IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v255y2013icp21-28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exergoecology as a tool for ecological modelling. The case of the US food production chain

Author

Listed:
  • Torres, César
  • Valero, Antonio
  • Valero, Alicia

Abstract

Exergoecology and in particular, thermoeconomic analysis is used to understand the process of cost formation and to improve the design and the operation of extensive energy consumption systems such as power and chemical plants. This paper shows the capabilities for using the thermoeconomic analysis in environmental systems, and demonstrates that it could become a useful tool for identifying the ways for improving the energy resources cost and the efficiency of a macroeconomic system such as the US food production chain. The environmental impact associated with each process in the food production chain can be quantified through a thermoeconomic approach as a cost function, which represents the required natural resources to obtain a final product. In the example provided, several simulations such as the impact of the change of meat diet basis for a vegetarian diet, and reusing the residual biomass are analyzed.

Suggested Citation

  • Torres, César & Valero, Antonio & Valero, Alicia, 2013. "Exergoecology as a tool for ecological modelling. The case of the US food production chain," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 255(C), pages 21-28.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:255:y:2013:i:c:p:21-28
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.01.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380013000483
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.01.021?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. Valero, Antonio & Lozano, Miguel A. & Serra, Luis & Tsatsaronis, George & Pisa, Javier & Frangopoulos, Christos & von Spakovsky, Michael R., 1994. "CGAM problem: Definition and conventional solution," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 279-286.
    2. Valero, A., 2006. "Exergy accounting: Capabilities and drawbacks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 164-180.
    3. Baral, Anil & Bakshi, Bhavik R., 2010. "Emergy analysis using US economic input–output models with applications to life cycles of gasoline and corn ethanol," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(15), pages 1807-1818.
    4. Valero, Antonio & Correas, Luis & Zaleta, Alejandro & Lazzaretto, Andrea & Verda, Vittorio & Reini, Mauro & Rangel, Victor, 2004. "On the thermoeconomic approach to the diagnosis of energy system malfunctions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1875-1887.
    5. Lozano, M.A. & Valero, A., 1993. "Theory of the exergetic cost," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 18(9), pages 939-960.
    6. Valero, Antonio & Valero, Alicia, 2010. "Exergoecology: A thermodynamic approach for accounting the Earth's mineral capital. The case of bauxite–aluminium and limestone–lime chains," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 229-238.
    7. Font de Mora, Emilio & Torres, César & Valero, Antonio, 2012. "Assessment of biodiesel energy sustainability using the exergy return on investment concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 474-480.
    8. Finnveden, Göran & Östlund, Per, 1997. "Exergies of natural resources in life-cycle assessment and other applications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 923-931.
    9. Valero, Antonio & Uche, Javier & Valero, Alicia & Martínez, Amaya, 2009. "Physical Hydronomics: Application of the exergy analysis to the assessment of environmental costs of water bodies. The case of the inland basins of Catalonia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2101-2107.
    10. Agudelo, Andrés & Valero, Antonio & Torres, César, 2012. "Allocation of waste cost in thermoeconomic analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 634-643.
    11. Valero, Antonio & Correas, Luis & Zaleta, Alejandro & Lazzaretto, Andrea & Verda, Vittorio & Reini, Mauro & Rangel, Victor, 2004. "On the thermoeconomic approach to the diagnosis of energy system malfunctions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 1889-1907.
    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. Jose-Luis Palacios & Guiomar Calvo & Alicia Valero & Antonio Valero, 2018. "Exergoecology Assessment of Mineral Exports from Latin America: Beyond a Tonnage Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Sciubba, Enrico, 2019. "Exergy-based ecological indicators: From Thermo-Economics to cumulative exergy consumption to Thermo-Ecological Cost and Extended Exergy Accounting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 462-476.
    3. Rocco, Matteo V. & Di Lucchio, Alberto & Colombo, Emanuela, 2017. "Exergy Life Cycle Assessment of electricity production from Waste-to-Energy technology: A Hybrid Input-Output approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 832-844.
    4. Acevedo, Luis & Usón, Sergio & Uche, Javier, 2015. "Local exergy cost analysis of microwave heating systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 437-451.

    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. Valero, Antonio & Usón, Sergio & Torres, César & Valero, Alicia & Agudelo, Andrés & Costa, Jorge, 2013. "Thermoeconomic tools for the analysis of eco-industrial parks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-72.
    2. Usón, Sergio & Valero, Antonio & Agudelo, Andrés, 2012. "Thermoeconomics and Industrial Symbiosis. Effect of by-product integration in cost assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 43-51.
    3. Bagdanavicius, Audrius & Jenkins, Nick & Hammond, Geoffrey P., 2012. "Assessment of community energy supply systems using energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 247-255.
    4. Kostowski, Wojciech J. & Usón, Sergio & Stanek, Wojciech & Bargiel, Paweł, 2014. "Thermoecological cost of electricity production in the natural gas pressure reduction process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 10-18.
    5. Agudelo, Andrés & Valero, Antonio & Usón, Sergio, 2013. "The fossil trace of CO2 emissions in multi-fuel energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 236-246.
    6. Pietro Catrini & Tancredi Testasecca & Alessandro Buscemi & Antonio Piacentino, 2022. "Exergoeconomics as a Cost-Accounting Method in Thermal Grids with the Presence of Renewable Energy Producers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-27, March.
    7. César Torres & Antonio Valero, 2021. "The Exergy Cost Theory Revisited," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-42, March.
    8. Verda, Vittorio & Borchiellini, Romano, 2007. "Exergy method for the diagnosis of energy systems using measured data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 490-498.
    9. Piacentino, Antonio & Cardona, Ennio, 2010. "Scope Oriented Thermoeconomic analysis of energy systems. Part II: Formation Structure of Optimality for robust design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 957-970, March.
    10. Zaleta-Aguilar, Alejandro & Olivares-Arriaga, Abraham & Cano-Andrade, Sergio & Rodriguez-Alejandro, David A., 2016. "β-characterization by irreversibility analysis: A thermoeconomic diagnosis method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 850-858.
    11. Verda, Vittorio, 2006. "Accuracy level in thermoeconomic diagnosis of energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(15), pages 3248-3260.
    12. Mendes, Tiago & Venturini, Osvaldo José & da Silva, Julio Augusto Mendes & Orozco, Dimas José Rúa & Pirani, Marcelo José, 2020. "Disaggregation models for the thermoeconomic diagnosis of a vapor compression refrigeration system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    13. Torres, C. & Valero, A. & Rangel, V. & Zaleta, A., 2008. "On the cost formation process of the residues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 144-152.
    14. dos Santos, Rodrigo G. & de Faria, Pedro R. & Santos, José J.C.S. & da Silva, Julio A.M. & Flórez-Orrego, Daniel, 2016. "Thermoeconomic modeling for CO2 allocation in steam and gas turbine cogeneration systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 117(P2), pages 590-603.
    15. Valero, Alicia & Valero, Antonio & Gómez, Javier B., 2011. "The crepuscular planet. A model for the exhausted continental crust," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 694-707.
    16. Silva, J.A.M. & Venturini, O.J. & Lora, E.E.S. & Pinho, A.F. & Santos, J.J.C.S., 2011. "Thermodynamic information system for diagnosis and prognosis of power plant operation condition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4072-4079.
    17. Usón, Sergio & Valero, Antonio & Correas, Luis, 2010. "Energy efficiency assessment and improvement in energy intensive systems through thermoeconomic diagnosis of the operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(6), pages 1989-1995, June.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Bargos, Fabiano Fernandes & Lamas, Wendell de Queiróz & Bilato, Gabriel Adam, 2018. "Computational tools and operational research for optimal design of co-generation systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 507-516.

    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:255:y:2013:i:c:p:21-28. 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.