2b2c lecture notes 1 rwf
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oxford engineering ethics lecture notesTRANSCRIPT
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Environment and
Sustainability
Robert Field
goods, services and waste
some basic material and energy concepts
the role of engineers
Lecture 1: Engineers and the
environment
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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.
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Engineering is
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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
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Why should you care?
1.
2. Political environment requires it?
3. Helps win contracts?
4. Helps avoid prosecutions?
5. Long term nature of engineered solutions?
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"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.
Credit: Wikipedia
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Plentiful supplies of cheap energy (wood, then coal)
fuelled the industrial revolution
Widnes, mid-
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Civil,
mechanical,
control,
electrical and
chemical
engineering at
Stanlow cat
cracker
produces
automotive
fuel from oily
residues.
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The
engineered
environment.
M2 motorway
and Eurostar
train crossing
the River
Medway in
Kent.
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Natural
Ecosystems &
Agriculture
Industrial
Production
Human
Society
(after Clift R, Trans Inst Chem Eng B2 151 1998)
Resource flows Solar
energy
Waste
Emissions
to air and
water
Emissions
to air and
water
Emissions
to air and
water
Emissions
and
dispersed
residues
Goods &
Services
Food &
Products
Non-renewable
Resources
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Sustainable development?
The early history of modern sustainable development:
World Conservation Strategy (WCS): published in 1980 by the World
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.
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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
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Traditional SD concept
Economy
Society
Environment
SD
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Robust SD concept
Environment
Society
Economy
The economy operates within the
limits of society which flourishes
within the limits of nature.
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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
Total waste flow (inc waste water) > 100 x 109 tonne per year,
Less than 2% recycled
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)
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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.)
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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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Global population, billion
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060
Sources: World Energy Council; World Bank; D. Bice, Carleton College MN; US Census bureau
Human Development Flows of Resource
Global water consumption, km3/y
Global energy consumption, Gtoe/y
Annual usage
Oil: 5 km3
Fresh Water: 5000 km3
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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
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Coal: Direct combustion, 90% to heat only,
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Conversion of fossil fuels
20 DECHEMA
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Main source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2010
34.64
29.25
23.68
6.61
5.45
0.26 0.07 0.05
Oil
Coal
Gas
Hydro
Nuclear
Wind
Solar thermal
Geothermal
2009 Primary energy supply, by type, % Total is 11.2 Gtoe (~16TW)
1 toe = 41.868 GJ
Biofuels are omitted
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Primary energy consumption and
production, 1998
Source http://www.ourplanet.com/aaas/
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Linear to circular
The Linear Economy
Resources
Production
Consumption
Waste
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Ecosystems
Resources
Production and
consumption
Waste
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Soil Organic
matter
Ecosystems
Leaf fall and
decay
Nutrient
uptake and tree
growth
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The ecological model 2
Duck Doo
Nutrients
(plus CO2 and H2O)
Microbial
decomposition
Consumption
Inputs of solar
energy
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Resources
Production
Consumption
Waste
(Renewable)
Energy
The ecological model 3
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The ecological model 4
The
economy
Biological nutrients
Technical nutrients
Energy
The planet
The sun
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Pros & cons of the ecological model
Pros Potential for genuine sustainability
Mature eco-systems are a working model
Resistant to rebound effects
Cons
Weaker economic driver, although it has intrinsic efficiencies (eg:
recycling 1 aluminium can saves energy equivalent to a 100W bulb
running for 20 hours)
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Rebound effect: eg commuting
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160E
ne
rgy
GJ
pa
Normal Car Efficient Car Efficient Car & Flight
Indirect Rebound Effect
Direct Rebound Effect
Base Consumption
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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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The mark 1 engineer: the man* who
made an economic return on capital invested
delivered product fit for purpose of client
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.
Mark 1 and Mark 2 Engineers
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But what of the future?
The mark 3 engineer must consider the
needs of society, as well as economic and
environmental impacts. Welcome to the
world of sustainable engineering!
Minority Report DreamWorks
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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 0-
87371-884-4 CRC Press LLC
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, LTC Rolt 1970 Penguin
BP Statistical review of World Energy (web downloads)