Toward a sustainable materials system
Global annual material use reached 90 billion tons in 2017 and may double by 2050. This unsustainable growth has impacts on everything from landscape degradation and habitat loss...
Publications
Developments in Wind Power
UK power generation from wind has increased in recent years due to sharp reductions in the costs of constructing and operating wind power facilities. Onshore wind power provides...
Exergy: A universal metric for measuring resource efficiency to address industrial decarbonisation
To achieve agreed targets for reducing global carbon emissions, industry must become more resource-efficient. To this end, two viable strategies exist: energy efficiency and material efficiency. Despite the...
Emissions of main building materials – past and present
Economic development has been based so far on permanently increasing demand for materials and products. Building materials, such as cement, steel and aluminium, due to their amount and...
Technical limits for energy conversion efficiency
To reach climate targets, unprecedented levels of energy efficiency improvements are required. To prioritise investments, it is necessary to know the energy saving potential associated with each action....
Useful energy balance for the UK: An uncertainty analysis
The use of Useful energy as an energy indicator for sustainability and energy efficiency policy making has been advocated for since the 1970s. Useful energy is the energy...
Exergy and network analysis of chemical sites
Chemicals production is responsible for 10% of global energy consumption and 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. Material and energy efficiency are the focus of industrial and policy decision-makers...
Do technical improvements lead to real efficiency gains? Disaggregating changes in transport energy intensity
This paper uses driver reported data and shows that the real fuel efficiency of new cars in Great Britain has improved by far less than widely reported. This...
Mapping the Global Flow of Steel: From Steelmaking to End-Use Goods
Our society is addicted to steel. Global demand for steel has risen to 1.4 billion tonnes a year and is set to at least double by 2050, while...