Public Research Centre Henri Tudor, Resource Centre for Environmental Technologies, 6A avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; Université de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, INP, LISBP, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse, France; INRA, UMR792, Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés, F-31400 Toulouse, France; CNRS, UMR5504, F-31400 Toulouse, France.
Public Research Centre Henri Tudor, Resource Centre for Environmental Technologies, 6A avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Sci Total Environ. 2014 Feb 15;472:608-19. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.087. Epub 2013 Dec 6.
This paper reports the emergy-based evaluation (EME) of the ecological performance of four water treatment plants (WTPs) using three different approaches. The results obtained using the emergy calculation software SCALE (EMESCALE) are compared with those achieved through a conventional emergy evaluation procedure (EMECONV), as well as through the application of the Solar Energy Demand (SED) method. SCALE's results are based on a detailed representation of the chain of technological processes provided by the lifecycle inventory database ecoinvent®. They benefit from a higher level of details in the description of the technological network as compared to the ones calculated with a conventional EME and, unlike the SED results, are computed according to the emergy algebra rules. The analysis delves into the quantitative comparison of unit emergy values (UEVs) for individual technospheric inputs provided by each method, demonstrating the added value of SCALE to enhance reproducibility, accurateness and completeness of an EME. However, SCALE cannot presently include non-technospheric inputs in emergy accounting, like e.g. human labor and ecosystem services. Moreover, SCALE is limited by the approach used to build the dataset of UEVs for natural resources. Recommendations on the scope and accuracy of SCALE-based emergy accounting are suggested for further steps in software development, as well as preliminary quantitative methods to account for ecosystem services and human labor.
本文报告了使用三种不同方法对四个水处理厂（WTPs）的生态性能进行基于能值的评估（EME）。使用 SCALE（EMESCALE） emergy 计算软件获得的结果与通过常规 emergy 评估程序（EMECONV）以及应用太阳能需求（SED）方法获得的结果进行了比较。SCALE 的结果基于生命周期清单数据库 ecoinvent®提供的技术工艺流程链的详细表示。与使用常规 EME 计算的结果相比，它们在技术网络的描述中具有更高的细节水平，并且与 SED 结果不同，它们是根据 emergy 代数规则计算的。该分析深入探讨了每个方法提供的单个技术圈输入的单位能值（UEV）的定量比较，展示了 SCALE 增强可重复性、准确性和完整性的附加价值。然而，SCALE 目前无法在能值核算中包含非技术圈投入，例如人力和生态系统服务。此外，SCALE 受到用于构建自然资源 UEV 数据集的方法的限制。针对 SCALE 为基础的能值核算的范围和准确性提出了建议，以便在软件开发的进一步步骤中，以及针对生态系统服务和人力核算的初步定量方法中，进行建议。
