What is the cost of losing irreversibly the mineral capital on earth?

Abstract:

The exergy replacement cost is presented in this paper as a tool for assessing abiotic resource depletion. Each time we extract minerals from the mines, the deposits become depleted in quantity and grade. As a consequence, more energy is required for the extraction of the next ton of material. The exergy and exergy replacement costs provide a measure for quantifying this degradation, which is systematically being ignored in conventional accounting systems. Hence, this approach allows performing an absolute Life Cycle Analysis, by including a new stage in the accounting: namely the grave to cradle stage. In this methodology, the "cradle" is the state of the mineral deposits at which they are currently found. The "grave" is assumed as being a hypothetical Earth with the absence of concentrated mineral resources and fossil fuels. This degraded planet named as "Thanatia" is the starting point for the assessment of abiotic resource depletion. The exergy measured from Thanatia gives a measure of the quality of the resource. It constitutes a universal, objective and useful tool for classifying resources according to their depletion states. As the method provides values in energy units, the annual exergy decrease in the mineral endowment of the planet can now take into account the fossil fuel's exergy plus the nonfuel mineral bonus lost. The results obtained show that the useful energy that man saves thanks to the existence of mineral deposits accounts for about 32% of the whole energy stages. Furthermore, it is in the same order of magnitude as the yearly loss of coal, oil or natural gas.

Año de publicación:

2012

Keywords:

• Cost
• Exergy
• Thanatia
• LCA
• Mineral capital

Fuente:

scopus