C-VORR: Complex-Value Optimisation for Resource Recovery

传统上，我们认为工业制造过程生产有经济价值的有用产出-产品-和有处理成本的不需要的产出-废物。考虑过程及其产品和副产品的“总价值”通常更有用，原因有二。首先，调整制造过程通常可以使“废物”材料变成对另一种产品有用的东西（例如，钢铁制造可以进行调整，以便将主要废物，高炉炉渣添加到混凝土中，使其更便宜，更耐腐蚀）。这可以增加流程的总价值。其次，如果我们只考虑产品和副产品的经济价值，我们忽略了总价值的其他重要方面。例如，增加高炉炉渣的经济价值，可以使其从垃圾填埋场转移出来；因此，减少了对环境的破坏，或者换句话说，也增加了环境价值。钢铁制造业也可能具有社会价值，为一个地区提供就业机会。通过观察总价值的三个方面——经济、环境和社会——如何随着制造过程的调整而变化，我们可以从“产品+废物”的模式转向一个我们可以优化整个制造过程对社会的总价值的模式。要做到这一点，我们需要建立一个全新的模型来分析制造过程。这将结合环境科学（生命周期评估）、环境经济学（物料流分析）、社会科学（社会成本/效益分析）和数学建模（随机多标准决策分析）中使用的一些建模方法。它还将创造一个新的“价值”概念——总复杂价值——考虑并结合工业过程的经济、社会和环境影响。它将努力优化从“摇篮到摇篮”的价值，并使我们能够衡量诸如为拆卸设计、上游去污染、优化闭环回收和upvs的真正价值。down-cycling。因为它将允许我们分析过程中干预对总价值的影响，然后我们可以使用它来调整现有流程或设计新流程，确保它们在正确的时间安装在正确的位置，以最大限度地提高社会效益。最终，我们希望新模式能让我们摆脱对废物的旧思考，并帮助我们建立一个循环材料流动的可持续社会。开发这个模型需要非常广泛的专业知识。我们可以汇集来自必要领域的专家（例如土木工程，环境工程，经济学，数学，工业生态学，社会科学，材料科学，产品设计，地理，水管理，过程工程），因为利兹大学的独特之处在于已经存在几个具有一系列必要专业知识的跨学科联盟（例如water@leeds， EPSRC破坏基础设施，FP7 FESSUD -见跟踪记录）。这笔拨款将帮助这些联盟通过研究挑战研讨会进行项目合作。最初，我们将集中在利兹大学，利用我们庞大的学科范围，通过最大限度地减少运输支出，沟通障碍和滞后时间，从NERC资源中提取最大价值。后来，当外部专业知识被确定为必要时，将寻求利兹或学术界以外的合作者；同样，通过广泛的现有网络。

Traditionally, we think of industrial manufacturing processes as producing useful output that have economic value - products - and unwanted outputs with disposal costs - wastes. It is often more useful to think in terms of the 'total value' of the process and its products and co-products, for two reasons. First, adjusting the manufacturing process can often make the 'waste' material into a something useful for another product (e.g. iron and steel manufacture can be adapted so that the main waste, blast-furnace slag, can be added to concrete to make it cheaper and more resistant to corrosion). This can increase the total value of the process. Secondly, if we only take in to account the economic value of the products and coproducts, we overlook other important aspects of the total value. For example, adding economic value to the blast-furnace slag has the added benefit of diverting it from landfill; thus, the evnvironmental damage is reduced, or, put another way, the environmental value is also increased. Iron and steel manufacture may also have a social value, by providing jobs for a region. By looking at how all three aspects of total value - economic, environmental and social - vary as the manufacturing process is adjusted, we can move away from a 'product + waste' model to one where we can optimise the total value to society of the whole manufacturing process. To do this, we need to build a completely new model for analysing manufacturing processes. This will combine a number of modelling approaches used in environmental science (life cycle assessment), environmental economics (materials flow analysis), social science (social cost/benefit analysis) and mathematical modelling (stochastic multi-criteria decision analysis). It wil also create a new concept of 'value' - total complex value - that considers and combines the economic, social and environmental impacts of industrial processes. It will strive to optimise value from 'cradle to cradle' and allow us to measure the true value of e.g. designing for dismantling, upstream de-pollution, optimising closed-loop recycling and upvs. down-cycling. Because it will allow us to analyse the effect of interventions in the process on total value, we can then use it to adjust existing processes or design new processes, ensuring they are installed in the right place at the right time to maximise the benefit to society. Ultimately, we want the new model to move us away from old thinking about waste, and help us build a sustainable society with circular materials flow. A very broad range of expertise is required to develop the model. We can bring together experts from the necessary fields (e.g. civil engineering, environmental engineering, economics, mathematics, industrial ecology, social science, materials science, product design, geography, water management, process engineering) because Leeds University is unique in that several interdisciplinary consortia with a range of the necessary expertise already exist (e.g. water@leeds, EPSRC Undermining Infrastructure, FP7 FESSUD - see Track Record). This grant will help these consortia collaborate across projects through research challenge workshops. Initially, we will concentrate within the University of Leeds, leveraging our enormous range of disciplines to extract maximum value from the NERC resource by minimising transport expenditure, communication barriers and lag time. Later, where external expertise is identified as essential, collaborators from outside Leeds or academia will be sought; again, via extensive existing networks.