Global Sustainable Industrial Systems

Transcription

1 Global Sustainable Industrial Systems Finite resources in an expanding world population elicit sustainable engineering solutions. While the Systems of Systems signature area examines how seemingly independent engineered operations affect the bigger picture, the Global Sustainable Industrial Systems (GSIS) signature area casts an even broader net. GSIS looks at the ecological impact of everything that keeps industrialized nations running. From your reading glasses that help bring this article into focus to the pencil on your desk to the rubber-soled shoes on your feet, there s nary a product that doesn t leave an ecological footprint. The impacts of human industrial activity have reached a global scale. The utilization of fossil energy, production of food, acquisition of raw materials, and the human transformation of about 25 percent of the earth s land surface (activities that have grown exponentially in only the past 50 years) have global consequences. To begin addressing problems associated with coastal hypoxia, climate change, regional water scarcity, and allocation of finite resources, engineers must now incorporate ecological, social, legal, and economic constraints into their designs, says Suresh Rao, the Lee A. Rieth Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering and the associate dean of engineering for graduate education and interdisciplinary programs. Rao is also co-chair of the GSIS signature area. Conceptually, he says, a sustainable society must live off the interest of our global ecological trust fund while preserving our ecological Eight Signature Areas Infinite Possibilities 55

2 Chemical Fate Monitoring: Larry Nies (checkered shirt), an associate professor in civil engineering, works with master s students Matt Smith and John Tokarz III (inset photo) studying the environmental impact of flame retardants and pesticides. capital. GSIS aims to transform this concept of sustainability into a systematic academic discipline. GSIS takes an unflinching look at the cradle-to-grave-tocradle ecological, social, political, and economic impacts of industrialization. By integrating and overlapping the study of industrial systems with the study of natural and managed ecosystems, researchers will better understand and manage the flow of materials and energy for sustainable utilization of both renewable and nonrenewable resources. What if everyone in China wanted to eat one egg a day? Rao often asks his students. About three hundred sixtyfive billion eggs consumed each year? What impacts would that have on the planet? Beyond the need for a lot of chickens would be the need for a lot of grain try about 60 percent of the North American grain export. Students need to then consider all the environmental consequences of growing the crop and raising the chickens needed. Then, they re asked to imagine the same decision made in India, a country with another billion people. It s a scientific approach that examines the full costs and broad consequences of a decision and its sustainability. 56 Purdue s Engineering Edge

3 Larry Nies, a professor of civil engineering, teaches an Engineering for Sustainability course, where students explore similar interconnected issues. There are more than four billion people whose quality of life is poor by American standards, Nies says. In addition to consuming one egg per day, what if we include a pair of tennis shoes, a cell phone, a computer, an automobile, and a single family home in the equation? The increase in ecological stress caused by the industrial production of these commodities would be unprecedented. We must develop a systematic approach to sustainability with quantifiable goals and objectives, Rao says. The goals and objectives must be relevant across institutional scales, temporal scales, and global scales. Natural ecosystems are characterized by a complex set of interconnected processes over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. GSIS integrates Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing Systems, the first subarea within GSIS signature area (see sidebar), with engineered environments and managed ecosystems. As such, monitoring, assessment, modeling, and management are tasks fraught with considerable uncertainty and significant difficulties. These issues are the focus of the second GSIS subarea: Ecosystems Monitoring, Modeling, and Assessment (EMMA). Sustainability considerations add a new set of constraints to engineering design, development, and processes. Water-powered Mower: Michael Thomas, an agricultural and biological engineering student, operates a waterpowered, environmentally friendly lawn mower designed by a senior design group. Working under the direction of Gary Krutz, a professor in agricultural and biological engineering, the team benefited from much industry support. Policy Architecture and Financial Engineering form a third subarea of the GSIS signature area that provides a critical link between the institutional control of governments and economic markets and the desired outcome of ecological sustainability. GSIS co-chair Dennis Engi, the head of industrial engineering, says engineers must work to improve quality of life, including health, human rights, economic well being, environmental quality, and preservation of heritage and leisure time. This means that policy decisions must be Eight Signature Areas Infinite Possibilities 57

4 looked at as a large, complex system. Working collaboratively, he believes, will afford Purdue extraordinary opportunities in major global problem solving in areas beyond manufacturing. Solar Power: Bill Hutzel, an associate professor in mechanical engineering technology, discusses solar power on top of Knoy Hall of Technology with undergraduates Darryl Carstensen, civil engineering (foreground), and Keith Gossman, electrical and computer engineering and political science. Both students are members of Sustainable Purdue. The distribution of existing GSIS expertise and momentum in industrial engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and agricultural and biological engineering is significant. On campus, there is a large interdisciplinary group of faculty with expertise in ecological science and engineering that spans engineering, natural, and social sciences. The engineering faculty within GSIS will work with other groups at Purdue to develop other signature areas to address related issues. Such collaboration and synergy of efforts is an essential element to the success of interdisciplinary research and education at Purdue. Student interest and commitment to sustainability issues is also significant and demonstrated by the formation of Sustainable Purdue. The student group s mission is to influence every future and present leader to support technologies, politics, economics, and paradigms associated with sustainable development. In the end, by developing eco-friendly products, assessing and monitoring their environmental impact, and developing business plans that evaluate global ecological consequences, Purdue hopes the GSIS signature area will contribute to a secure and prosperous future. Because the globe, for now anyway, is the only home for so many of us. Six billion strong and growing. Solar Racing: Christopher Frye, an electrical engineering technology student, is a member of Purdue s Solar Racing Team. Their mission is twofold: to build a competitive solar vehicle and educate team members and the public of the possibilities of renewable energy. 58 Purdue s Engineering Edge

5 Recycling Plastic Computer Parts How can you salvage two billion pounds of various high-value engineering plastics from millions of old computers, printers, and monitors globally each year? Just ask Julie Ann Stuart, an assistant professor of industrial engineering, Ed Grant, a professor of chemistry, and their team of student researchers at Purdue. They propose to extend the current metals recycling process to include limited disassembly to separate plastic components. After recording the motions to disassemble plastic components from over 70 different computers, printers, and monitors, the Purdue team used standard times to calculate separation times and develop easy-to-implement disassembly policies for plastics separation. They also designed symbols to help recycling workers quickly remove plastic components from a diverse stream of end-of-life electronics. Following separation, spectrochemical identification is used to match the plastic fingerprint from old equipment with known plastic fingerprints in a database being built within the Purdue labs. The team demonstrated the efficiency and potential economics of their process design and innovative recycling scheduling policies in a simulation model they constructed in the Sustainable Systems Engineering Laboratory. Funded by an award from the joint National Science Foundation/ Environmental Protection Agency Technology for a Sustainable Environment Program, this multidisciplinary team s research may significantly increase plastics-to-plastics recycling. Recycling Team: Julie Ann Stuart, an assistant professor in industrial engineering, and Ed Grant, a professor of chemistry (both in foreground), pose with their Purdue Sustainable Systems Engineering Laboratory team. The interdisciplinary group is looking to significantly increase plastics-to-plastics recycling. Eight Signature Areas Infinite Possibilities 59