Emergy evaluation of the sustainability of two industrial systems based on wastes exchanges

Emergy evaluation provided global performance indicators that were used to assess the sustainability of a sulfuric acid production system (SAPS) and a titanium dioxide production system (TDPS) before and after wastes exchanges in Pan-zhi-hua city, China. Results show that wastes exchanges can improve the two enterprises' comprehensive performance; however, this is limited for most wastes from the two systems have not been reused. Therefore, more wastes should be exchanged among them and other industrial systems in future. Meanwhile, the two industrial systems should continue to reform their technologies and crafts in order to further improve their resources efficiency due to their great dependence on non-renewable inputs. This study creates awareness, and brings a new insight to the gains achieved with resources recovery from wastes. In addition, other related issues were also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.