Overview

The research group was formed based on findings which the Academy research groups on options for future industrial production systems had made about energy technologies. The point of departure is set out in a special report volume issued by the Academy, while the Academy yearbooks describe the state of progress. The research groups findings have been published late in the year 2000.

Waste energy utilization is one component of rational energy supply and consumption patterns. It is one of the avenues available for optimizing the interactions between an industrialized society and the environment on the technical, economic and ecological levels. It is a step on the road to developing environmentally sustainable technologies.

The economic use of energy is particularly important since the consumption of primary fuels by industrialized societies is even now several orders of magnitude greater than that of any other raw materials with the exception of water. The inevitable consequence is that the waste materials and waste products, notably CO2, originating from energy conversion processes likewise exceed all other wastes by several orders of magnitude.

While most studies of energy conversion chains concentrate on the beginning, namely the supply of fuels, the research group focuses on the end of the conversion chain. It needs to be clarified how waste energy ø notably in the form of refuse, waste products and waste heat ø can be recycled and how this can help to ease the environmental load by reducing the consumption of resources on the one hand and by mitigating undesirable emissions on the other.

These studies must bear in mind two factors resulting from entropy. The first is that a waste energy charge is an essential entropy export which is inevitable to preserve the state of order of technological systems and that it can be optimized. The second results from the fact that waste energies ø like other forms of energy ø differ as to their convertibility. This has technical, economic and ecological implications.

The entropy export to be optimized may occur in the form of heat or as material. This highlights the need to apply uniform principles when considering the use of waste materials and material recycling by comparison with their use as energy sources and most notably the heat released into the environment.

Unlike energy, entropy tells us in all these contexts and without the need for further comparison which technical systems are capable of making a contribution to environmentally sustainable development and which are not. The technical systems which perform best are those which release waste energy only to the degree considered absolutely necessary by virtue of material lifecycles and the second principle of thermodynamics. Waste energy flows and waste material flows with parameters differing from those of the surroundings are external irreversibilities and can be recycled. It is only consistent if we take this as a manifestation of entropic economics.

Given the numerous possible solutions, the research group concentrates on strategies derived from case studies. It investigates technologies available for utilizing waste energy and applies them to conurbations, rural areas and mixed urban-rural territories.

The solutions developed are evaluated not only on the thermodynamic and technical levels, but also from social, economic, ecological, legal and historical aspects. The social evaluation criteria prove to be not only the ultimately crucial considerations but also those which generate fresh impetus for the design and development of technical systems. Hence the interdisciplinary nature of the research group.

The research group addresses the following issues:

1. Aims of entropic economics

2. Technical options for utilizing waste energy

3. Territorial strategies

4. Social control and evaluation mechanisms.

The research group aims not only to develop and evaluate strategies, but also to work out recommendations to assist social and political players in promoting environmentally sustainable development.

Duration: 1997 - 2000