Emergy evaluation using the calculation software SCALE: Case study, added value and potential improvements

Arbault, Damien; Rugani, Benedetto; Marvuglia, Antonino; Benetto, Enrico; Tiruta-Barna, Ligia

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.087

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Using emergy by itself can already provide an idea of the importance of a given node (process) in the network (Arbault et al. ). However, using importance metrics, as defined in graph theory, can help to contextualize more deeply the importance of a given node in the network.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, quantifying the uncertainty owing to the choice of the unit emergy values of resource is out of the scope of the work described in this article and deserves future investigation (Arbault et al. ; Marvuglia et al. ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), which was developed to perform emergy accounting on LCI networks, while strictly following the emergy algebra rules (Arbault et al. ; Marvuglia et al. 2013a, 2013b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, emergy accounts for the memory of solar energy directly and indirectly used up throughout the life cycle (Arbault et al. ; Marvuglia et al. ; Rugani and Benetto ) by all product flows, through the direct and indirect use of natural resources (see section S2 in the supporting information on the Web).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

Gutiérrez

Rugani

Pigné

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

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Determining the relevance and importance of a technosphere process or a cluster of processes in relation to the rest of the industrial network can provide insights into the sustainability of supply chains: those that need to be optimized or controlled/safeguarded. Network analysis (NA) can offer a broad framework of indicators to tackle this problem. In this article, we present a detailed analysis of a life cycle inventory (LCI) model from an NA perspective. Specifically, the network is represented as a directed graph and the "emergy" numeraire is used as the weight associated with the arcs of the network. The case study of a technological system for drinking water production is presented. We investigate the topological and structural characteristics of the network representation of this system and compare properties of its weighted and unweighted network, as well as the importance of nodes (i.e., life cycle unit processes). By identifying a number of advantages and limitations linked to the modeling complexity of such emergy-LCI networks, we classify the LCI technosphere network of our case study as a complex network belonging to the scale-free network family. The salient feature of this network family is represented by the presence of "hubs": nodes that connect with many other nodes. Hub failures may imply relevant changes, decreases, or even breaks in the connectedness with other smaller hubs and nodes of the network. Hence, by identifying node centralities, we can rank and interpret the relevance of each node for its special role in the life cycle network. Keywords:complexity drinking water emergy industrial ecology life cycle assessment (LCA) network analysis Supporting information is available on the JIE Web site

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), which was developed to perform emergy accounting on LCI networks, while strictly following the emergy algebra rules (Arbault et al. ; Marvuglia et al. 2013a, 2013b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

Gutiérrez

Rugani

Pigné

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Increased efforts are being implemented in order to generate a synergistic integration between the very extensive databases and standardized calculation procedures supporting the LCA method and the broad and comprehensive conceptual framework of the EMA approach. Several authors have expressed the urgent need to develop an integrated framework and software [40][41][42][43], but the different specific goals, allocation procedures, spatial and time scales have been, so far, crucial barriers for this to happen. According to Bakshi [44] the analysis of both ecological and industrial processes is required to make ecologically conscious decisions in engineering processes; an Emergy-based LCA is proposed to combine the benefits of both methods.…”

Section: Previous Methodological Lca and Ema Integration Effortsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental cost and impacts of chemicals used in agriculture: An integration of emergy and Life Cycle Assessment

Lyu

Raugei

Zhang

et al. 2021

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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Emergy-based sustainability evaluation of two hydropower projects on the Tibetan Plateau

Chen

Mei

Ben

et al. 2020

Ecological Engineering

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Emergy evaluation using the calculation software SCALE: Case study, added value and potential improvements

Cited by 17 publications

References 41 publications

On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

Environmental cost and impacts of chemicals used in agriculture: An integration of emergy and Life Cycle Assessment

Emergy-based sustainability evaluation of two hydropower projects on the Tibetan Plateau

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