Zero Waste Engineering

A New Era of Sustainable Technology Development

M. M. Khan, M. R. Islam

• Publisher: Wiley-Scrivener
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781119184898
• eBook ISBN: 9781119184942
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Is "zero waste engineering" possible?

This book outlines how to achieve zero waste engineering, following natural pathways that are truly sustainable. Using methods that have been developed in various areas for sustainability purposes, such as new mathematical models, recyclable material selection, and renewable energy, the authors probe the principles of zero waste engineering and how it can be applied to construction, energy production, and many other areas of engineering.

This groundbreaking new volume:

• Explores new scientific principles on which sustainability and zero waste engineering can be based
• Presents new models for energy efficiency, cooling processes, and natural chemical and material selection in industrial applications and business
• Explains how "green buildings" and "green homes" can be efficiently built and operated with zero waste
• Offers case histories and successful experiments in sustainability and zero-waste engineering

Ideal for:

Engineers and scientists of all industries, including the energy industry, construction, the process industries, and manufacturing. Chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, petroleum engineers, process engineers, civil engineers, and many other types of engineers would all benefit from reading this exciting new volume.

Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Background

Plato said, “Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool.” Few question the notion that the ‘strange times’ are right now when it come so far as politics goes. However, fewer understand the science behind these ‘strange times’, even fewer appreciate how these ‘strange times’ have pervaded all aspects of our civilization. Practically no one sees this as a problem in the science and technology development sector. Many dislike the current system but few see the big picture and the direction that our civilization is moving and none can tell us how to fix the system.

Yet, the solutions to today’s problems are simple as long as we can be humble and be down to earth – literally accepting the premise than the mother nature is perfect. This is not a new theme. In fact, this theme as old as human civilization. Ancient Greeks tell us the story of Antaeus, who was rendered powerless only by breaking contact with the earth. In ancient India, it is the concept of representation, or life’s purpose, is founded in the notion of ‘avatar’. The word derived from the Sanskrit avatāra, meaning ‘descent,’ from ava ‘down’ + tar- ‘to cross.’ The word was used to describe believed deities or representative of gods on earth. This is not to be conflated with the notion of the reincarnation of Jesus, for example, as the word Avatar can be used to describe pious and gurus in general—i.e., the expert practitioners of God’s attributes. It in fact can signal to the fact that God’s presence is in all creatures. This implies that Hinduism itself supported the notion that on an ideal level, the purpose of life is representing and practicing the attributes of God. In Islam, the purpose of life as well as the standard of a lifestyle and knowledge are explicit. The ideals of. Islamic civilization tell us the virtue of pro-nature and conscientious lifestyle that will give us eternal peace. All these boil down to sustainability in the long term, with the logic that if Nature is perfect, and humans are the best creation of nature, doing good for the environment should be innate nature of humans. Pro-nature and pro-environment in its fundamental orientation, this book provides a première-quality space for research and development of sustainable technologies.

Even though claims have been to emulate nature, no modern technology truly emulates the science of nature. It has been quite the opposite: observations of nature have rarely been translated into pro-nature technology development. Today, some of the most important technological breakthroughs have been mere manifestations of the linearization of nature science: nature linearized by focusing only on its external features. Today, computers process information exactly opposite to how the human brain does. Turbines produce electrical energy while polluting the environment beyond repair even as electric eels produce much higher-intensity electricity while cleaning the environment. Batteries store very little electricity while producing very toxic spent materials. Synthetic plastic materials look like natural plastic, yet their syntheses follow an exactly opposite path. Furthermore, synthetic plastics do not have a single positive impact on the environment, whereas natural plastic materials do not have a single negative impact. In medical science, every promise made at the onset of commercialization proven to be opposite what actually happened: witness Prozac, Vioxx, Viagra, etc. Nature, on the other hand, did not allow a single product to impact the long-term negatively. Even the deadliest venom (e.g., cobra, Poisoned arrow tree frog) has numerous beneficial effects in the long-term. This catalogue carries on in all directions: microwave cooking, fluorescent lighting, nuclear energy, cellular phones, refrigeration cycles to combustion cycles. In essence, nature continues to improve matters in its quality, as modern technologies continue to degrade the same into baser qualities.

By contrast, the modern age is synonymous with waste generation. In industrialized countries, there is a direct correlation between the standard of living and generation of waste (McBean et al., 1995). However, it is becoming increasingly clear that such a lifestyle is not sustainable from economic (Zatzman and Islam, 2007), technological (Khan and Islam, 2007; Islam et al., 2010; 2012; 2015), computational (Islam et al., 2016a) or lifestyle and health (Islam et al., 2015; 2016). Issues ranging from global warming to toxic shock continue to confirm that the 3Rs (reduction, reuse, recycling) approach is not sufficient and an alternate approach to technology development must be introduced.

Energy is the driver of this civilization of wasteful lifestyle and the amount of waste has been iconic in the energy sector. As time progressed, energy consumption per capital has sky rocketed. If our claim of progress is true, shouldn’t we spend less energy for sustaining life? Figure 1.1. shows how per capita energy consumption has become the icon of civilization. The energy consumption in Qatar, for instance is over 50 times higher than that in India. Yet, India is still much poorer than Qatar. Yet, the same region is blessed with the brightest sun – the source of ‘good energy’. However, that blessing has been reduced to nuisance and heat is seen as a distraction (Picture 1.1). The same region that once led the world in science for over 1000 years (7th to 18th century) has somehow become fixated to the notion ‘nature is the problem and must be fixed’. In this book, we change that paradigm and introduce the notion, “Nature is perfect and must be emulated, not fought against”.

Figure 1.1 Per capita energy consumption in select countries and regions.

Picture 1.1 Kuwait City (60 C, July 3, 2016), the heat melted the rubber shades.

When it comes to insanely obsessed with tangibles and short-term benefits, Europeans and the west in general are the leaders, but the problem of the third world countries (both affluent and poor) is that they are emulating the western wasteful habits. So, it is no surprise, it is once again the west that is calling the shot and asking the third world countries to become energy-wise, the pre-dominant theme being: Energy Efficiency Is The Most Important Fuel We Didn’t Know We Had (Climate Progress, 2014). Here is a list of countries, ranked by their energy inefficiency, as shown in their respective per capital energy consumption in oil equivalent.

1. Iceland - 18,774 kg. With most of Iceland’s energy coming from hydroelectric and geothermal power, Icelanders are planet’s least energy-conscious, as if having non-fossil fuel energy is a ticket to becoming energy ignorant.
2. Qatar – 17,418 kg. Similar to Icelanders, Qataris are addicted to wasteful energy habits. Electricity in Qatar is called “liquid electricity” because it is often produced through desalination, a very energy-intensive process. Qatar’s per capita emissions are the highest in the world, and three times that of the United States. To cap the insanity, 60% of the electricity is consumed domestically.
3. Trinidad and Tobago – 15,691 kg. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the richest countries in the Caribbean, and the region’s leading producer of oil and gas; it houses one of the largest natural gas processing facilities in the Western Hemisphere. T&T is the largest LNG exporter to the United States. Its electricity...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: A Delinearized History of Time and Its Impact on Scientific Cognition
• Chapter 3: Towards Modeling of Zero-Waste Engineering Processes with Inherent Sustainability
• Chapter 4: The Formulation of a Comprehensive Mass and Energy Balance Equation
• Chapter 5: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Honey Sugar Saccharine Aspartame (HSSA) Degradation in Modern Engineering
• Chapter 6: Zero-Waste Lifestyle with Inherently Sustainable Technologies
• Chapter 7: A Novel Sustainable Combined Heating/Cooling/Refrigeration System
• Chapter 8: A Zero-Waste Design for Direct Usage of Solar Energy
• Chapter 9: Investigation of Vegetable Oil as The Thermal Fluid in A Parabolic Solar Collector
• Chapter 10: The Potential of Biogas in Zero-Waste Mode of a Cold-Climate Environment
• Chapter 11: The New Synthesis: Application of All Natural Materials for Engineering Applications
• Chapter 12: Economic Assessment of Zero-Waste Engineering
• Chapter 13: General Conclusions and Recommendations
• References and Bibliography
• Index
• End User License Agreement