*Correspondence: Daniel Elliott Campbell , Atlantic Ecology Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA e-mail: [email protected] Energy Systems Language models of the resource base for the U.S. economy and of economic exchange were us...

The value of an item in an environmental system can be determined from two independent perspectives: (1) the perspective of the donor which determines what was required to produce the item and (2) the perspective of the receiver which determines what the person that receives the item is willing to pay for it. These two perspectives give complementary views of the process of valuation, one from ...

In this work, two Italian regions (Emilia Romagna, in Northern Italy, and Campania, in Southern Italy) are compared on the basis of an emergy evaluation carried out over the last 20 years. The regions show very different productive and institutional structures, which affect the overall performance. The Campania region is characterized by the presence of a high number of small productive units (...

The present study assesses the environmental sustainability, or the ecosystem support, of ethanol produced from sugarcane and examines the environmental feasibility of a large-scale production through the use of: emergy methodology. The study includes agricultural and industrial stages, as well the sugarcane transport, and was accomplished for two scenarios: a) only the directly consumed resour...

Municipal wastewater treatment plants consume much energy and manpower, are expensive to run, and generate sludge and treated wastewater whilst removing pollutants through specific treatment regimes. The sustainable development of the wastewater treatment industry is therefore challenging, and a comprehensive evaluation method is needed for assessing the sustainability of different wastewater t...

Emergy indicators of the industrial production and pilot-plant operation of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC) are presented, as a continuation of ongoing research on Hydrogen-based technologies. MCFCs are very likely to shortly reach the commercialization phase, as a result of the recent intense efforts in the development of innovative ceramic components (anode, cathode and matrix), as well as...

Sustainability studies are vital for the long-term development of ecological cities. For cities, single qualitative or quantitative evaluation cannot effectively illustrate and sustainable status a city. This study employs emergy–geographic information system (GIS) method to conduct sustainability city, so as verify results. The emergy GIS both commonly used approaches address urban issues, but...