Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Substance
manufacturer
Substance
handler
Limited
waster
Limited
resources
Waster
handler
Consumer
Fig. 10.2
Material circulation flow of ideal industry ecosystem [
6
]
10.4.1
Concept Development for Industrial Ecology
Robert A. Frosch simulated biological metabolic processes and first proposed the
concept of “industrial metabolism.” The modern industrial production process is
a metabolic process of transformation of raw materials, energy, and labor to the
product and waste. After further development, Gallopoulos put forward the concept
of an “industrial ecosystem” and “industrial ecology” from an ecosystem approach.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Bell Labs coorganized the world's
first “industrial ecology” forum in 1991. A comprehensive and systematic summary
of the industrial ecology concept, content, and methods and application prospects
has basically formed the framework of the concept of industrial ecology. Bell Labs
thought that “Industrial ecology is an interdisciplinary study of the interrelationships
between a variety of industrial activities and its products and the environment.”
The world's first
Journal of Industrial Ecology
was published by Yale University
and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997. The journal editor, Reid Lifset,
further clarified the nature and the object of study of industrial ecology in the
foreword. He emphasized that “industrial ecology is a rapidly developing branch
of science systems, from the three levels of local, regional, and global systems, to
research products, processes, industrial sectors, and economic sectors in energy flow
and logistics. The focus of industrial ecology is to research the role of industrial
circles in reducing environmental pressures in the life cycle process of a product.
Product life cycle includes raw material extraction and production, manufacturing,
product use, and waste management.”
