This chapter describes and demonstrates the role that thermodynamics can
play in assessing the sustainability of technological activities and in improving their
design. Since thermodynamics governs the behavior of all systems, it can play a crucial
role in understanding fundamental physical limits of technologies and for quantifying
the contribution of resources. The concept of exergy captures the first and second laws
of thermodynamics. Since exergy is the common currency that flows and gets
transformed in industrial and ecological systems, it allows the joint analysis of
industrial and ecological systems. This insight permits accounting of the role of
ecosystem goods and services in supporting human activities. Since ecosystems are
critical to sustainability, accounting for their role must be a part of all methods aimed
toward the analysis and design of sustainable systems. Thermodynamics provides a
scientifically rigorous approach for meeting this challenge. In addition, exergy analysis
of industrial processes and life cycles helps in identifying areas of maximum resource
inefficiency and opportunities for improvement. This approach complements the insight
obtained from assessing the impact of emissions. Case studies based on the life cycle of
biofuels and nanomanufacturing are used to demonstrate the important role that
thermodynamics can play in sustainability engineering.
Keywords: Thermodynamics, first law, second law, Gibbs free energy, Exergy,
Energy analysis, Energy return on investment, Energy quality, Cumulative exergy
consumption, Transformity, Emergy, Biofuels, Nanotechnology.
