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striking case is the conversion of food into waste. About 90 million tonnes of food
is disposed of annually in Europe alone (Valero D. et al., 2013) and all food chain
losses, both upstream and downstream, are converted into nothing when food is
not eaten
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. The same principle applies to all consumer goods including clothes and
electronic appliances.
Principle 2: Intelligent control
To control a process you have to act on it, either by providing energy or dissipating
it. Intelligent control means maintaining the quality required with as little total
irreversibility as possible.
Corollary 1: Know your process and invest in appropriate equipment in order
to know it all the better.
Corollary 2: Predict the accident, don't just react to it. Control systems should
not just be reactive (feedback) but also proactive (feed-forward, anticipatory
and predictive).
Corollary 3: No control systems should be left isolated and/or poorly con-
nected. No part should compete against another in order to achieve partial
objectives. Instead, well co-coordinated and hierarchical integration must meet
global objectives.
Reflection: ICTs with their neural networks help adaptive systems to predict
events before they happen. They have now reached a reasonable price margin which
facilitates their functioning in feed-forward intelligent control systems (Shinskey,
1978, 1988; Choi et al., 1998).
Principle 3: Instant coupling of energy supply with demand
Storing heat or electricity is ine
cient, expensive and technologically complex. There-
fore, instantaneously couple supply and demand for energy and avoid, where possible,
undue distances.
Corollary 1 (The Armstrong corollary): Any small step in energy storage will
be a giant leap for mankind. Undertake intensive research in energy storage.
Corollary 2 (The Pinch corollary): Amplify your vision. A plant may have
cold flows to be heated up, and heated flows to be cooled down. Couple them
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For more information, see for instance http : ==ec:europa:eu=food=food=sustainability=, or
http : ==en:wikipedia:org=wiki=Food_waste. Accessed June 2013.
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