The contemporary European copper cycle: statistical entropy analysis
The contemporary European copper cycle: statistical entropy analysis
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当代欧洲铜循环：统计熵分析
DOI：
10.1016/s0921-8009(02)00102-7
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发表时间：
2002
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
T. Graedel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
H. Rechberger;T. Graedel
1990年代初对欧洲经济的铜流动和库存进行了为期一年的调查和评估。应用的方法是统计熵，它量化了由系统(例如政治经济)引起的物质(例如铜)的分布模式。当代铜管理可以定义为四个过程的简单链条：从矿石生产精炼铜；制造和制造产品和商品；商品的消费、利用和储存(基础设施)；将铜从废物中分离以供回收，最后是垃圾填埋(废物管理)。生产、制造和废物管理过程内部或之间的相关回收流(新废料和旧废料)也是该系统的特点。在铜的整个生命周期中，统计熵在上述过程中变化很大，并覆盖了铜的总耗散和最大浓度之间可能范围的50%左右。然而，目前的铜管理在其整个生命周期中并没有表现出明显的熵趋势。与原始矿石相比，该系统作为一个整体既不会显著地分散也不会显著地浓缩铜。即使一个更优化、回收效率更高的废物管理系统也不能显著改变这一发现，因为与铜的消耗量相比，今天流入废物管理的铜很少。对当代废物管理的熵趋势的相对有限的影响在未来可能会增加，因为过去几十年建立的基础设施将不断更新和更换。由于这些更大的废流，如果应用高效的回收技术，总体上的熵下降趋势将是可能的。这表明了长期可行(或许是可持续的)铜管理的可能性。熵方法提高了我们对工业新陈代谢的理解，是一种有用的决策支持和设计工具，因为复杂系统因此可以通过每种物质的单一度量来量化。
The copper flows and stocks of the European economy are investigated and evaluated over a 1-year period in the early 1990s. The method applied is statistical entropy, which quantifies the distribution pattern of a substance (e.g. copper) caused by a system (e.g. political economy). Contemporary copper management can be defined as a simple chain of four processes: production of refined copper from ore; manufacture and fabrication of products and goods; consumption, utilization and storage (infrastructure) of goods; and separation of copper from waste for recycling and finally, landfilling (waste management). Relevant recycling streams (new and old scrap) within or between production, manufacture, and waste management processes also characterize the system. Throughout the life cycle of copper the statistical entropy varies considerably among the above-mentioned processes and covers about 50% of the possible range between total dissipation and maximal concentration of the total throughput of copper. Nevertheless, present copper management does not show a clear entropy trend across its life cycle. The system as a whole neither dissipates nor concentrates copper significantly with regard to the original ore. Even a more optimized waste management system with higher recycling efficiency could not significantly change this finding since today's copper flows into waste management are small compared to the consumption of copper. The relatively limited impact on the entropy trend of contemporary waste management may increase in the future because the infrastructure, which has been established over the last few decades, will be continuously renewed and replaced. As a result of these larger waste streams, decreasing overall entropy trends will be realizable, provided efficient recycling technologies are applied. This indicates the possibility for long-term feasible (perhaps sustainable) copper management. The entropy approach improves our understanding of industrial metabolism and is a useful decision support and design tool, since complex systems can thereby be quantified by a single metric per substance.