New method to compute the emergy of crustal minerals
Christopher D. De Vilbiss and
Mark T. Brown
Ecological Modelling, 2015, vol. 315, issue C, 108-115
Abstract:
To date, Unit Emergy Values (UEVs) for crustal minerals (e.g. limestone, iron ore, etc.) have lacked thermodynamic basis and suffer from overly vague generalization (relative to most other, more certain emergy indicators). We assume a steady state crustal cycle that embodies the various forms of exergy supporting Earth system cycles. The UEV of average crust is 1.75E+09 solar emergy joules per gram (specific emergy). The ratio of crustal specific emergy to a mineral's exergy density (exergy per mass) is the mineral's transformity. This is an important assertion as it is the dissipation of exergy which hierarchically organizes materials. Emergy accounting should be able to express every resource either a transformity or specific emergy, linked by exergy density; crustal minerals are no exception.
Keywords: Material quality; Environmental accounting; Specific emergy; Transformity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380015001374
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:315:y:2015:i:c:p:108-115
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.04.007
Access Statistics for this article
Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath
More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().