is chosen, criteria such as objectives, data availability, appropriate balancing period, residence time of materials within stocks, and others have to be taken into account. This is discussed further in Chapter 2, Section 2.1.7.

If only one substance is the focus of an MFA study, such as phosphorus in Chapter 3, Section 3.5.2, such a study might be designated as SFA: SFA can be considered a special type of MFA with n = 1 (with n as the number of investigated substances). However, goods (e.g., mineral fertilizer) containing the substance (e.g., phosphorus) are instrumental for calculating flows. In most cases, the purpose of system design is to optimize substance flows, but this is usually done by changing flows of goods, because the substance is contained in a good. When focusing on the substance level with an SFA, one should keep in mind that both goods and substances (i.e., materials) are an integral part of MFA and SFA. MFA is the more universal term compared to SFA.

In addition to the basic terms necessary to analyze material flows and stocks, the notion of activity is useful when evaluating and designing new anthropogenic processes and systems. An activity comprises a set of systems consisting of flows, stocks, and processes of the many materials that are necessary to fulfill a particular basic human need, such as to nourish, to reside, or to transport and communicate (Baccini and Brunner, 2012). Analyzing material flows associated with a certain activity allows early recognition of problems such as future environmental loadings and resource depletions. One of the main questions for the future development of mankind will be, “Which sets of processes, flows, and stocks of goods, substances, and energy will enable long-term, efficient, and sustainable feeding of the increasing global population?” Equally important is the question, “How can the transportation needs of an advanced global population be satisfied without compromising the future resources of mankind?” When alternative scenarios are developed for an activity, MFA can help to identify major changes in material flows. Thus, MFA is a tool to evaluate existing systems for food production, transportation, and other basic human needs, as well as to support the design of new, more effective systems.

1.3 History of MFA

Long before MFA became a tool for the management of resources, wastes, and the environment, the mass-balance principle has been applied in such diverse fields as medicine, chemistry, economics, engineering, and life sciences. The basic principle of any MFA, the conservation of matter, or “input equals output,” had already been postulated by Greek philosophers more than 2000 years ago. It was the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) who provided experimental evidence that the total mass of matter cannot be changed by chemical processes: “neither man made experiments nor natural changes can create matter, thus it is a principle, that in every process the amount of matter does not change” (Vidal, 1985).

In the twentieth century, the field of MFA emerged in various areas at different times. Although the name of MFA had not been invented and a comprehensive methodology had not been established yet, many authors used the principle stated by the law of conservation of matter to balance processes. In process and chemical engineering, it was common practice to analyze and balance inputs and outputs of chemical reactions. In the economic field, Leontief introduced input-output tables in the 1930s (Leontief, 1977, 1966) and thus laid the basis for widespread application of input-output methods to solve economic problems. In the field of resource conservation and environmental management, the first studies appeared in the 1970s. Two areas of application were originally in the foreground: metabolism of cities and investigations into pollutants in regions such as watersheds or urban areas. In the following decades, MFA became a widespread tool in many fields, such as process control, waste and wastewater treatment, agricultural nutrient management, water quality management, resource conservation and recovery, product design, life cycle assessment (LCA), and others.

1.3.1 Santorio’s Analysis of the Human Metabolism

One of the first reports about an analysis of material flows was prepared by Santorio Santorio (1561–1636), also called S. Sanctuarius, in the seventeenth century. The similarity of the conclusions regarding the analysis of the anthropogenic metabolism between Santorio and modern authors is astonishing. Santorio was a doctor of medicine practicing in Padua and President of the Venetian College of Physicians in Venice. His main interest was to understand the human metabolism. He developed a first method to balance inputs and outputs of a person (Figure 1.2a, b and c). Santorio measured the weight of the person, of the food and beverages he/she ate, and of the excretions he/she gave off. The result of his investigation was disappointing and surprising at the same time: he could not close the mass balance. However, he found that the visible material output of a person was less than half what the person actually takes in. He suspected that some yet-unknown insensible perspiration lef...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Authors
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Methodology of Material Flow Analysis
• 3. Case Studies
• 4. Outlook: Where to Go?
• References
• Index