Material Flow Analysis Method Research Articles

The Method of Material Flow Analysis about Circular Economy in Coal Mining Area

Coal plays an important role in economical development and social progress, how to use it efficiently and how to set up circular economy system and evaluate its efficiency is a topic of most concern.Material flow analysis is provided as a useful to in the field of circular economy in coal mining area. In this paper, circular economy development model in coal mining area is analyzed, based on this, the framework about coal flow in circular process of coal production and usage is put forward. The method of the evaluation about the circular economy in coal mining area is also given out.

Application of the material flow analysis method for evaluating Strategic Sanitation Plan in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Fada N'Gourma–Burkina Faso

In the context of rapid urbanization across Sub-Saharan Africa there is a critical need for more robust decision-making between different ways of providing sanitation services in existing and new peri-urban areas. In several countries, authorities tried to find solutions by developing strategies to address sanitation problems in the form of Strategic Sanitation Plans. In Burkina, Strategic Sanitation Plans have been elaborated and implemented since the 1990s. Fada N'Gourma, a secondary city in Burkina, also adopted a Strategic Plan for wastewater and excreta management in 2006. In this study we use material flow analysis as a decision making tool to verify technology options of the Plan. A model was developed and data was collected in order to assess material and nitrogen flows. The status quo situation was compared to scenario based on the proposals made in the Sanitation Plan. Results show that the technology options which were recommended improved human health in the short term. However, the options led to groundwater pollution in the medium term. Compared to the current situation, matter and nitrogen flows would increase by 7% and 7.4% respectively in groundwater. It is thus concluded that the proposed options will not achieve the Plan's stated objectives of environmental protection.

Analysis of material and energy consumption of mobile phones in China

Owing to booming mobile phone ownership and a short product innovation cycle, waste mobile phones are flooding China. In 2008, about 560 million mobile phones were produced and 634 million users subscribed to a mobile phone plan in China. These large numbers mean that the charging and disposal of mobile phones has the potential to have significant impacts on the environment. Thus the evaluation of material and energy consumption of mobile phones is an important task in the end-of-life management of electronic products. This paper uses material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to estimate the life cycle impacts of mobile phones in China from manufacturing energy, use phase and generation of waste mobile phones. Results indicate over the mobile phone life cycle, manufacturing accounts for 50% of the total energy consumption, whereas the use phase accounts for only 20%. Mobile phones and supporting infrastructures account for a rapidly increasing 0.17% of Chinese energy use. In 2008, around 77 million units of waste mobile phones were generated in China. To manage this energy use and recover valuable materials recommendations are made to increase lifespan, improve energy efficiency during use and ensure recycling.

Advanced Sanitation Planning Tool with Health Risk Assessment: Case Study of a Peri-Urban Community in Thailand

ABSTRACT This article presents an application of Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) as means for advanced sanitation planning in order to quantify domestic waste flows and to estimate microbial infectious risks. The main domestic waste flows include sewerage, greywater from households, effluent of on-site sanitation systems, and illegal dumping of fecal sludge. These flows could cause the contamination of E. coli in canals at the concentration range of 9.0E+01 to 9.2E+04 MPN/100 ml. This study analyzed three scenarios of domestic waste managements: (1) household greywater treatment, (2) fecal sludge treatment, and (3) sewerage treatment, resulting in substantial reduction of E. coli concentrations in those treated effluents. Subsequently, QMRA results could confirm whether the yearly infectious risks due to the uses of treated effluents were lower than the acceptable risk of 1.0E-04 (USEPA 1994). With the aforementioned conditions, this research could demonstrate the potential as an advanced sanitation planning tool by integrating MFA and QMRA methods.

Decomposition analysis on direct material input and dematerialization of mining cities in Northeast China

Material dematerialization is a basic approach to reduce the pressure on the resources and environment and to realize the sustainable development. The material flow analysis and decomposition method are used to calculate the direct material input (DMI) of 14 typical mining cities in Northeast China in 1995–2004 and to analyze the dematerialization and its driving factors in the different types of mining cities oriented by coal, petroleum, metallurgy and multi-resources. The results are as follows: 1) from 1995 to 2006, the increase rates of the DMI and the material input intensity of mining cities declined following the order of multi-resources, metallurgy, coal, and petroleum cities, and the material utilizing efficiency did following the order of petroleum, coal, metallurgy, and multi-resources cities; 2) during the research period, all the kinds of mining cities were in the situation of weak sustainable development in most years; 3) the pressure on resources and environment in the multi-resources cities was the most serious; 4) the petroleum cities showed the strong trend of sustainable development; and 5) in recent years, the driving function of economic development for material consuming has continuously strengthened and the controlling function of material utilizing efficiency for it has weakened. The key approaches to promote the development of circular economy of mining cities in Northeast China are put forward in the following aspects: 1) to strengthen the research and development of the technique of resources’ cycling utilization, 2) to improve the utilizing efficiency of resources, and 3) to carry out the auditing system of resources utilization.

Environment consumption patterns of Chinese urban households and their policy implications

In the last two decades, sustainable consumption has become one of the most important issues in global sustainable development. Rapid economic development in China has greatly improved people's living standards, but has also seriously damaged the environment. In this paper, material flow analysis and life-cycle assessment methods were used to analyze environmental consumption patterns of Chinese urban households. Results show that the total household environmental impact (HEI) increased nearly four fold, increasing from 1.85 in the environmental potential index (EPI) in 1985 to 6.40 EPI in 2000. In 1985 and 1990, more than 80% of HEI came from food and housing consumption behaviors. In 2000, transport and housing consumption behaviors have become the main sources of HEI. Climate, economic development, household income, family size, and urbanization rate are main driving forces of household environmental impacts. The increasing consumption demand in the next two decades and its environmental implications are discussed in the last part of this paper.

Societal metabolism in Northeast China: Case study of Liaoning Province

Societal metabolism is now the outstanding emphasis of the study of sustainability. Although a great deal of studies have been done for national socio-economic systems, few results are available for subdivision level, especially in China which is the world manufacture center and one of the most important economic entities of the world. Based on the method of material flow analysis (MFA), societal metabolism in Liaoning Province, one of subdivisions of Northeast China, is studied in this article. This research can be regarded as the first attempt for studying societal metabolism of provincial socio-economic systems in China. A set of MFA indicators are measured to illustrate the quantity and quality of societal metabolism in Liaoning Province because of the lack of imports and exports data for provincial socio-economic systems. The study covers the time period from 1990 to 2003 when the Chinese central government was making great efforts to vitalize the Northeast China's traditional industrial base. MFA indicators are integrated with economic and demographic indicators to scale the material intensity and efficiency of Liaoning's socio-economic system. The results show that the quantitative development of societal metabolism in Liaoning is similar with that of China in the same period, which can be divided into three phases highly matching up to the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Five-Year National Economy and Social Development Plans implemented by Chinese central government. The results prove that the societal metabolism of a socio-economic system is greatly dominated by the macro-policy in China. Moreover, the relative amount of societal metabolism in Liaoning is higher than the average level of China. However, the quantitative advantage of societal metabolism did not succeed to satisfied economic and social return. The efficiency of societal metabolism in Liaoning is lower than the average level of whole China, and of course extremely lower than that of developed countries. For instance, Liaoning's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated by unit input of natural resources in 2003 is roughly equal to 30% of the average level of 15 main countries in European Union in 2000 and 10% of the average level of Japan in 1996. The methodology development for MFA in subdivision level is discussed and future research is proposed.

Sulfur Flow Analysis for New Generation Steel Manufacturing Process

Sulfur flow for new generation steel manufacturing process is analyzed by the method of material flow analysis, and measures for SO 2 emission reduction are put forward as assessment and target intervention of the results. The results of sulfur flow analysis indicate that 90% of sulfur comes from fuels. Sulfur finally discharges from the steel manufacturing route in various steps, and the main point is BF and BOF slag desulfurization. In sintering process, the sulfur is removed by gasification, and sintering process is the main source of SO 2 emission. The sulfur content of coke oven gas (COG) is an important factor affecting SO 2 emission. Therefore, SO 2 emission reduction should be started from the optimization and integration of steel manufacturing route, sulfur burden should be reduced through energy saving and consumption reduction, and the sulfur content of fuel should be controlled. At the same time, BF and BOF slag desulfurization should be optimized further and coke oven gas and sintering exhausted gas desulfurization should be adopted for SO 2 emission reduction and reuse of resource, to achieve harmonic coordination of economic, social, and environmental effects for sustainable development.

An approach to optimise nutrient management in environmental sanitation systems despite limited data

The material flow analysis method can be used to assess the impact of environmental sanitation systems on resource consumption and environmental pollution. However, given the limited access to reliable data, application of this data-intensive method in developing countries may be difficult. This paper presents an approach allowing to develop material flow models despite limited data availability. Application of an iterative procedure is of key importance: model parameter values should first be assessed on the basis of a literature review and by eliciting expert judgement. If model outputs are not plausible, sensitive input parameters should be reassessed more accurately. Moreover, model parameters can be expressed as probability distributions and variable uncertainty estimated by using Monte Carlo simulation. The impact of environmental sanitation systems on the phosphorus load discharged into surface water in Hanoi, Vietnam, is simulated by applying the proposed approach.

Exploration of urban deposits: long-term prospects for resource and waste management

Many materials currently in use are potentially available to become raw materials for future production if the materials are recycled instead of discarded as solid waste. However, the structure and life-expectancy of these secondary resources have not been sufficiently examined, and comprehensive methods for forecasting the availability of such materials are still lacking. This study presents a method for identifying anthropogenic material stocks in combination with the method of material flow analysis (MFA). The method was applied to copper in Switzerland as an example, with the focus on use in buildings. The exploration concept was a three-step process. First, a MFA identified the relevant stocks within the inventory of the region. Second, these stocks were inventoried through a building stock model and determination of key parameters that were defined by surveying selected buildings and from the literature. Third, the study team developed a dynamic MFA model to describe the copper stocks and flows during the period 1900-2000. The results of the copper stock calculation (in kg capita(-1)) were: buildings 79 +/- 11, infrastructure 107 +/- 25, movables 34 +/- 9, landfills 50 +/- 12. The calibrated model enabled the study team to develop resource and waste management scenarios forecasting waste flows. It is shown that the conversion of buildings into other uses may affect the waste flows significantly.

국가수준의 물질흐름분석 방법론 개발 및 적용

Material flow analysis (MFA) is one of representative methods that can evaluate the sustainability of country, company and product in the environmental aspect. This study developed the MFA method in a national scale. It proposed the detailed direct and/or indirect material flow indicators per each life cycle stage in order to support the effective management of material in a national level. Also a case study on steel was conducted to analyze the feasibility of the proposed method. As a results of MFA on steel, the life cycle material flow chart and the indicator results on both resource productivity and domestic material input per capita from 1992 to 2004 were presented.

An investigation on the potential of metal recovery from the municipal waste incinerator in Taiwan

This study aimed to identify distribution of metals and to estimate the amount of these metals that can be potentially recovered from incineration residues. First, the partitioning behavior of Cr, Cu, Fe, Cd, Al, Zn, and Pb in bottom ash and fly ash was investigated in one large municipal waste incinerator in Taiwan. In addition, the material flow analysis (MFA) method was used to estimate the material flux of metals within incinerator plant, and to calculate the amount of metal recovery. According to the findings of this study, six metals (Fe, Al, Cu, Zn, Cr, and Pb) concentrated in bottom ash mostly, while Cd existed primarily in fly ash. The weight percentages of Fe (4.49%), Al (5.24%), Cu (1.29%), Zn (2.21%), and Pb (0.58%) in incinerator ash are high, and even higher than the compositions of natural minerals. Finally, the amount of Cr, Cu, Fe, Cd, Al, Zn and Pb that can be potentially recovered from incineration residues will reach 2.69 × 10 2, 1.46 × 10 4, 4.91 × 10 4, 6.92 × 10 1, 5.10 × 10 4, 1.85 × 10 4 and 4.66 × 10 3 ton/yr, respectively.

Waste-resource flows of short-lived goods in households of Santiago de Cuba

In this paper, we apply the method of material flow analysis to analyze the consumption and waste mass flows of short-lived goods and we provide first insights into the waste management behavior of households in Santiago de Cuba. The goods analyzed are glass, aluminum, organic material and PET. The necessary data were gathered in personal interviews with 1171 households using a standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions about socio-demographic variables, such as age, sex, education, income and occupation. The households were asked how many PET bottles, aluminum and glass containers they consume per month and how they dispose of the different kinds of garbage. Our investigations show that: (i) Cuba has a high recycling rate closely comparable to that of Switzerland and Germany, which have the highest recycling rates world-wide. The high recycling rate is achieved through a combination of social organization, control and internalized norms. In contrast to other developing countries, where the informal sector plays an important role in recycling activities, in Santiago de Cuba the contribution of the informal sector is marginal. (ii) The preferred recycling path, where 50–70% of the waste is disposed of, is Comité de Defensa de la Revolución, Revolution Defense Committee (CDR), a collection entity organized at the neighborhood sector level, which also fulfills social control functions. (iii) Recyclable goods could also be sold in the “cases to compra”, where for 20 empty bottles, a filled one can be obtained. However, this recycling path is only used for 1.5–5% of the waste fraction. This can be explained by the fact that, in addition to the social control provided by CDR, pushing people to bring their recyclable materials to CDR, there is a problem of reputation: people who collect empty bottles are looked down on. (iv) There are virtually no differences in the disposal and recycling pattern between the rich and the poor quartile of the population.

The fate and management of high mercury-containing lamps from high technology industry

This study investigated the fate and management of high mercury-contained lamps, such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), ultraviolet lamps (UV lamps), and super high pressure mercury lamps (SHPs), from high technology industries in Taiwan, using material flow analysis (MFA) method. Several organizations, such as Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the light sources manufactories, mercury-containing lamps importer, high technology industrial user, and waste mercury-containing lamps treatment facilities were interviewed in this study. According to this survey, the total mercury contained in CCFLs, UV lamps, and SHPs produced in Taiwan or imported from other countries was 886 kg in year 2004. Among the various lamps containing mercury, 57 kg mercury was exported as primary CCFLs, 7 kg mercury was wasted as defective CCFLs, and 820 kg mercury was used in the high technology industries, including 463 kg mercury contained in exported industrial products using CCFLs as components. On the contrary, only 59 kg of mercury was exported, including 57 kg in CCFLs and 2 kg in UV lamps. It reveals that 364 kg mercury was consumed in Taiwan during year 2004. In addition, 140 kg of the 364 kg mercury contained in lamps used by high technology industry was well treated through industrial waste treatment system. Among the waste mercury from high technology industry, 80 kg (57%), 53 kg (38%), and 7 kg (5%) of mercury were through domestic treatment, offshore treatment, and emission in air, respectively. Unfortunately, 224 kg waste mercury was not suitable treated, including 199 kg mercury contained in CCFL, which is a component of monitor for personal computer and liquid crystal display television, and 25 kg non-treated mercury. Thus, how to recover the mercury from the waste monitors is an important challenge of zero wastage policy in Taiwan.

Material flow analysis of RDF-production processes

The authors evaluate the possibilities of modifying the chemical characteristics of refuse-derived fuels (RDF) that are processed from residual household waste 1 Residual household waste is the mixed waste that is collected after source separation. 1 by mechanical operations to achieve and assure quality targets for relevant chemical concentrations, especially for heavy metals and chlorine. Quality assurance in the production of RDF demands that, together with an enrichment of the calorific value, highly toxic waste components are selectively separated and concentrated in a small stream to produce high yields of a relatively low polluted fuel. Based on the method of material flow analysis, a process evaluation is developed that considers the aspect of minimizing hazardous chemicals along with classical process data such as yield and product quality. Data on specific concentration of hazardous chemicals in waste components and their distribution in residual household waste as well as the results from large-scale test runs using different separation techniques demonstrate that mechanical operations alone are insufficient for separating hazardous chemicals. In the test runs, chemical compounds such as chlorine, cadmium and lead were often concentrated in the product. Even using optimized techniques, the ability to reduce hazards in the product is limited due to the distribution of the element concentration in the various components of the waste stream.

Industrial recycling networks: results of rational decision making or ''organised anarchies''?

Industrial recycling networks can be very effective in minimising impacts on the environment through material cycles and energy cascades within the industrial system. However, up to date, these have mainly been studied with material and energy flow analysis methods with only few attempts to address the human-dimension of the flows, the real actors and organisations that make the decisions on the use and direction of the flows. In this contribution, the decisions that lead to inter-organisational recycling activities are investigated by drawing from the perspectives of both normative and descriptive decision theory. The central question is, to what degree are these decisions taken in a rational way, and to what degree do they remain uncoordinated, or in a state of organised anarchy? Conclusions are presented for establishing and managing industrial recycling networks.

Long-term assessment of waste management options--a new, integrated and goal-oriented approach.

Selected waste management scenarios were evaluated with regard to the goals of the Austrian Waste Management Act, taking into account long-term environmental protection and resource conservation as well as costs. Municipal solid waste (MSW) and sewage sludge have been chosen as the system inputs. The scenarios were compared to the status-quo scenario by combining Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and economic evaluation methods. Both, welfare-oriented Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Modified Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (MCEA) were applied for this assessment. Unlike CBA, MCEA takes into consideration long-term impacts of landfilled material in non-monetary terms. The results of the CBA correspond to those of the MCEA. Both evaluation methods confirm: If long-term effects are taken into account with the same weight irrespective of when they occur, the Austrian goals of waste management are reached more efficiently by thermal waste treatment scenarios than by mechanical-biological treatment scenarios or by landfilling without pre-treatment.

Thermal waste treatment and resource management — a petrologic approach to control the genesis of materials in smelting processes

Primary stores in the sense of geogenic mineral deposits (ores and stones) are diminishing, while the coresponding stocks in urban settlement are increasing accordingly. In this situation, concepts are required to use both the remaining primary resources and the secondary resources more efficiently. Petrologic evaluation is an approach in this context. Petrologic evaluation includes the combination of know-how and tools from geosciences and materials sciences. Additionally, engineering knowledge as well as material flow analysis methods are necessary. The issue to evaluate is the genesis of the flow of materials. The mode of operation of specific compounds on the genesis path is to be pursued. Based on a petrologic approach, it is possible to differentiate between essential (or favorable) and indifferent and disrupting compounds or reactions (disrupting with respect to technical means and environ-mental impact). Such an approach permits a product design in the sense of a material arrangement that is adapted to the function. The approach is illustrated with the example of a new generation of thermal waste treatment (smelting processes), which combines treatment of municipal solid wastes with production processes and mining in order to contribute to better resource management.