CVEN4705

Environmental Sustainability – Methods, Tools, Management

Trimester 3 - 2020
Material Flow Analysis

Lecturer:
Ademir Prata
(ademir@unsw.edu.au) Acknowledgement: Lecture contains material from previous lectures by Ruth Fisher, Tommy Wiedmann,
Hazel Rowley and Stephen Moore.
Overview

Introduction and Motivation

Key concepts
Method
Examples
Final Considerations
Introduction and Motivation
 Material flows in our world
More detail from Week 6.
 Material Flow Analysis
Linked to
Material Inputs
Per Unit
Service (MIPS)

Substance flow
analysis
(SFA)
Goods balance

Linked to
Focus of this National
lecture Material
Accounts/
EW-MFA
Studying the flows of materials and substances

• Economists: Money flows -> Models -> Predictions -> Action

• Environmental engineers: Material balance for regions

=
“Material Flow Analysis”

Can be used as tools for setting limits, targets

Sustainability criteria for materials
Is the mining of non-renewable Volcanoes, weathering and
resources sustainable? erosion, bushfires, dissolution of
minerals in groundwater.
Is the outflow of certain
Volcano in Iceland, April 2010
materials from the economy too
high compared to geogenic
flows?
Is recycling of certain materials
efficient enough?
For sustainable systems
we need to consider the
implications of how we use
materials
Minamata disease

Video provides an introduction to the situation at Minamata, Japan

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/minamata-disease-japan-160501051858939.html

Another video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxB_SXbxY28

 Anticipatory vs. Reactionary Discussion

What type of response was used in Minamata?

Reactive

What is a better method?

Proactive / Anticipatory

What could be the next “Minamata”?

Substances we don’t know potential impacts or fates of. E.g
nanomaterials, PCBs
Key concepts
 What is MFA?

“Material flow analysis (MFA) is a

systematic assessment of the flows
and stocks of materials within a
system defined in space and time.”
- Brunner and Rechberger, 2004

Access on the library or on E-version at

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unsw/detail.action?docID=2010227
 Human metabolism: An example of MFA
Santorio Santorio (1561-1636)
• For a period of thirty years he weighed
himself, everything he ate and drank, as well
as his urine and faeces.
• He compared the weight of what he had eaten
to that of his waste products.

Inputs = Waste + ?
 Lavoisier’s law of Mass Conservation
Discovered by Antoine Laurent
Lavoisier (1743-94) about 1785

“In a chemical reaction, matter is

neither created nor destroyed.”

I = O + ΔS
Sustainability from a materials perspective

ENVIRONMENT

ANTHROPOSPHERE
Water

Air Emissions
Food
Δ
Sewage
Building materials

Solid wastes
Transport materials
 MFA Terms
Environment
Hydrosphere
Atmosphere
Pedosphere and lithosphere
Biosphere

Anthroposphere
The human sphere of life
Mostly built environment
– A complex system of energy, material,
and information flows in space.
 Composition of an MFA
Substance
Element or compound composed of uniform units.
Having unique and identical constitution
– e.g. N, C, Cu, NH4+, CO2

Good
A material made up of several substances, usually with a
positive or negative economic value
– e.g. drinking water, fuels, solid waste, sewage.

Some goods have no economic value

– e.g. air, exhaust or precipitation are neutral in value (?).
 MFA Terms
Material
Either a substance or a good.
– Includes raw materials + all physically or chemically modified
materials.
This term is used:
– When looking at both goods and substances together; or
– When it is not yet clear at which level an analysis will take place.
 MFA Terms
Process
The transformation, transport, or
storage of goods and
substances
– e.g. waste separation, incineration or
release to the
atmosphere/hydrosphere.

Stock
The total amount of material stored in a process is called the
“stock of materials”.

I = O + ΔS
 Quick Activity

• Choose a substance
• Think of 1 good relating to that substance
• Think of 1 processes which affects that good
 System Definition
“Material flow analysis (MFA) is a systematic assessment of the flows and
stocks of materials within a system defined in space and time.”
 MFA Terms
System
Defined by a group of components and the
connection/interaction between them, serving a certain
function/purpose.
– A system might be an enterprise (e.g. waste incineration plant), an
industrial park, a region, a nation, or a private household.
Components of a system are named processes and flows.

System Boundary
Temporal and spatial system boundaries
At any given time, flows into a system are “imports” (inflows),
flows leaving a system are “exports” (outflows).
MFA structure
Want to try your own?
STAN
(short for subSTance flow ANalysis)
Example – Cadmium flows

To think about

• How do the
anthropogenic flows
compare to the geogenic
flows?
Example – Cadmium flows

To think about

• Are the flows into the

environment balanced?
• What are the
consequences
 Sources of Cadmium in Anthroposphere
Intentional Uses
• Dispersive: plating, PVC stabiliser,
pigment
• Concentrated: NiCd batteries

Unintentional Uses
• with phosphate fertilizer
• contaminants in other materials

MFA can show where the main flows of

Cd are coming from and going to.
 MFA Terms
Flow
A “mass flow rate”,
– i.e. the mass per unit of time that flows
through a conductor

Flux
A flow per “cross section”.
– e.g. kg/g-yr or kg/hr-m2
 What is MFA used for?
MFA studies have been used to:
– monitor accumulation or depletion of resource stocks or
(future) environmental pollution levels
– manage resources, the environment, and wastes
– integrate information and data from many different
scientific areas
– design environmentally-beneficial goods, processes,
and systems

May be coupled with impact assessment methods

Method
Steps to conduct a MFA

Does this look

familiar?
 Good ‘vs’ Substance
Goods layer
Substance layers

c
 Result of an MFA All MFA diagrams
MUST have these
features!

Mass Stock at beginning Units of

flows and change in stock data
during the period
 Conservation of Mass
Inputs Stock Export

Balance equation:
sum of inputs = sum of outputs + change in stock

Stock equation:
stocki = stocki-1 + (change in stock)i-1
Presented separately!
with i = period (don’t add together!)
i.e. the amount of stock at the beginning of a period can be calculated from the
amount of stock at the beginning of the previous period plus the change in
stock during that previous period.
 Quick Activity: Conservation of Mass
Activity
Lead (Pb) in a manufacturing process:
Find ? Values
Use: I = O + ΔS

Input 1 = 4 kg/hr Output 1 = 5.5 kg/hr

Input 2 = 3 kg/hr Output 2 = ??
Change in stock = 0.5 kg/hr
4 + 3 = 5.5 + 0.5 + ?
7=6+?
Output 2 = 1 kg /hr
 MFA software: STAN

STAN (subSTance flow ANalysis)

• Freeware for MFA from www.stan2web.net

Build a graphical model with predefined components

Enter or import known data
Calculate remaining data
All flows can be displayed in Sankey-style

Detailed instructions for the software can be viewed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Js6MdGOvwU
User interface

c
Examples
The Phosphorus Story
 UK imports and exports of Phosphorus

Cooper, J. and Carliell-Marquet, C. (2013) A substance flow analysis of phosphorus in the UK food
production and consumption system. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 74(0), 82-100.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344913000578
Suh, S. and Yee, S. (2011) Phosphorus use-efficiency of agriculture and food system in the US.
Chemosphere, 84(6), 806-813. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.01.051
 Phosphorus in Australia

Ref.: Cordell, D., Jackson, M. and White, S. (2013) Phosphorus flows through the Australian food system: Identifying
intervention points as a roadmap to phosphorus security. Environmental Science & Policy, 29(0), 87-102.
http://cdc310-www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000099
Ref.: Cordell, D., Jackson, M. and White, S. (2013) Phosphorus flows through the Australian food system: Identifying
intervention points as a roadmap to phosphorus security. Environmental Science & Policy, 29(0), 87-102.
http://cdc310-www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000099
 Phosphorus in Australia

Ref.: Cordell, D., Jackson, M. and White, S. (2013) Phosphorus flows through the Australian food system: Identifying
intervention points as a roadmap to phosphorus security. Environmental Science & Policy, 29(0), 87-102.
http://cdc310-www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000099
 Phosphorus in Australia

Ref.: Cordell, D., Jackson, M. and White, S. (2013) Phosphorus flows through the Australian food system: Identifying
intervention points as a roadmap to phosphorus security. Environmental Science & Policy, 29(0), 87-102.
http://cdc310-www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000099
Pollution management for the GBR

• Reef systems can be affected

excessive nutrient loads from
land run-off
Great Barrier Reef Report Card
 Aluminium flows in Austria

• Flows of aluminium in packaging in household

waste in Austria
• How to improve circularity of aluminium flows
System Boundary
Looking at a product basis
 Sulfur Flows through WWTPs
Sulfur is a useful nutrient when biosolids are applied to land.
BUT it can contribute to nuisance or toxic emissions and affect wastewater treatment
onsite.
Sulfur in Wastewater Treatment Plants
Sulfur in Biosolids Processing
 MFA in practice

• Dependent on data availability

• STAN is useful for error propagation and process
balancing
• Identify missing flows or poor quality data!
Final Considerations
 Applications of MFA (1)

• Industrial Ecology (Circular Economy) principles

– Creating loop-closing industrial practices

– Re-use materials from one industry as input for others

(Industrial Symbiosis)

– Limiting industrial outputs to the natural carrying capacity of

ecosystems

– Optimise waste management according to waste hierarchy

(avoid>reduce>reuse>recycle>recover>treat>dispose)
 Applications of MFA (2)

• Environmental management and engineering

– Environmental impact assessments/statements

– Design of air pollution control strategies

– Nutrient management in watersheds

– Planning of soil monitoring systems

– Remediation of hazardous waste sites

 Applications of MFA (3)

• Resources management
– Identify the accumulation and depletion of materials in natural
and anthropogenic environments.

– Forecast the scarcity of resources (e.g. rare earth metals).

– Link resources management to environmental and waste

management.
 Applications of MFA (4)

• Waste management
– Cost-effectively determine the elemental composition of wastes.

– Design recycling facilities.

– Design and plan waste-treatment facilities.

– Improve sewage sludge management.

See reading on Moodle:

“Material Flow Analysis as a Decision Support Tool for Waste Management”
 What can and can’t MFA do?

• Identify impacts of substance flows

• Predict changes in substance stocks

• Show consumption of resources needed for a

product/process

• Calculate energy needed to produce a service

 Conclusions
• MFA helps us understand the metabolism of the
anthroposphere.

• MFA enables ‘anticipatory’ environmental management

(predictive ability).

• Current analysis can indicate when the dynamics of some

material flows are not under sufficient control to secure
resources and environmental quality.

• MFA facilitates the setting of limits (carrying capacity)

> compare geogenic & anthropogenic flows