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Stephen Murphy
Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

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Journal article
Published: 05 July 2012 in Energies
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In the energy realm there is a pressing need to make decisions in a complex world characterized by biophysical limits. Exergy has been promoted as a preferred means of characterizing the impacts of resource consumption and waste production for the purpose of improving decision-making. This paper provides a unique and critical analysis of universal and comprehensive formulations of the chemical exergy reference environment, for the purpose of better understanding how exergy can inform decision-making. Four related insights emerged from the analysis, notably: (1) standard and universal chemical exergy reference environments necessarily encounter internal inconsistencies and even contradictions in their very formulations; (2) these inconsistencies are a result of incompatibility between the exergy reference environment and natural environment, and the desire to model the exergy reference environment after the natural environment so as to maintain analytical relevance; (3) the topics for which exergy is most appropriate as an analytical tool are not well served by comprehensive reference environments, and (4) the inconsistencies point to a need for deeper reflection of whether it is appropriate to adopt a thermodynamic frame of analysis for situations whose relevant characteristics are non-thermodynamic (e.g., to characterize scarcity). The use of comprehensive reference environments may lead to incorrect recommendations and ultimately reduce its appeal for informing decision-making. Exergy may better inform decision-making by returning to process dependent reference states that model specific processes and situations for the purpose of engineering optimization.

ACS Style

Kyrke Gaudreau; Roydon A. Fraser; Stephen Murphy. The Characteristics of the Exergy Reference Environment and Its Implications for Sustainability-Based Decision-Making. Energies 2012, 5, 2197 -2213.

AMA Style

Kyrke Gaudreau, Roydon A. Fraser, Stephen Murphy. The Characteristics of the Exergy Reference Environment and Its Implications for Sustainability-Based Decision-Making. Energies. 2012; 5 (7):2197-2213.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kyrke Gaudreau; Roydon A. Fraser; Stephen Murphy. 2012. "The Characteristics of the Exergy Reference Environment and Its Implications for Sustainability-Based Decision-Making." Energies 5, no. 7: 2197-2213.

Journal article
Published: 23 December 2009 in Sustainability
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Exergy is a thermodynamic concept that has been widely promoted for assessing and improving sustainability, notably in the characterization of resources and wastes. Despite having many notable benefits, exergy is often misused by authors who tend to apply it as an intrinsic characteristic of an object (i.e., as a static thermodynamic variable). Using both theoretical and empirical evidence the authors present five key limitations that must be overcome before exergy can be applied to characterize objects: (1) the incompatibility between exergy quality and resource quality; (2) the inability of exergy to characterize non work-producing resources via the concentration exergy; (3) the constraints placed on the derivation of exergy; (4) problems with the exergy reference environment; and (5) the multiple perspectives applied to exergy analysis. Until the limitations are addressed, exergy should only be used for its original purpose as a decision making tool for engineering systems analysis.

ACS Style

Kyrke Gaudreau; Roydon A. Fraser; Stephen Murphy. The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact. Sustainability 2009, 1, 1444 -1463.

AMA Style

Kyrke Gaudreau, Roydon A. Fraser, Stephen Murphy. The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact. Sustainability. 2009; 1 (4):1444-1463.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kyrke Gaudreau; Roydon A. Fraser; Stephen Murphy. 2009. "The Tenuous Use of Exergy as a Measure of Resource Value or Waste Impact." Sustainability 1, no. 4: 1444-1463.