Lucyna Czarnowska

Environmental externalities and their effect on the cost of consumer products

Economic activities generate pollution, which causes damages to the society and the environment. It is possible to estimate the quantities of emitted pollutants from energy conversion systems using thermodynamic principles combined with empirical techniques. The indices of direct emission are often not sufficient to show the entire environmental load because production processes are interconnected. The methodology of determination of cumulative exergy consumption was proposed by Szargut as the thermo-ecological cost (TEC). Recently, Szargut and Stanek published the methodology of cumulative CO2 emission determination called thermo-climatic cost (TCC). The main objective is to show that the TCC can be extended to evaluation of emission of any harmful substance. To achieve that, the new index of cumulative emission (CEm) is proposed. Two different methods of evaluating the cost of emission are presented; physical (exergy) used to investigate the influence of emission on the depletion of natural resources; and economic (monetary) used to show the influence of externalities on the market prices of consumer goods.

Externalities Burdening Production Processes and Systems

In the fundamental TEC, harmful influence of emissions was treated equally regardless of the localization; however, with the EcoSense software the local conditions are taken into account. The external environmental costs, consider the coordinates of the installation’s location, duration of operation as well as the amount of emissions. This allows distinguishing between harmful influences of substances emitted in different locations, taking into account the impact of emissions on human life and health, destruction of cultural heritage and the facade of buildings, as well as changes in the production of vegetable crops. Including the results obtained from EcoSense software, which are based on the ExternE methodology, into thermo-ecological cost allows distinguishing between harmful influences of emissions from different regions. In this chapter, the harmfulness of emissions from different localizations is presented.

Cumulative Calculus and Life Cycle Evaluation

In most cases the assumption of the balance boundary is important from the point of view of energy and exergy analysis. Analysis in the local boundary encompassing single component of the system is in many cases constrained only for comparison of similar technologies of resources transformation. For complex analysis the system approach has to be applied, in which the boundary reach the level of primary resources extraction from nature. For the assessment of total resources expenditure burdening the fabrication of particular useful product the calculus of cumulative energy and exergy consumption, analysis of exergy cost or Life Cycle Assessment should be applied. The Chapter presents fundamentals for the mentioned methods.

Environmental impacts of cogeneration

Application of cogeneration may have both positive and negative effects on depletion of non-renewable energy resources, on the environment, and on the society. Environmental effects, in particular, can be distinguished in effects on air, water, and soil quality, as well as on noise and vibration. Since cogeneration increases the efficiency of fuel utilization, it can lead to decreased emission of pollutants to the environment. Furthermore, since the whole fuel cycle includes steps such as exploration, extraction, refining, processing, transportation, and storage, not only the direct emissions from the use (burning) of fuel, but also the emissions of the whole fuel cycle can be decreased. However, depending on the cogeneration technology and the fuel used, it is possible that certain emissions may increase with cogeneration.

Resources. Production. Depletion

Any activity around the world as well as further development of humankind relies on natural resources. The primary deposits, which represent the work that nature offers us, are essential for current and future civilizations. There are several examples of ancient civilizations that collapsed due to the depletion of local natural resources; the most significant include depletion of the forests in Easter Islands, the depletion of fresh water in Central America or the depletion of the agricultural areas in South-East Asia [1]. Nowadays, these examples should not be underestimated and a rational resource management should be enhanced.