Physics concepts in educational issues: from the energy
systems analysis to the physics of complex systems
Part I: energy
F. Gonellaa*, S. Spagnolob
a
b
*
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice,
Dorsoduro 2137, 30123 Venice, Italy
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Dorsoduro 2137, 30123 Venezia, Italy
e-mail: gonella@unive.it
Received: 2012-07-30
Accepted: 2012-10-31
Abstract: Facing complex environmental problems require inter- and multidisciplinary approaches which
typically range from hard science to Economics and social sciences, even involving ethical issues. In this context,
Physics has become a peculiar framework for the description and the analysis of complex systems. For example,
concepts like cahotic dynamics, criticality, self-organization, as well as disciplines like econophysics and most of
all non-equilibrium Thermodynamics have become useful tools to describe the evolution and the stability conditions of several environmental systems. Indeed, Physics can provide quantitative non-traditional approaches
which therefore require specific higher education programmes to be effectively managed. In this work, some
illustrative examples are outlined as representative cases for establishing instructional methods that incorporate some concepts related to Thermodynamics and complex systems theory. The aim of the contribution is at
pointing out what the university students need in terms of modern Physics cultural background and assets for a
truly scientific approach to environmental as well as social problems. A course based on the Physics of complex
systems approach was delivered in the curriculum for the second level Degree as well as the Doctoral School in
Environmental Sciences at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, during the last two years. Moreover, a course for
Economics students was taken about the physical approaches to economic systems. Students, especially those
ranked in the top third of the class, manifested a quite remarkable interest for the topics, with the main result
that they learned the possibility to exploit the conceptual tools acquired during the lectures in their respective
fields of interest, ranging from ecology, global energy policies, energy systems analysis, to ecosystems modelling
and data treatment. In this paper, the first part is introduced concerning the energy systmes, while the second
part will be dedicated to concepts related to complex systems approaches.
Keywords: Education, Physics, Complex systems, Energy, Exergy, Emergy.
DOI: 10.7361/SciCF-178
1. Introduction
Science literacy, and in particular Physics literacy,
is actually strongly needed in a wide range of fields,
since integrated and multi-disciplinary approaches
are required in any decision-making process concerning the planning of strategies for complex technology-based and environmental systems. Examples
are energy networks, transportation, environmental
78
protection and in general all the actions inspired
by the concept of Sustainable Development. In this
work, we will refer to physical concepts and approaches that are not pertaining to classical Physics, nor to the theoretical Physics developed from
quantum and relativity theories. The Physics which
is mostly needed to be thaught in virtually any discipline at a university level is related to branches
mainly grown during the 70s and 80s of the past
sciences at ca’ foscari
Century. This body of knowledge takes its roots from
the theory of complex systems, the non-equilibrium
Thermodynamics, the theory of Chaos, the catastrophes theory, and in general from the observation
that several phenomena in different contexts exhibit
the same physico-mathematical description, so that
features like self-organization, critical instability,
generalized phase transitions, emergent properties, hierarchical self-arrangements are suitable to
be studied by means of proper isomorphisms of the
respective variables and concepts. Being a complex
system composed of interconnected parts that as a
whole exhibit “collective” properties not deducible
for the individuals behavior, it is clear how ant colonies, community economies, climate, energy and telecommunication network and systems share several
features and behaviors that may be therefore framed
in the same analyical approaches.
As pointed out by David Goodstein, as a matter
of fact 95 percent of the American public is illiterate in science by any rational definition of science
literacy [1]. But if science illiteracy is a problem at a
general level, the lack of knowledge about the above
mentioned topics could deprive the decision makers,
at any level, of critically precious tools for an effective planning in the socio-economical context [2].
This point has been addressed in the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development [3],
where one the goals in the Conference Resolutions
is explicitly “To develop supplemental instructional
materials for secondary physics courses that help
students understand how the mastery of Physics
concepts can enable them to contribute to sustainable development in their own Countries”.
Table 1 lists – though certainly not compre-hensively – the subject and concepts that will be treated
in the two parts of this article, along with a list of
fields in which they are used. This latter list points
out in turn the most important disciplines which the
concepts should enter in the educational activity at
a university level.
It is worth stressing that non-equilibrium Thermodyamics is in particular suitable to be learned as
one of the most general disciplines. In spite of its
historical foundation as an engineering discipline
aimed at determining the efficiency of engines, it assumed straightaway the status of a deeply abstract
approach in the study of virtually any element of Nature, mainly starting from the work of Ludwig Boltzmann about the link between entropy and probability,
framed in the famous formula S=k·logW. Thermodysciences at ca’ foscari
namics abstraction has been in fact effetively used to
build up isomosphisms between thermo-dynamical
quantities and laws and corresponding concepts
pertaining to very different fields, for example, biology, etology, information theory, macroeconomics,
social sciences [4].
Table 1. Physics-related subjects, concepts and fields.
(Non-equilibrium)
Complex systems
Subjects
thermodynamics
- State space
- Feedback
- Entropy
- Self-organization
- Energy
- Emergent properties
- Exergy
Concepts
- Criticality
- Emergy
- Chaotic dynamics
- Catastrophe
- Space state trajectory
- Attractor
- Generalized forces
- Bifurcation
and flows
- Adaptive system
- Thermodynamic - Non-linear system
Derived
probability
- Sensitivity
concepts - Macro and microstate
- Critical state
- Stationary state
- Fractal dimension
- Scale invariance
- Sustainable development
- Ecosystems analysis
- Environmental Economics
Fields
- Environmental policy
- Energy systems and networks analysis
2. Energy systems and networks
Challenges related to the energy problem have
drawn in recent years an enormous attention, mainly
for the issues connected to climate changes, impoverishment of the fossil energy sources, globalization and in general to the sustainable development,
which not more than 25 years ago was just unknown
to the most. The need for an integrated approach
in the management of energy production and distribution is witnessed by the proliferation of dedicated research Journals as well as by the several
programmes established by both governmental and
global Agencies and Institutions (see for example
the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme [5]). Various initiatives are explicitly recommended in this
sense, for example, the development of planning
and management tools for calculating energy balance, self-supply energy networks, integration of
renewable energy technologies, energy smart buildings, electricity use efficiency, and in general energy
sustainability. In particular, the assessment of methodologies able to evaluate the suitable pathways to
79
renewable and efficient energy systems are strongly
needed. All these factors address the need for an
integrated energy-related cultural framework for
scientists, engineers, economists and policy makers, as demonstrated for example by the fruitless
debate that accompanied the nuclear energy option
for literally decades. In this sense, a background of
Physics-based concepts seems to be necessary for a
comprehensive understanding of the energy problem whatsoever. Even though specific educational
programmes have entered several multi-national
projects (see for example [6]), academic Institutions
tend to maintain traditional programmes without
that trans-disciplinary character which appears to
become more and more essential.
Among them, recent papers by Jacobson and
Delucchi [7,8] describe a transition towards a
global energy supplied by wind, water, and solar
power, taking into account, besides the energy
resources per se, a comprehensive analysis of
quantities and areas of infrastructure, materials,
reliability, system and transmission costs, and
policies. The somewhat surprising conclusion of
the work is that “barriers to a 100% conversion to
WWS power worldwide are primarily social and
political, not technological or even economic” [8],
thus dramaticaly underlining the strong need for
both a scientific and a non-scientific integrated
approach to the problem.
Generally speaking, energy networks planning
is determined by both the culture of a society and
the available technologies, which along with the
geographical constraints come to select suitable
alternatives. The choice and the realization of the
energy system is based as a matter of fact on the
ethical values system, on the security necessity
and most of all on the policies that can provide
economic and/or social incentives.
Energy, measured in Joule (J), is the
mathematical function quantifying the capability
to perform work. It may exhibit different forms,
which are usually distinguished depending on the
way each of them provides useful work for human
activities, so that one talks of electric energy as
well as mechanical, nuclear, electromagnetic,
thermal, potential, chemical energy, etc..
The energy of the Universe is conserved (1st
principle of Thermodynamics), in the sense
that it can be transformed from one form to
culture
another, transferred, stored but not created nor
geographical
features
destroyed. Despite this, a sort of “degradation”
technology
of the energy resource is however unavoidable,
following the 2nd principle of Thermodynamics,
which addresses the irreversible increase of
alternative projects
entropy in a closed system. From the point of view
of human activities involving energy processes
and flows, it is more useful to differentiate the
security
ethics
policies
energy forms depending on their use. Typically,
energy is then considered as: Primary (solar,
geothermal, planetary, fuels); Secondary (at
realization of
conversion stations); Final (electricity, gasoline
energy network
at user); Useful (converted energy at user), and
Rejected (in the environment). This classification
shifts the attention toward the processes rather
alternative
Sustainable
than the forms, but what is important to point
scenarios
Development
out is that any energy system analysis require
methodologies that take into account factors
and aspects belonging to traditionally nonFig. 1. Energy network settlement issues.
communicating disciplines. In the last years,
several papers were published describing possible
Depending on the risk factors acting at different
scenarios -at different geographical levels- for
scales
(climate changes, geochemical cycles modifithe conversion of energy supply networks based
cations),
it is necessary to consider alternative sceon fossil fuels to renewable sourcesbased ones.
narios and to perform environmental impact assess80
sciences at ca’ foscari
ments at any level (including life cycle assessment,
ecological footprint, etc.), such to make the energy
planning of a territory ecologically compatible and
consistent with the principles of sustainable development. Figure 1 shows a synoptic scheme reporting the logical connection between different realms
participating in the definition of the energy problem.
As already pointed out, there is a strong
need for quantities and indices able to quantify and
address an effective computation of the efficiency of
the energy systems. In the following, the concepts of
Exergy and Emergy are introduced, with some short
examples of their suitability in energy systems analysis. Indeed, exergy and emergy are two concepts
related to the actual capability of exploiting the energy provided by a source, or flowing toward the end
user. Quite surprisingly, both of them are still rarely
referred to when dealing with energy networks and
systems, whereas the energy flow analysis could be
effectively compared for example to the analysis of
the exergy flow for a better understading of the real
feasibility and the real efficiency of a system.
3. Exergy
The concept of exergy has been defined first by
Zoran Rant [9] back in 1953, to indicate the “technical working capacity”, so intending to quantify the
connection between a system and its environment
in terms of the actual work available from a certain
energy flow. Other definitions of exergy have been
afterwards proposed [10-12]. The exergy of a system in an environment may be defined as the maximum mechanical work that can be extracted from
the system in that certain environment, while from
the point of view of its role in the energy processes,
it is that part of energy that is convertible into all
other forms of energy. From a physical point of view,
while energy cannot be produced nor consumed, exergy can actually be destroyed, since it has to do
with the quality of energy forms. Exergy may be
also connected to entropy, in the sense that exergy
consumption is related to the irreversible increase
of entropy for the couple system+environment [13].
The advantage in developing a system analysis in
terms of exergy is that both energy (in its various
forms) and materials can be regarded as exergy
carriers, each one labeled with a “quality index”,
expressed by the percentage of exergy with respect
to its energy content. This may sounds awkward in
sciences at ca’ foscari
the case of matter, but it must be considered that
the chemical form of materials can play the crucial
role in energy-producing systems; the typical example is in batteries, that provide electric energy by
operating a change in the form of the matter which
are made of. As pointed out by Wall [10], the exergy
content in a certain material can be regarded as
the energy needed to fabricate this material from
the given environment by reversible processes. It
is worth remarking that this approach is conceptually close to the Life Cycle Assessment, which -in
defining the impact of a product or service- takes
into account all its life cycle, from the raw materials
extraction to its final withdrawal. Chemical exergy
is carried by biological matter, too. In this case, also
the so-called structural exergy may be taken into
account, for food consumption involves both the
chemical trans-formation related to the metabolism
and the possibility of using aminoacids as building
blocks for the body tissues.
To give an example of exergy-based analysis, let
us compare energy and exergy flows for a power
plant, e.g., a coal plant, which transforms the coal
chemical energy into heat, then used to create high
pressure vapour, which converts the energy in mechanical motion by means of a turbine, and is finally
used to produce electric energy.
power plant energy flow
chemical
energy
steam
motion
electricity
friction
heat
exhaust
power plant exergy flow
chemical
exergy
steam
motion
heat
electricity
friction
exhaust
Fig. 2. Energy (above) and exergy (below) flows for a coal power
plant.
81
In fig. 2, (adapted from [10]), the Sankey diagrams
are shown for both energy and exergy flows. Total input and output in the two cases are equal, since we are
dealing here with high quality energy forms. Without
entering technical details, what appears anyway quite
different is the role of the processes that decrease the
energy and the exergy outputs (note that, contrary to
the case of energy, exergy is actually destroyed). While
the energy analysis indicates that the heaviest loss occurs in the heat-exchanger that cools the water, exergy
appears to be mostly lost internally, thus indicating
where new technical solutions must be addressed for
a better efficiency of the plant.
What is much interesting is that the exergy concept assumes an analytical form, so making it available for quantitative studies. Let us take a system
that can exchange heat, work and matter with an environment whose intensive quantities are then supposed to be constant. All spontaneous processes that
take place involving energy and/or matter exchange
may be used in principle for obtaining mechanical
(high quality) energy, as far as the equilibrium is not
reached. Exergy may be expressed in the form [14]:
Ex = U – U0 + P0 (V – V0) – T0 (S – S0) – ∑i µi (ni – ni0)
where T, P and mi are temperature, pressure
and chemical potential (for the i-th species) of the
system, respectively, while V, U, S and ni are the
extensive properties, namely, its volume, internal
energy, entropy and number of moles (of the i-th species), respectively. The corresponding zero-ed terms
are the values of the respective variables when the
equilibrium is reached. The four terms on the right
side represent in turn the variation of the internal
energy, the work coming from a volume change due
to a pressure gradient, the heat exchanged (calculated along a reversible trans-formation) and the
work related to matter migration, respectively. It
is worth noting that this expression goes to zero
when the system+environment ensemble reaches
the final equilibrium state. It is possible to see that
the energy actually converted into mechanical or
electric work comes out to be always less than the
exergy, since its expression takes into account all the
(not exploitable) energy/matter exchange between
system and environment, and at the same time uses
an ideal heat exchange without entropy production.
Thus, exergy can be actually used as an effective
index for determining the real efficiency of a process.
Since exergy of something -as said- may be linked
82
to the exergy cost for fabricating that something, it
is clear that the flow of resources themselves mat
be described from an exergetic point of view. In this
respect, international trade can therefore be analyzed in the framework of exergy exchange and consumption. This is furthermore interesting since the
exergy needed to the production of a certain material, good or service is different depending on the
production site, that is, its production environment.
So, exergy-based analyses not only can shed further
light on the global efficiency of energetic systems,
but also address where and how to operate technical
interventions. Though difficult to be comparatively
assessed for different environments, exergy concept
is so closely related to the human sociaty and activities that it should certainly be introduced in any curriculum Degree dealing with environmental problems,
from Science to Economics. In particular, no student
should graduate from any high educational Institution without a basic comprehension of Thermodynamics, focused on energy and matter flows. A dedicated course should be delivered especially in these
disciplines that, even starting from a non-scientific
framework, come to face the technical and abstract
approaches from Physics. Needless to say, any specific Sustainable Development programme will also
include this kind of thermodynamical approach in the
study of energy systems and networks, tailored on
the scientific (physical) background of the students.
4. Emergy
The concept of Emergy (from “Embodied Energy”)
as a quantity suitable to quantify the “real” wealth
and the “real” standard of living is dated back to the
70s. Its suitability to account for how much energy
is actually embedded in a product or service comes
from the observation that when different energy
sources are used at the same time, their differences
in quality must be considered in the evaluation of the
actual energy costs, since the capability to perform
work depends on the quality of the energy provided
by a source. Howard T. Odum was the first to put
the basis for emergy analyses [15], defining emergy
as “the available energy of one kind that is used up
in transformations directly and indirectly to make a
product or service”. In this respect, emergy quantifies how much energy has been used to build something, and so it can be regarded as the “memory” of
its building up, that is, as how much energy is emsciences at ca’ foscari
bedded in a product or service. The unit of emergy
is from a physical point of view the same of energy
but is called emjoule (eJ), that tells us the available
energy of one kind consumed in transformations.
Emergy then allows to analytically compare
any kind of energy, energy source or service by expressing them in a common baseline, usually that of
solar emergy, by computing the emjoules of solar energy required to produce any of the respective contributions to an energy system or network, as well
as in general to any energy-related human activity.
Emergy approach requires some further definitions,
among which the “transformity” plays an important
role, defined as the emergy input per unit of available energy output. All calculations are made assuming that the solar transformity (in units named solar
emjoules, seJ, per J) of the sunlight absorbed by the
Earth is 1 seJ/J. Material resources are accounted for
as well, since energy is spent to concentrate the materials (in space as well as in their usable chemical
form), through the definition of specific emergy, in
seJ/g, equal to the emergy per unit of product mass.
Empower is then the intensive quantity connected
with the above mentioned ones. It is defined as the
emergy flow (released or used) per unit time, being
thus expressed in seJ/s or seJ/yr.
What takes the emergy concept outside the realm
of traditional science is the concept of emergy per
money unit, that is the emergy related to the generation of one unit of economic product (in currency),
allowing one to convert (even somewhat not univocally) money transfers into emergy units. In this
way, the role played in an energy flow process by
monetary transfers turns out to be the purchased
emergy, since the environment does not participate
to monetary transfers [16]. In this way, the actual
available resources may be effectively quantified by
the emergy availability, besides of course the money
one. A solar emjoules/currency index can be then
defined, as the total emergy use of a community
over its gross domestic product (GDP). For example, every dollar spent in United States economy has
embodied in it 1012 seJ of emergy [17]. It has been
observed that this index is related to the inflation,
thus measuring the real wealth, whereas the emergy
per person is a measure of the standard of living,
that in turn may be expressed in “em€”, or “em$”,
units. As a matter of fact, Countries living more on
local resources than purchased goods have higher
emergy to dollar ratios, whereas trading disparity is
actually driven by emergy consumption unbalance.
sciences at ca’ foscari
Fig. 3. Emergy diagram for the biofuel production activity.
surface
water
wind
goods
fuels
geological
processes
rain
services
$
water
soils
agricultural
crop
assets
transport
processing
$
fermentation
distillation
wastes
degraded
energy
biofuel
$
Sun
Operatively, system diagrams are drawn accounting for all inputs and outputs carrying emergy flows,
from which quantitative results may be obtained by
exploiting some performance indices:
•
Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR) = Total emergy
used per unit of emergy invested. This is a
measure of how much an investment allows
a process to use local resources.
• Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR) = Nonrenewable and imported emergy over renewable emergy. This is very similar in its effectiveness to indices used for evaluating an
ecosystem stress.
• Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI) = The ratio
of the two indices above, giving a measure of
how much a resource or process contributes
to the economy per unit of environmental
loading.
As an example, fig. 3 reports the diagram accounting for the biofuel production activity [18] (courtesy
of Prof. M.T. Brown, University of Florida). Symbols
have the following meaning: circles are the sources
(forcing functions), shields are the tanks, bullets are
the producer units (collect and transform energy)
and diamonds indicate money transfers.
83
By analyzing the flows the above mentioned indices may be estimated, from which suitable information for an efficient planning policy can be assessed.
Emergy diagrams can be actually set at any level of
analysis. Figure 4 [18] illustrates more generally the
empower supporting the geobiosphere. The quantitative annual emergy flows are also indicated, in
1024 seJ units [17].
Earth
heat
Sun-Moon
(tides)
Sun
3.9
3.8
8.1
atmosphere
fossil
fuels
34.3
5. Discussion and Conclusions
crust
heat
oceans
human
activity
degraded energy
Fig. 4. Empower supporting the geobiosphere.
Emergy considerations also enter in the behavior description of complex systems in terms of selforganization: in particular, a principle has been
proposed called “Maximum empower principle”,
describing how a system network spontaneously
evolves towards evolution paths which maximize
the empower, at any hierarchical level. Indeed, selforganization seems to give rise to network parts
connections, by spontaneously tailoring feedbacks
between the different emergy exchanges in the system. As Odum himself says [19], “In time, through
the process of trial and error, complex patterns of
structure and processes have evolved (...) the successful ones surviving because they use materials
and energies well in their own maintenance, and
compete well with other patterns that chance interposes”. Actually, systems can maximize empower
for example by storing high-quality energy and then
feeding it back to inflows, as well as by recycling
materials, building up stability control mechanisms,
and all these contribute, when properly included in
84
the emergy system diagram, to a realistic description and analysis of the system at issue. Even if literature has proposed many emergy-based evaluations of systems and processes (for a comprehensive
bibliography, see [20]), teaching emergy as a tool
for energy production, energy network and energy
plants evaluation is still quite uncommon. One of
the main reasons for including emergy-based approaches in the high education programmes is that
emergy analysis is the way to refer explicitly to the
role of environment in the definition and planning of
systems, processes, and products involving energy
exchanges and flows, whereas traditional economic
analysis, which accounts for money transfers and
so it is anthropocentric by definition, may actually
take advantage from an intrinsically different point
of view such that introduced by emergy methodology.
The environmental system provides the society of
either renewable or non-renewable sources which,
through various processes, convert the primary energy in energy directly usable by commercial, residential and industrial users as well as in the transportation sector, under the forms of heat, electricity
or mechanical energy.
Figure 5 illustrates synoptically the complex grid
of interconnections which have to taken into account
when dealing with energy systems. Energetic conversion takes place in plants which utilize goods and
services provided by both the “Society system” and
the “Environment system”. For example, the environmental support is made by the oxygen needed
for combustion processes, fresh water and air, areas
occupation, environmental dispersion and absorption of emissions and wastes.
Emergy analysis allows, along with the analysis
of mater and energy flows, to evaluate and compare the global environmental sustainability of the
various energy sources, from the point of view of
the donor (donor-side quality), quantitatively estimating the resources and the services that cannot
be estimated directly by an economic approach, for
example, the biodiversity [21]. From the user point
of view (user-side quality) the used approach should
not be (only) emergy-based, but rather exergy-based,
taking so into account what the technologies may
extract from the different energy sources, without
considering directly the free services offered by the
environment and that are needed for the producsciences at ca’ foscari
tion processes [22]. The outputs of the conversion
processes consist of secondary energy (electricity,
gasoline), pollutants emissions, wastes and energy
losses (low exergy content). The secondary energy
so obtained must be conveyed in a proper transmission and distribution structures, in order to reach
free
environmental
services
the final users or the stocking systems in the case
of intermittent sources (wind, sun, etc.).
It is then necessary to plan a long-term, globalscale restructuring of the transmission-distribution
networks, so creating a supergrid through the geographical interconnection of the renewable energy
goods
services
buildings
renewables
users
primary
energy
conversion
commerce
industry
transportation
nonrenewables
secondary
energy
distribution
EMERGY
useful
energy
final
energy
EXERGY
emissions
storage
waste
lost energy
geographical
features
policies
ethics
technology
target
security
energy flow
matter flow
information flow
ENVIRONMENTAL
SYSTEM
Fig. 5. The global energy network.
sources, such to guarantee the continuous supply of
electricity to the final users.
Concepts taken from modern Physics topics have
been more and more used in different scientific and
non-scientific disciplines. Their use derives from two
general aspects. The first is the possibility of define
isomorphisms between quantities and relations of
Physics and those of the discipline at issue. The paradigmatic example is Thermodynamics and Economics. The second is the direct application of a certain
“physical” approach to the study of a non-physical
sciences at ca’ foscari
culture
alternative
scenarios
SOCIAL
SYSTEM
system. Several examples can be found in current approaches to the analysis of complex systems, among
which the energy ones. In this work, exergy-based
and emergy-based approaches have been outlined
for the study of energy systems, pointing out how
the use of these concepts may actually shed light to
the role played by the various components of these
systems. In particular, social, economic and most of
all environmental issues may find there place in an
analytical quantitative approach which the planning
of energy systems should be based on.
85
As concerns the educational prescriptions suggested by the presentation above, some concepts
appear to be necessary in the cultural background
of any student involved in environmental issues. As
a matter of fact, students graduate without any integrated awareness of the unity of things. In the
words of David Orr, “To teach Economics, for example, without reference to the laws of Thermodynamics or those of ecology is to teach a fundamentally important ecological lesson: that Physics and
Ecology have nothing to do with the Economy. That
just happens to be dead wrong” [23]. The novel attention drawn in Ca’ Foscari University towards a
sustainable Institution is actually an important step
forward for creating an environmental awareness
also in the students. A more effective awareness
and most of all an effective scientific literacy on the
sustainability problem require on the other hand the
establishment of curricula that involve interdisciplinary courses, seminars and lectures. The following
items, related to the content of this paper, should be
therefore delivered within the curricula of students
of any scientific discipline, as well as -more ambitiously- human, economical and social sciences:
•
•
•
•
•
first and second principles of Thermodynamics;
concepts of entropy, energy, exergy and emergy;
their relation with the environment;
their relation with the human activity;
flows analysis.
6. References
[1]
[2]
[3]
D. Goodstein, J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 1992, 1, 149-155.
P. Campbell, Phys. Edu. 2006, 41, 514-517.
World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development, Durban, South Africa 2005,
www.wcpsd.org/upload/Resolutions-Final.pdf.
[4] N. Georgescu-Roegen, in Entropy and Bioeconomics,
Proc. 1st International Conference of the E.A.B.S. (Eds.:
J. Dragan, E. Seifert, M. Demetrescu), European Association for Bioeconomic Studies, Milan, 1993, pp. 184201.
[5] http://ec.europa.eu/intelligentenergy.
[6] www.iee-library.eu.
[7] M.Z. Jacobson, M.A. Delucchi, Energy Policy 2011, 39,
1154-1169.
[8] M.A. Delucchi, M.Z. Jacobson, Energy Policy 2011, 39,
1170-1190.
[9] Z. Rant, Forschung auf dem Gebiete des Ingenieurwesens 1956, 22, 36-37.
[10] G. Wall, Energy 1988, 13, 197-208.
[11] H.D. Baehr, Energie und Exergi, VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf,
1965.
[12] M. Tribus, E.C. McIrvine, Sci. Am. 1971, 224, 179-186.
[13] N. Georgescu-Roegen, , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1971.
[14] J. Szargut, Exergy Method - Technical and Ecological
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[16] H.T. Odum, Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Policy Making, Wiley, New York, 1996.
[17] H.T. Odum, M.T. Brown, S.B. Williams, Handbook of
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[18] National Environmental Accounting Database, University of Florida,
http://sahel.ees.ufl.edu/frame_database_re-
In the forthcoming second part of this paper, the
sources_test.php?search_type=basic.
attention will be drawn to the concepts, taken from [19] www.eoearth.org/article/Howard_T._Odum_Collection.
the “classical” complex systems analysis, mostly related to cahotic dynamics, self-organization, critical- [20] www.emergysystems.org.
[21] M.T. Brow, S. Ulgiati, J. Cleaner Prod. 2002, 10, 321-334.
ity and emergent properties.
5. Acknowledgement
[22] M.T. Brown, S. Ulgiati, Ecological Modeling 2004, 78,
201-213.
[23] D.W. Orr, Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, New York State University Press, New York, 1992.
Prof. Roberto Pastres is acknowledged for
having introduced the Authors to some of the
cross-disciplinary approaches based on exergy
and emergy.
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sciences at ca’ foscari