From Thermodynamics to Economics and Ecology - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 78

the cost of removing flow residuals that inevitably accompany any production pro-
cess. For accomplishing such processes, resources are spent to give physico-chemical
qualities to intermediate products until a finished one is obtained. The cost forma-
tion process can therefore shed light on new paths of technological research.
In summary, process evolution, degradation, exergy, quality, cost, resource, con-
sumption, purpose and causality are therefore all closely related concepts within
Thermoeconomics.
3.3.3 Success and shortcomings of Thermoeconomics
As has been seen, the Second Law through the property exergy, quantifies, in a
rational and physical way, the thermodynamic importance of flows in a system.
This allows for the definition of the true e ciency of processes in a given system,
once the desired flows to be produced are identified, along with those which will
consequently be consumed. The accumulated performance over the production
process is measured by exergy expenditure, i.e. its exergy cost, required to produce
a given flow. Only e ciency defined according to the Second Law, allows systems
to be compared in absolute terms and the amount of exergy used up in the process
to be measured accurately and universally. It is hence the authors' view that the
only rigorous way to measure the cost of production, not its price setting nor its
value, is through the Second Law. Through this principle, it is possible to identify,
locate, quantify and find the causes of ine ciencies in real processes which give rise
to the consumption of resources and therefore, to the cost formation process.
Thermoeconomics becomes a crystal clear and unique way to connect the uni-
versal measure of physical loss, i.e. irreversibility, with the loss of resources at the
overall system level and then to other forms of reasoning, including ones originating
from Economics. This is perhaps the greatest motivation for a continued systematic
research in this new discipline.
However, it should be highlighted that no matter if exergy is used in analysing
environmental problems or indeed elsewhere, there is no point in mythologising
it. It only measures the number of times one type of product is thermodynami-
cally equivalent to another. Exergy is a measure of the thermodynamic separation
of a system from a given reference environment, not the measure of value one
gives to things. It simply evaluates the amount of quality energy spent for such a
separation. Quality needs many specifications; but exergy reduces them to a few
such as pressure, temperature, composition, concentration, height, velocity and any
other intensive property. The problem of specifying quality is context-dependent
and extremely complex. A morsel of food could to some appear repugnant, whilst
to others extraordinary but regardless of opinion it will always maintain the same
exergy value. As such, exergy and exergy cost are really another way of measuring
reality and thus should not take precedence over or replace other possible analyses.
One should flee from neoenergeticism or better still exergeticism, philosophies which