Learning Outcomes
Upon the successful completion of the course, the students will have:
- Understood basic concepts of energy systems analysis
- Understood in depth the concept of environmental sustainability
- Understood the concepts of energy, energy and energy
- Understood the importance of the industrial ecosystem
- Understand the meaning and meaning of life cycle analysis
- Get familiar with the use of life cycle analysis software
Course Content (Syllabus)
1. Definition of industrial ecology. Meanings and metrics of sustainability and ecological footprint.
2. Fundamentals and calculations of natural resource economics: environmental accounting, environmental discount rate, economic optimization of natural resource use.
3. Definitions of exergy: types of energy and methods of estimation, exergy as energy and environmental metric, exergy analysis of processes, examples.
4. Definitions of emergy: methods of estimation, emergy as energy and environmental metric, emergy analysis of processes and products, examples.
5. Life cycle analysis: introduction to LCA, LCA methodology, framing and target setting, life cycle inventory, life cycle environmental impact assessment, significance of results, examples and applications of LCA – usefulness, weaknesses and constraints, quantitative estimation of mass use intensity.
6. Industrial ecosystems and environmental policy making: mass and energy flow integration in industrial complexes, fundamentals of environmental policies. Practical examples (case studies) of industrial ecology.
Keywords
Industrial ecology, sustainability, environmental accounting, energy, exergy and emergy, life cycle analysis