Integrating sustainability analysis with sectoral exergy analysis: A case study of rural residential sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

To achieve sustainable development in all stages of society the participation of rural communities is essential. Rural communities are known to employ energy inefficient devices which lead to major energy depletion and this has a negative impact on sustainability. Exergy and sustainability analyses can be applied to highlight the relation between energy utilization and sustainability. Keeping this in mind, the current study focuses on the integration of conventional sectoral exergy analysis and sustainability analysis. Based on forecasted data between 2010 and 2050, a case study of Bangladesh's rural residential sector is investigated in terms of energy, exergy, and sustainability analyses. The energy efficiencies of this sector are found to vary between 18.96% and 31.53% while exergy efficiencies vary between 4.86% and 8.42%. Several exergetic sustainability indicators such as depletion number, sustainability index, environmental effect factor, waste exergy ratio, environmental destruction coefficient, environmental destruction index, and environmental benign index are used to highlight the sustainability of this sector. From the sustainability analysis, it is found that 95% of the fuel is depleted from this sector and it contributes to lower sustainability index of 1.05. Waste exergy ratio from biomass varies between 0.75 and 0.93. This sector has the highest environmental destruction index of 39.10 and lowest environmental benign index of 0.03. Efficient use of biomass resources, replacing old biomass stoves and developing energy policies using exergy can improve the sustainability of this sector.