IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/recore/v72y2013icp50-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Applying exergy analysis to rainwater harvesting systems to assess resource efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Vargas-Parra, M. Violeta
  • Villalba, Gara
  • Gabarrell, Xavier

Abstract

In our continued effort in reducing resource consumption, greener technologies such as rainwater harvesting could be very useful in diminishing our dependence on desalinated or treated water and the associated energy requirements. This paper applies exergy analysis and exergetic efficiency to evaluate the performance of eight different scenarios of urban rainwater harvesting systems in the Mediterranean-climate Metropolitan Area of Barcelona where water is a scarce resource. A life cycle approach is taken, where the production, use, and end-of-life stages of these rainwater harvesting systems are quantified in terms of energy and material requirements in order to produce 1m3 of rainwater per year for laundry purposes. The results show that the highest exergy input is associated with the energy uses, namely the transport of the materials to construct the rainwater harvesting systems. The scenario with the highest exergetic efficiency considers a 24 household building with a 21m3 rainwater storage tank installed below roof. Exergy requirements could be minimized by material substitution, minimizing weight or distance traveled.

Suggested Citation

  • Vargas-Parra, M. Violeta & Villalba, Gara & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2013. "Applying exergy analysis to rainwater harvesting systems to assess resource efficiency," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 50-59.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:72:y:2013:i:c:p:50-59
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.12.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344912002224
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.12.008?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. Talens, Laura & Villalba, Gara & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2007. "Exergy analysis applied to biodiesel production," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 397-407.
    2. Farreny, R. & Gabarrell, X. & Rieradevall, J., 2011. "Cost-efficiency of rainwater harvesting strategies in dense Mediterranean neighbourhoods," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 686-694.
    3. Otero, Iago & Kallis, Giorgos & Aguilar, Raül & Ruiz, Vicenç, 2011. "Water scarcity, social power and the production of an elite suburb: The political ecology of water in Matadepera, Catalonia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1297-1308, May.
    4. Robert T. Watson, 2002. "The future of the intergovernmental panel on climate change," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(4), pages 269-271, December.
    5. Talens Peiró, L. & Villalba Méndez, G. & Sciubba, E. & Gabarrell i Durany, X., 2010. "Extended exergy accounting applied to biodiesel production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2861-2869.
    6. Unruh, Gregory C., 2000. "Understanding carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 817-830, October.
    7. Robert U. Ayres & Leslie W. Ayres, 1999. "Accounting for Resources, 2," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1621.
    8. Kallis, Giorgos & Norgaard, Richard B., 2010. "Coevolutionary ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 690-699, February.
    9. Cowan, Robin & Gunby, Philip, 1996. "Sprayed to Death: Path Dependence, Lock-In and Pest Control Strategies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(436), pages 521-542, May.
    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. Stec, Agnieszka & Kordana, Sabina, 2015. "Analysis of profitability of rainwater harvesting, gray water recycling and drain water heat recovery systems," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 105(PA), pages 84-94.
    2. Yu Zhang & Haifei Sha & Xiufeng Wu & Shiqiang Wu & Jiangyu Dai & Bin Xu & Lei Yu & Qianqian Yang, 2022. "A risk-based decision model for rainwater resource supply in forward contracts," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(6), pages 1919-1936, April.

    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. Magrini, Marie-Benoit & Anton, Marc & Cholez, Célia & Corre-Hellou, Guenaelle & Duc, Gérard & Jeuffroy, Marie-Hélène & Meynard, Jean-Marc & Pelzer, Elise & Voisin, Anne-Sophie & Walrand, Stéphane, 2016. "Why are grain-legumes rarely present in cropping systems despite their environmental and nutritional benefits? Analyzing lock-in in the French agrifood system," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 152-162.
    2. Blanco-Marigorta, A.M. & Suárez-Medina, J. & Vera-Castellano, A., 2013. "Exergetic analysis of a biodiesel production process from Jatropha curcas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 218-225.
    3. Marin, Anabel & Stubrin, Lilia & van Zwanenberg, Patrick, 2023. "Technological lock-in in action: Appraisal and policy commitment in Argentina's seed sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    4. Luca Salvati & Margherita Carlucci & Pere Serra & Ilaria Zambon, 2019. "Demographic Transitions and Socioeconomic Development in Italy, 1862–2009: A Brief Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Albert Faber & Koen Frenken, 2008. "Models in evolutionary economics and environmental policy: Towards an evolutionary environmental economics," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 08-15, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Apr 2008.
    6. Ali Arababadi & Stephan Leyer & Joachim Hansen & Reza Arababadi, 2021. "Characterizing the Theory of Spreading Electric Vehicles in Luxembourg," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-24, August.
    7. Foxon, Timothy J., 2011. "A coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2258-2267.
    8. Gerardo Marletto, 2012. "Which Conceptual Foundations For Environmental Policies? An Institutional And Evolutionary Framework Of Economic Change," Working Papers 0112, CREI Università degli Studi Roma Tre, revised 2012.
    9. Talens Peiró, L. & Villalba Méndez, G. & Sciubba, E. & Gabarrell i Durany, X., 2010. "Extended exergy accounting applied to biodiesel production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2861-2869.
    10. Cox, Michael & Payton, Frederick & Pimentel, Leoncio, 2019. "A gilded trap in Dominican rice farming," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 10-20.
    11. Buchs, Arnaud & Petit, Olivier & Roman, Philippe, 2020. "Can social ecological economics of water reinforce the “big tent”?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    12. Gholami, Ali & Hajinezhad, Ahmad & Pourfayaz, Fathollah & Ahmadi, Mohammad Hossein, 2018. "The effect of hydrodynamic and ultrasonic cavitation on biodiesel production: An exergy analysis approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 478-489.
    13. Steffen S. Bettin, 2020. "Electricity infrastructure and innovation in the next phase of energy transition—amendments to the technology innovation system framework," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 371-395, November.
    14. Hiteva, Ralitsa & Foxon, Timothy J., 2021. "Beware the value gap: Creating value for users and for the system through innovation in digital energy services business models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    15. Kevin Maréchal & Hélène Aubaret-Joachain & Jean-Paul Ledant, 2008. "The influence of Economics on agricultural systems: an evolutionary and ecological perspective," Working Papers CEB 08-028.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    16. Khoobbakht, Golmohammad & Kheiralipour, Kamran & Rasouli, Hamed & Rafiee, Mojtaba & Hadipour, Mehrdad & Karimi, Mahmoud, 2020. "Experimental exergy analysis of transesterification in biodiesel production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    17. Liu, Fang & Chen, Guanyi & Yan, Beibei & Ma, Wenchao & Cheng, Zhanjun & Hou, Li'an, 2017. "Exergy analysis of a new lignocellulosic biomass-based polygeneration system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 1087-1095.
    18. Velásquez-Arredondo, H.I. & De Oliveira Junior, S. & Benjumea, P., 2012. "Exergy efficiency analysis of chemical and biochemical stages involved in liquid biofuels production processes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 138-145.
    19. Vanloqueren, Gaëtan & Baret, Philippe V., 2009. "How agricultural research systems shape a technological regime that develops genetic engineering but locks out agroecological innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 971-983, July.
    20. Risse, Michael & Weber-Blaschke, Gabriele & Richter, Klaus, 2017. "Resource efficiency of multifunctional wood cascade chains using LCA and exergy analysis, exemplified by a case study for Germany," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 141-152.

    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:recore:v:72:y:2013:i:c:p:50-59. 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: Kai Meng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling .

    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.