ENEN2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Sustainable Engineering, Heat Pump And Refrigeration Cycle, Greenhouse Gas
11 Jun 2018
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1
L1 Sustainable Systems Engineering
Developing our footprint
-Footprint – a composite measure of the
human impact of an individual or an
engineering enterprise on the global
environment
-Human development was constrained by
geography and the limitations of muscle
power.
-Technological advancements that people
have developed over the past using fossil
fuel has drastically change our relationship
with the planet
-This reflects a growing awareness that the
planet is a close system (closed system) that
human activities are now influencing the
entire planet in a significant way including
global climate
-close system – resource we have – cannot
be obtain from anywhere else
- only input solar energy from the sun –
everything remains trapped on the planet –
we have a finite world
Difference between now and the past
• Waste is an issue
• New technologies
• Greenhouse gas
• Resource availability
Systems and Systems thinking
Systems – a set of things working together
as part of one mechanism or interacting
becoming a network of things – a complex
whole
The relationship between the processes can
also be analysed
There are sources and sinks (production of
waste) that quantify the inputs and outputs
System approach
• Project management
• Refrigeration cycle
• Carbon cycle
The system consists of ;
• Input and output process
o They are nested and
illustrate the relationships
o They act upon sources and
sinks
• Systems are abstract – most
important feature
• Systems- multi and
interdisciplinary and offers a
perspective and understanding
problems
• Sustainability can be approached as
a systems problem
Global perspective
-Climate change – sea rise
-Resource demand
-Population growth -need more energy,
resources
Effects of population growth
-need more resources and energy – will
then produce more energy and waste
resources
• The global economy consumes
resources and energy to
generate value for society- it
also produces waste energy and
waste resources
What happens as the population
grows?
• Energy and resources required
to sustain the population
increases – this increases global
economy and more pressure on
resources(sink for the waste)
and their limits.
We live in a finite world – there are
limits to what we can do on this
planet
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2
How to manage this? – Sustainable
engineering
How to be more sustainable?
• More ecological efficient – less
impact on the environment
-everything that will be
available now will be available
in the future
What can we do?
-Reduce the amount of energy and
resources that are used-use more renewable
-Reduce the amount of waste energy and
resources generated
-Reuse the waste energy and resources ie
recycling
What is the most sustainable solution?
-use the source of energy that is “free” and
without generating any waste
-obtain our energy and resources directly
from solar energy
-create no waste by recycling all energy
and resources -zero sinks
If we have achieved sustainable
development then we have achieved
sustainability
Sustainability, sustainable development
and industrial ecology
What does sustainable development mean?
-Is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability
future generations to meet their own needs
How do we measure a sustainable system-
ecological footprint
• A community’s ecological
footprint is the total resource
area of land in a given eco-
system required to support the
community’s need for food,
water, wood, energy and
waste processing capacity.
Even if growth increases, still try to manage
footprint.
Footprint- a composite measure of the
human impact of an individual or an
engineering enterprise on the global
environment
What does sustainability mean?
• It means we have to accept that
the economic system and the
environment are a combined
system and need to be treated as
one system not two.
Sustainability – is the goal or endpoint of a
process known as (ecologically) sustainable
development
Limits to growth
-described the prospects for growth in the
human population and global economy
during the coming century.
-long term causes and consequences of
growth in population, food production,
pollution etc. to keep tract of these
interacting entities and to project their
possible paths into the future we created a
computer model called World 3
The 3 summary conclusion on the above
investigation
1. If the present growth trend in food
production, world population etc
continue unchanged then the limits
to growth on this planet will be
reached sometime within the next
100 years.
2. It is possible to alter these trends
and to establish a condition of
ecological and economic stability
that is sustainable far into the future.
3. If the world’s people decide to
strive for this second outcome
rather than the first, the sooner they
begin working to attain it, the
greater will be their chances of
success.
The conclusion spelled out not doom but a
challenge – how to bring about a society
that is materially sufficient, socially
equitable and ecologically sustainable –
and that is more satisfying in human terms
than the growth obsessed society of today.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Footprint a composite measure of the human impact of an individual or an engineering enterprise on the global environment. Human development was constrained by geography and the limitations of muscle power. Technological advancements that people have developed over the past using fossil fuel has drastically change our relationship with the planet. This reflects a growing awareness that the planet is a close system (closed system) that human activities are now influencing the entire planet in a significant way including global climate. Close system resource we have cannot be obtain from anywhere else. Only input solar energy from the sun everything remains trapped on the planet we have a finite world. Difference between now and the past: waste is an issue, new technologies, greenhouse gas, resource availability. Systems a set of things working together as part of one mechanism or interacting becoming a network of things a complex whole. The relationship between the processes can also be analysed.
