Dr. Heriberto Cabezas angol nyelvű előadása. A professzor a Nyugdíjazásáig (2018-ig) az amerikai kormányzat Környezetvédelmi Hivatala (US-EPA, Environmental Protection Agency) vezető munkatársa volt, ahol a fenntarthatóság vizsgálatával foglalkozott. (Ret. Senior Science Advisor to the Sustainable Technology Division in EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory). Jelenleg a Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem kutatóprofesszora
Process and Supply Chain Design: Sustainability Metrics, Sustainability Criteria, and Structural Considerations
Heriberto Cabezas, Ph.D., FAIChE, BCEEM Research Professor Pazmany Peter Catholic University Laudato Si Institute for Process Systems Engineering and Sustainability. Budapest, Hungary
The design of sustainable manufacturing processes and supply chains is rapidly becoming a critical issue, because of the need to provide for the needs of a growing human population which is increasingly prosperous across the globe. To address this growing issue, I review the most important elements of sustainability science including relevant sustainability criteria and metrics. It is notable that there approximately six – not hundreds – critical Earth processes that must be maintained for sustainability to be possible. These represent energy resources, land use, energy efficiency, economic strength, human well-being, and system stability. There are computable metrics that can estimate changes in these processes. Note that to the best of our knowledge increased energy efficiency will not be enough to approach sustainability because it encounters thermodynamic and practical limits below what is needed for sustainability. (1)
We also discuss the importance of process and supply structures which is an often-overlooked aspect of process and supply chain design, and we discuss the application of the P-graph framework. This can be used to easily generate a large number of feasible structures which can then be assessed for sustainability. We illustrate the application of these ideas with examples of energy generation processes and supply chains. (2)
Lastly, based on our work, we seem to have about a hundred years to make enough progress towards sustainability to avoid catastrophes, and that is not a lot of time.
(1) Vance. L., Eason, T. and H. Cabezas. “Energy Sustainability: Consumption, Efficiency, and Environmental Impact,” Clean Tech. Env. Policy, 17 (7), 1-12 (2015). DOI 10.1007/s10098-015-0932y.
(2) Cabezas, H., Argoti, A., Friedler, F., Mizsey, P, and J.P. Pimentel, “Design and Engineering of Sustainable Process Systems and Supply Chains by the P-Graph Framework,” Env. Prog. Sust. Energy, in press. DOI: 10.1002/ep.12763.