L-2

Material Flow Analysis

AcSIR Course-2 : Multidisciplinary Learning

Environmental Science (L-T-P-C: 1-0-0-1)
TAKE-MAKE-DISPOSE ECONOMY

New products = new raw materials

Recycling at “end-of-pipe”

Waste is chronically high

 A COMBINATION OF RISKS AND
OPPORTUNITIES

A further 3 billion middle-class consumers will enter the

market by 2030 fuelling demand ...
 Material Flow Analysis

• MFA has been defined as ‘a systematic assessment of the flows and stocks of
materials within a system defined in space and time’ based on the laws of
conservation of mass
• Goods and substances are technical terms used in MFA. A substance, in terminology
borrowed from chemistry, is a single type of matter consisting of uniform units, such
as elements (carbon, oxygen, lead, etc.) or compounds (carbon dioxide, methane,
etc.). Goods are defined in MFA as substances or mixtures of substances that have
economic value (either positive or negative).
• Goods with positive economic value are typical materials and fuels such as cars,
wood, appliances, etc. while those with negative economic value are typically
different kinds of wastes, such as household municipal solid waste or sewage sludge
 Material Flow Analysis

Flows: mass per time (link processes)

Fluxes: mass per time and cross section

Imports/exports: flows/fluxes across system boundaries

Inputs/outputs: flows/fluxes across process boundaries

System: set of material flows, stocks, and processes within a defined boundary

Activity: set of systems needed to fulfill a basic human need (nourish, reside, transport, etc.)
• Process: transport, transformation, or storage of materials (natural or man-made)
• Stocks: material reservoirs within the analyzed system
• Material flow analysis is one of the central methodologies of industrial ecology. It is
through MFA that an “industrial metabolism” (the flows of resources into and from a
particular entity of human society) can be mapped and quantified, much as an
accountant determines and quantifies monetary deposits and withdrawals
• Unlike the accountant, however, who deals only with stocks and flows generally
well-reported in monetary terms, the MFA analyst faces a wide diversity of
commodities (biomass, polymers, metals, minerals) whose transactions often deal
with inadequately described categories (e.g., “iron and aluminum alloys”), lumped
categories (e.g., “plastics”), or resource flows that are seldom or never measured
(many of the discard flows).
 Objectives of Material Flow Analysis
• To Delineate the system of material flows, stocks, and/or the mass flow in a
system (Remember defining the system as an industry, transport, household,
reactor, etc. is important)

• Reduce system complexity while creating the base for decision-making

• Assess relevant flows and stocks quantitatively, checking mass balance,

sensitivities, and uncertainties

• Whether the present system results in a reproducible, understandable,

transparent fashion

• Use results as a basis for managing resources, the environment, and wastes
– Monitoring accumulation or depletion of stocks, future environmental
loadings

– Design of environmentally-beneficial goods, processes, and systems

 Types of MFA

• Development of environmental policy for hazardous substances

Type I
• Evaluation of product environmental impact

• Providing firm environmental performance data

Type II • Derivation of sustainability indicators
• Development of material flow accounts for use in official statistics
 How MFA and LCA are different

• MFA is a method to establish an inventory for an LCA. It can be viewed as a

component of LCA leading to the estimation of inventory for the assessment
study

– Hence, LCA can also be an impact assessment of MFA results

• LCA strives for completeness. LCA is comprehensive in nature whereas MFA is

specific

– As many substances as possible for understanding the impact on the

environment

• MFA strives for transparency and manageability

– Limited number of substances with a specific goal
 Material flow analysis and eco-balances

Eco-balancing
•To understand the balance, we need to analyse the whole life-cycle of a product
•Analyse the ecological effects
•Assess the material and energy consumptions emerging during a life cycle and the arising
environmental effects

What's the balance:

Input mass = output mass + storage (or by-products)
 Applications of MFA:

Applications in Industrial Ecology (IE)

Industrial ecology is the study of systemic relationships between society, the

economy, and the natural environment
•IE design principles related to MFA:
– Controlling and designing pathways for efficient and sustainable materials use and
industrial processes
– Creating loop-closing industrial practices further leading to a circular economy
approach
– Dematerializing industrial output in terms of material consumption both pre and
postproduction
– Systematizing patterns of energy use to achieve energy
efficiency
– Balancing industrial input and output to a natural ecosystem
capacity, specifically reducing carbon foot or ecological
footprint of industrial sectors
 Applications of MFA:

Application in Environmental Management and Engineering

• Environmental impact statements

• Remediation of hazardous waste sites
• Design of air pollution control strategies
• Nutrient management in watersheds
• Planning of soil-monitoring systems
• Sewage sludge management
 Applications of MFA:

Application in Resource and Waste Management

•Resource Management: Analysis, planning and

allocation, exploitation, and upgrading of resources

•MFA uses in waste management

– Modeling elemental compositions of wastes

– Evaluating material management performance

in recycling/treatment facilities

•Examples:
– Regional material balances as for an industrial
or municipal sector

– Single material system analysis as for reactors

 Applications of MFA:

Human Metabolism

• Metabolism of the anthroposhpere

• Key processes and goods
– Inputs: water, food, building and transport materials
– Outputs: sewage, off-gas, solid waste

The first application of MFA? [Santorio Santorio (1561-1636)]

• Measured human input and output
• Output weighs much less
• Hypothesis: output of “insensible perspiration”
Understanding MFA
Understanding MFA leading to LCA