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What is resource efficiency?
But as Prof. Matthias Finkbeiner of the Institute for Technical
Environmental Protection of the Technical University of
Ber lin pointed out, resource efficiency is by no means a
clearly defined concept: it can be understood as either the
greatest added value that can be generated with the least
amount of raw materials, or in the wider sense of the EU
Commission. In 2005, the Commission defined the term „resource“
in such a way that it includes not only raw materials,
but biotic resources, renewable energies, land areas, as
well as air, water and soil. They all factor into the resource
efficiency denominator, with value added as the numerator.
Then, a life cycle assessment (LCA) records a system’s input
and output, which ranges from raw material generation,
through production, maintenance and consumption, to recycling
and disposal. An LCA can also be used operationally to
monitor a product as it is being developed. “The method
also lends itself to risk screening,” said Finkbeiner.
“Internationally, the life cycle assessment is the most recognized
method for evaluating environmental impact, because
it is the only method that can cover a broad range of applications
consistently and uniformly across nations.“
But taking an example from the automotive industry,
Finkbeiner also stressed that an LCA should never be interpreted
in the absence of values: based only on the indicators,
the LCA of a small car can look better or worse than
that of a luxury limousine. In addition to the way resource
efficiency is defined, and whatever else is included as a resource
in the evaluation, the result of a calculation depends
on the indicators selected for the value added and environmental
pollution.
Finkbeiner is convinced that, despite these limitations,
the concept of resource efficiency promotes sustainable development.
He compared the situation to that of Maslow’s
famous Hierarchy of Needs from the field of psychology, in
which the basic needs of an individual must be met first before
he can climb to the next level, such as cultural creativity.
As Finkbeiner pointed out, an environmental and sustainability
assessment is structured quite similarly: “A company
should think seriously about its carbon footprint, for ex -
am ple, until it is developed into an LCA.“ At the top of this
hierarchy, then, is the life cycle sustainability assessment,
which also considers value-oriented social aspects.
Prof. Matthias Finkbeiner
of the Institute for Technical
Environmental Protection at the
TU Berlin
CCS as a sound interim solution
Using carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) as an example,
Prof. Klaus Görner, holder of the Chair for En vi ronmental
and Plant Engineering at the University of Duisburg-
Essen, explained that technological issues are not always a
matter of long-term goals but also temporary solutions.
Today’s fossil-fuel power plants reach efficiency levels
of between 43 (brown coal), 46 (hard coal ), and 60 percent
(gas). Hard-coal-fired steam power plants, which reach
such levels of efficiency, operate at 600 °C. While the efficiency
level can be improved by over 50 percent by rais ing
the temperature to the level envisioned for the next generation
of power plants (700 °C), this will not, in his opinion,
meet the climate goals of the EU. The only way Europe can
cut CO2 emissions to 20 percent below its 1990 levels is
through higher energy efficiency in power plants, use of
renewable energies, and additional optimization measures.
To reduce emissions by the ambitious target of 30 percent,
one possibility is the above-mentioned CCS technology.
CCS technology can catch 90 percent of the carbon dioxide
from a power plant. “CCS is suitable for new plants
and some old plants,” said Görner. “Transport and storage
are technically feasible but not widely accepted by the public.”
In the power plant, three different technologies can
separate the CO2 either before the gasified coal is actually
burned (pre-combustion), while it is being burned (oxycombustion),
or after it is burned, as the last step in flue
gas cleaning (post-combustion). At the current state of the
technology, however, all of these methods reduce the efficiency
level of the power plant by 9 to 13 percent, because
energy is required for separation. Here, it is the job of science,
in cooperation with producers and operators, to help
reach a net efficiency of significantly over 40 percent by
raising the base efficiency
level to over 50 percent and
reducing inefficiencies to
below 8 percentage points.
This is the only way to preserve
coal as a resource and,
at the same time, protect the
environment.
Prof. Klaus Görner
holder of the Chair for Environ -
mental and Plant Engineering at the
University of Duisburg-Essen
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