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The Anthrosphere
Published in Stanley E. Manahan, Environmental Chemistry, 2022
Green chemistry can be defined as the sustainable practice of chemical science and technology within the framework of good practice of industrial ecology in a manner that is safe and non-polluting and that consumes minimum amounts of materials and energy while producing little or no waste material and which minimizes the use and handling of hazardous substances and does not release such substances to the environment.2 The inclusion of industrial ecology in this definition carries with it many implications regarding minimum consumption of raw materials, maximum recycling of materials, minimum production of unusable by-products, and other environmentally friendly factors favorable to the maintenance of sustainability. Figure 16.1 illustrates the main aspects of green chemistry.
Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels Produced from Lignocellulosic Biomass and Algae
Published in Sonil Nanda, Prakash Kumar Sarangi, Dai-Viet N. Vo, Fuel Processing and Energy Utilization, 2019
The common factors that are analyzed during LCA are the impact on climate, emission of pollutants and their impact on the atmosphere, water resources, land usage, human health, and ecology. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 put forth renewable fuel standard (RFS) program to set biofuels volume requirements. In 2007, the program was later revised and expanded under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). Understanding the sustainability of newly developed process is of great concern for commercialization of novel laboratory-scale processes (Figure 11.3).
Biological Responses in Context
Published in Arthur T. Johnson, Biology for Engineers, 2019
Ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms and the environment. As normally considered, the term ecology usually applies to macroecology, wherein the environment consists of the biophysicochemical surroundings comprising whole organisms and complex influences both on and by these organisms. Similar responses are seen in microecology, wherein the environment can consist of suborganismal units as well as total organisms. Hence, no distinctions will be drawn among BU levels (Figure 6.0.2).
Advancing ecohydraulics and ecohydrology by clarifying the role of their component interdisciplines
Published in Journal of Ecohydraulics, 2019
Marie-Pierre Gosselin, Valérie Ouellet, Atle Harby, John Nestler
However, when considering ecohydrology and ecoydraulics, the term “eco” remains somewhat vague and is used as an umbrella to cover a broad range of ecological and biological aspects. This is inherent to the definition of ecology itself as the branch of biology which investigates the interactions between organisms and their environment (e.g. Allan and Castillo 2007). As the common denominator to ecohydraulics, ecohydrology and hydroecology, ecology is itself characterized and governed by a strong set of guiding principles. The goal here is not to detail the guiding principles of ecology but rather to provide a short reminder of its basic definition and to put it in the context of the present discussion. Ecology is defined as the study of biodiversity and of the interactions between organisms and their environment, both biotic and abiotic (Begon et al. 2006). Ecology is deemed “fundamental” when seeking to advance the knowledge on particular systems, while “applied ecology” seeks to solve specific problems in terms of resource management or environmental impacts (Allen and Hoekstra 2015; Courchamp et al. 2015). Hence, ecohydrology reflects the hydrology relevant to ecology and ecohydraulics the hydraulics relevant to ecology. Hydroecology can be viewed as the part of ecology that takes place in water, hence a synonym for aquatic ecology (“hydro” is Greek for water).