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Environment and

Sustainability
Robert Field

Lecture 1: Engineers and the


environment
goods, services and waste
some basic material and energy concepts
the role of engineers

Learning outcomes of this course


To acquire knowledge and understanding of

1. The concept and consequences of sustainable


development: social, environmental and
economic.
2. The changing role of engineering in sustainable
development.
3. The tools used to implement sustainable
design.

Engineering is
Engineering is the knowledge required,
and the process applied, to conceive,
design, make, build, operate, sustain,
recycle or retire, something with a
significant technical content for a specific
purpose: a concept, a model, a product, a
device, a process, a system, a service, a
technology.
Royal Academy of Engineering

Why should you care?


1. Right thing to do?

2. Political environment requires it?


3. Helps win contracts?
4. Helps avoid prosecutions?
5. Long term nature of engineered solutions?

Newcomens steam engine, 1712

Credit: Wikipedia

"In the whole history of technology it would be difficult to find a greater single
advance than this, nor one with a greater significance for all humanity". Rolt.

Widnes, mid-1800s. Photo: ICI

Plentiful supplies of cheap energy (wood, then coal)


fuelled the industrial revolution
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Civil,
mechanical,
control,
electrical and
chemical
engineering at
work. Shells
Stanlow cat
cracker
produces
automotive
fuel from oily
residues.

The
engineered
environment.
M2 motorway
and Eurostar
train crossing
the River
Medway in
Kent.

Resource flows
Solar
energy

Emissions
to air and
water

Human
Society

Emissions
to air and
water

Food &
Products

Waste

Goods &
Services

Emissions
to air and
water

Industrial
Production

Natural
Ecosystems &
Agriculture
Emissions
and
dispersed
residues

Non-renewable
Resources
(after Clift R, Trans Inst Chem Eng B2 151 1998)

Sustainable development?
The early history of modern sustainable development:
World Conservation Strategy (WCS): published in 1980 by the World
Conservation Union and where the term sustainable development first
came to prominence;
World Commission on Environment and Development 1987: aka. The
Brundtland Report. This developed the key principles and ideas;
G7 Toronto summit of 1988: This was where the major industrial
nations, including the UK, signed up to the concept;
The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992: this produced the Rio Declaration of
Intent with Agenda 21 as the implementation action plan.

The Bruntland definition


From the Brundtland Report (1987)
Development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the abilities of
future generations to meet their own needs

Principle is known as intergenerational equity

Traditional SD concept
SD

Society

Environment

Economy

Robust SD concept
Environment

Society

Economy

The economy operates within the


limits of society which flourishes
within the limits of nature.

US Material Flow
US Economy: only 6% of materials flow ends in products
Computing waste: Laptop ~ 4,000 times; microchip ~ 100,000 times
1 tonne paper consumes 98 tonnes of various resources
US industry handles ~ 1,800 tonnes per year per average household

Materials flow per average American :


56 kg/day
(21 fuel; 21 construction materials; 7 farm products
2.7 forestry; 2.7 industrial minerals; 1.4 metals)
PLUS: 1,000 kg water and 170 kg rock
(tailings, overburden, waste water from fuel and minerals extraction)
Total waste flow (inc waste water) > 100 x 109 tonne per year,
Less than 2% recycled
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One lecture theatre chair...


Steel for hinges made from pig iron (each tonne of steel produces
quantities of slag and a steel mill uses 20kg of coal to make steel for
one chair);
Iron ore mining produces waste, land originally forested etc;
Chrome-plating wastes;
Plastics products of oil industry spills fears.
(Leather seat tannery pollution.)

Working material balances- an example


The mass of the atmosphere is about 5 million Gt. What is the
carbon inventory of the atmosphere, if the current
concentration of carbon dioxide is 388 ppmv?

5 million Gt is 5 x 1018 kg air


with a molecular weight of 29, this is equivalent to
5 x 1018 / 29 = 0.172 x 1018 kmol
Assuming ideal gas behaviour, then the volume
fraction is equal to the mole fraction, and so

CO2 inventory is (388 x 10-6) x 0.172 x 1018 kmol


= 66.7 x 1012 kmol
1 kmol of CO2 contains 1 kmol of carbon, so the
carbon inventory of the atmosphere is
66.7 x 1012 x 12 kg = 800 Gt C
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Human Development
Flows of Resource
Annual usage
Oil: 5 km3
Fresh Water: 5000 km3
Global energy consumption, Gtoe/y
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060

Global population, billion


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Global water consumption, km3/y

Sources: World Energy Council; World Bank; D. Bice, Carleton College MN; US Census bureau

A little thermodynamics!
1. 2nd law - heat cannot be wholly converted into work
2. C + O2 CO2

H = -393.5 MJ kmol-1

H + O2 H2O H = -142.9 MJ kmol-1


3. 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ
boe (barrel of oil equivalent 1 boe = 6.12 GJ)
toe (tonne of oil equivalent 1 toe = 45.37 GJ)
tce (tonne of coal equivalent 1 tce = 28.84 GJ)
(these are higher heating values)
The boiler house can be 220m long, 60m high,
and 55m wide. The boiler walls are made of 51
km of 62.5 mm bore tubing. Inside the tubes,
extremely pure water is boiled at high
pressure, and then super-heated to 568
degrees Celsius. A 500 MW boiler can consume
over 200 tonnes of coal per hour, and is
capable of delivering 25 tonnes of steam each
minute at a pressure of 197 bar.
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Conversion of fossil fuels


Coal:

Direct combustion, 90% to heat only,


<40% to power, limited by steam cycle.
Pulverised boilers, fluidised beds.
Flue gas desulphurisation, low NOx technology.
Gasification/Combined cycle, ~ 50% to power.

Oil:

Refining to wide product slate: lpg - gasoline - diesel jet fuel - heating oil - fuel oil - lubricants - bitumen.
Fuel oil similar efficiency to coal.
Gasoline and diesel low conversion efficiency in cars.

Gas:

Higher efficiency to heat than oil (condensing boilers).


High efficiency, approaching 60%, to power by
combined cycle gas turbines. Lowest capital cost,
~ $ 500/kW.

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Conversion of fossil fuels

DECHEMA

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Main source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2010


0.26
1 toe = 41.868 GJ
Biofuels are omitted

0.07

0.05

5.45
6.61

34.64

23.68

Oil
Coal
Gas
Hydro
Nuclear
Wind
Solar thermal
Geothermal

29.25

2009 Primary energy supply, by type, %


Total is 11.2 Gtoe (~16TW)
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Primary energy consumption and


production, 1998

Source http://www.ourplanet.com/aaas/
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Linear to circular

Resources

Production

Consumption

Waste

The Linear Economy

Ecosystems
Resources

Production and
consumption

Waste

Ecosystems
Soil Organic
matter

Nutrient
uptake and tree
growth

Leaf fall and


decay

The ecological model 2


Consumption
Inputs of solar
energy

Duck Doo

Nutrients
(plus CO2 and H2O)
Microbial
decomposition

The ecological model 3


(Renewable)
Energy

Resources

Waste

Production

Consumption

The ecological model 4


The sun

The
economy

Biological nutrients
Technical nutrients
Energy

The planet

Pros & cons of the ecological model


Pros
Potential for genuine sustainability
Mature eco-systems are a working model
Resistant to rebound effects

Cons
Current consumption levels present a challenge (can western
lifestyles ever be made sustainable?)
Weaker economic driver, although it has intrinsic efficiencies (eg:
recycling 1 aluminium can saves energy equivalent to a 100W bulb
running for 20 hours)

Rebound effect: eg commuting


160
140

Indirect Rebound Effect


Direct Rebound Effect
Base Consumption

Energy GJpa

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Normal Car

Efficient Car

Efficient Car & Flight

The Mark I engineer, 1859

The bridge at Saltash

Box tunnel (2.9 km) on the GW Railway

IK Brunel at the
launching of the
Great Eastern

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Mark 1 and Mark 2 Engineers


The mark 1 engineer: the man* who
made an economic return on capital invested
delivered product fit for purpose of client
but damage to people or environment was mostly
unrecognised or accepted as an inevitable part of
progress (~100 fatalities at Box Tunnel).
The mark 2 engineer also
complied with health and safety legislation
applied techniques to quantify or mitigate HSE
impacts (HAZOP, BATNEEC, etc)
* Women hardly featured in engineering at the time these views were
current. The terminology of mark 1,2 and 3 engineers was suggested by
Prof R Clift.

But what of the future?


Minority Report DreamWorks

The mark 3 engineer must consider the


needs of society, as well as economic and
environmental impacts. Welcome to the
world of sustainable engineering!

Acknowledgement
Professor Darton is thanked for his development on the
lectures on Sustainability; 60% of the material has been taken
from the lectures that he gave in previous years.

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References and Suggested


Reading
Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment
and Development 1987, ISBN 0-19-282080 OUP
The New Model Engineer and Her Role, R Clift Trans IChemE
Vol 76, Part B 151- May 1998
Engineering, Ethics and the Environment, PA Vesilind and AS
Gunn ISBN 0-521-58918-5 CUP
Clean Production Strategies, Tim Jackson (Ed) 1993, ISBN 087371-884-4 CRC Press LLC

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, LTC Rolt 1970 Penguin


BP Statistical review of World Energy (web downloads)

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