Materials and the Environment
Eco-informed Material Choice
Resources
Description
Key Features
- Introduces methods and tools for thinking about and designing with materials within the context of their role in products and the environmental consequences
- Contains numerous case studies showing how the methods discussed in the book can be applied to real-world situations
- Includes full-color data sheets for 40 of the most widely used materials, featuring such environmentally relevant information as their annual production and reserves, embodied energy and process energies, carbon footprints, and recycling data
New to this edition:
- New chapter of Case Studies of Eco-audits illustrating the rapid audit method
- New chapter on Materials for Low Carbon Power examines the consequences for materials supply of a major shift from fossil-fuel based power to power from renewables
- New chapter exploring Material Efficiency, or design and management for manufacture to provide the services we need with the least production of materials
- Recent news-clips from the world press that help place materials issues into a broader context.are incorporated into all chapters
- End-of-chapter exercises have been greatly expanded
- The datasheets of Chapter 15 have been updated and expanded to include natural and man-made fibers
Readership
Table of Contents
Preface and acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction and synopsis
1.2 Materials: a brief history
1.3 Learned dependency: the reliance on nonrenewable materials
1.4 Materials and the environment
1.5 Summary and conclusions
1.6 Further reading
1.7 Exercises
Chapter 2. Resource consumption and its drivers
2.1 Introduction and synopsis
2.2 Where do materials come from?
2.3 Resource consumption
2.4 Exponential growth and doubling times
2.5 Reserves, the resource base, and resource life
2.6 The materials-energy-carbon triangle
2.7 Summary and conclusions
2.8 Further reading
2.9 Exercises
Chapter 3. The material life cycle
3.1 Introduction and synopsis
3.2 The design process
3.3 The materials life cycle
3.4 Life-cycle assessment: details and difficulties
3.5 Streamlined LCA and eco-auditing
3.6 The strategy
3.7 Summary and conclusions
3.8 Further reading
3.9 Appendix: software for LCA
3.10 Exercises
Chapter 4. End of first life
4.1 Introduction and synopsis
4.2 What determines product life?
4.3 End-of-first-life options
4.4 The problem of packaging
4.5 Recycling—resurrecting materials
4.6 Summary and conclusions
4.7 Further reading
4.8 Appendix: designations used in recycle marks
4.9 Exercises
Chapter 5. The long reach of legislation
5.1 Introduction and synopsis
5.2 Growing awareness and legislative response
5.3 International treaties, protocols, and conventions
5.4 National legislation: standards and directives
5.5 Economic instruments: taxes, subsidies, and trading schemes
5.6 The consequences
5.7 Summary and conclusions
5.8 Further reading
5.9 Exercises
Chapter 6. Eco-data
6.1 Introduction and synopsis
6.2 Data precision: recalibrating expectations
6.3 The eco-attributes of materials
6.4 Energy and CO2 footprints of energy, transport, and use
6.5 Exploring the data: property charts
6.6 Summary and conclusions
6.7 Further reading
6.8 Exercises
Chapter 7. Eco-audits and eco-audit tools
7.1 Introduction and synopsis
7.2 Eco-audits
7.3 Computer-aided eco-auditing
7.4 Summary and conclusions
7.5 Further reading
7.6 Appendix: eco-audit tools
7.7 Exercises
Chapter 8. Case studies
8.1 Introduction and synopsis
8.2 Reusable and disposable cups
Further reading
8.3 Grocery bags
Further reading
8.4 An electric kettle
8.5 A coffee maker
8.6 An A-rated washing machine
Further reading
8.7 Ricoh imagio MF6550 copier
Further reading
8.8 A portable space heater
8.9 Ceramic pottery kilns
8.10 Auto bumpers—exploring substitution
8.11 Family car—comparing material energy with use energy
Further reading
8.12 Computer-assisted audits: a hair dryer
8.13 Summary and conclusions
8.14 Exercises
Exercises using the CES eco-audit tool
Chapter 9. Material selection strategies
9.1 Introduction and synopsis
9.2 The selection strategy: choosing a car
9.3 Principles of materials selection
9.4 Selection criteria and property charts
9.5 Using indices for scaling
9.6 Resolving conflicting objectives: trade-off methods
9.7 Seven useful charts
9.8 Computer-aided selection
9.9 Summary and conclusions
9.10 Further reading
9.11 Appendix: deriving material indices
9.12 Exercises
Exercises using CES Edu Level 2 Eco
Chapter 10. Eco-informed materials selection
10.1 Introduction and synopsis
10.2 Which bottle is best? Selection per unit of function
10.3 Systematic eco-selection: carbonated-water bottles
10.4 Structural materials for buildings
10.5 Initial and recurring embodied energy of buildings
10.6 Heating and cooling (1): refrigeration
10.7 Heating and cooling (2): materials for passive solar heating
10.8 Heating and cooling (3): kilns and cyclic heating
10.9 Transportation (1): introduction
10.10 Transportation (2): crash barriers—matching material to purpose
10.11 Transportation (3): materials for light weight structures
10.12 Transportation (4): material substitution for eco-efficient design
10.13 Summary and conclusions
10.14 Further reading
10.15 Exercises
Exercises using the CES Edu software
Chapter 11. Sustainability
11.1 Introduction and synopsis
11.2 The concept of sustainable development
11.3 The ecological metaphor
11.4 Material sustainability
11.5 Renewable materials
11.6 Bio-derived materials
11.7 Summary and conclusions
11.8 Further reading
11.9 Exercises
Chapter 12. Materials for low-carbon power
12.1 Introduction and synopsis
12.2 The resource intensity of power sources—the big picture
12.3 Conventional fossil-fuel power: gas and coal
12.4 Nuclear power
12.5 Solar energy: thermal, thermoelectric, and photovoltaics
12.6 Fuel cells
12.7 Wind power
12.8 Hydropower
12.9 Wave power
12.10 Tidal power
12.11 Geothermal power
12.12 Biomass
12.13 Summary and conclusions
12.14 Further reading
12.15 Appendix 1: Definitions of properties
12.16 Appendix 2: Approximate material intensities for power systems
12.17 Exercises
Chapter 13. Material efficiency
13.1 Introduction and synopsis
13.2 What is the point of materials efficiency?
13.3 Increasing material efficiency (1): engineering solutions
13.4 Increasing material efficiency (2): legislation and social change
13.5 What makes material efficiency difficult?
13.6 Mechanisms to promote material efficiency
13.7 Summary and conclusions
13.8 Further reading
13.9 Exercises
Chapter 14. The bigger picture
14.1 Introduction and synopsis
14.2 Material value
14.3 Carbon, energy, and GDP
14.4 Does GDP measure national wealth?6
14.5 Forces for change: threats7
14.6 Opportunities
14.7 Summary and conclusions
14.8 Further reading
14.9 Exercises
Chapter 15. Material profiles
15.1 Introduction and synopsis
15.2 Metals and alloys
15.3 Polymers
15.4 Ceramics and glasses
15.5 Hybrids: composites, foams, wood, and paper
15.6 Man-made and natural fibers
APPENDIX. Useful numbers and conversions
A.1 Introduction
A.2 Physical constants in SI units
A.3 Conversion of units, general
A.4 Stress and pressure
A.5 Energy and power
A.6 Fuels
A.7 Energy prices (2011 data)
A.8 Further reading
Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 628
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Butterworth-Heinemann 2012
- Published: March 28, 2012
- Imprint: Butterworth-Heinemann
- eBook ISBN: 9780123859723
About the Author
Michael Ashby
Mike Ashby is sole or lead author of several of Elsevier’s top selling engineering textbooks, including Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design, Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, Materials and the Environment, and Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design. He is also coauthor of the books Engineering Materials 1&2, and Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design.