Combining the worlds of energy systems and material flow analysis: a review

Abstract

Recent studies focusing on greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies indicate that material recycling has a significant impact on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The question arises how these effects can be quantified. Material recycling is not at all or insufficiently considered in energy system models, which are used today to derive climate gas mitigation strategies. To better assess and quantify the effects one option would be to couple energy system models and material flow models. The barriers and challenges of a successful coupling are addressed in this article. The greatest obstacles are diverging temporal horizons, the mismatching of system boundaries, data quality and availability, and the underrepresentation of industrial processes. A coupled model would enable access to more robust and significant results, a response to a greater variety of research questions and useful analyses. Further to this, collaborative models developed jointly by the energy system and material analysis communities are required for more cohesive and interdisciplinary assessments.

An expert survey to assess the current status and future challenges of energy system analysis

“…In addition, there is a trend in the ESA community towards combining ESMs with LCA methods, in order to account for the impact of energy technologies beyond their operational phase (Thomson et al 2017). But such endeavours present several challenges, including different temporal horizons or system boundaries, data quality and availability, and the underrepresentation of industrial processes (Kullmann et al 2021). In terms of non-energy sector impacts, one of the experts suggested studying the investments (or opportunities) outside the energy sector, which might explain some lack of investment in energy-related infrastructure for energy efficiency.…”

Regulatory Elements on the Circular Economy: Driving into the Agri-Food System

“…A point of reference in the literature is the study by Kirchherr et al [41], who, based on the previous 114 definitions [42], outline the boundaries of the concept of the circular economy; in fact, subsequent studies indicate it and then focus on specific topics such as "energy systems" [43,44], "sustainable development" [45][46][47][48][49], operational definitions [50].…”

Realizing ambitions: A framework for iteratively assessing and communicating national decarbonization progress

“…Firstly, the granularity of energy models needs to be increased to more effectively reflect: the temporal and spatial organization of energy supply and use, the demand response to a changing energy system, the impact of extreme climate-related events, and other factors ( Azevedo et al., 2021 ; Shove, 2021 ). Secondly, energy models need to open boundaries to facilitate interdisciplinary modeling such as coupling energy models with material flow and other sector models ( Kullmann et al., 2021 ). Thirdly, model results need to be reported in a transparent and comprehensible manner, which is also the key to link technical modeling and practical implementation ( Aryanpur et al., 2019 ; Amer et al., 2020 ).…”