Exergy analysis of the chilean society

Abstract

The present report contains an exergy analysis of the Chilean society in 2013. Wall s approach was taken to assess the exergy efficiency of four main economic sectors: mining, manufacturing, transportation, and households. Several assumptions were taken to simplify the complex thermodynamic interactions within the society model. For instance, exergy flows among economic sectors were not considered, due to the lack of relevant statistical data on these interactions. On the other hand, only some of the exergy carriers entering and leaving the society were accounted, as the focus of this work is to provide a first outlook of the Chilean exergy efficiency from a chemical exergy standpoint. An extended exergy analysis (EEA) is proposed for future studies, in order to integrate exergy of labor and capital into the analysis. Statistical power plays an important role in this matter, as key data required to perform an EEA is nowadays unavailable. The efficiency of the society in 2013 was 24%. Comparing with other societies, the Chilean case was found to be in between advanced economies and less developed countries. The current development model is criticized, as the most developed countries previously analyzed have the lowest thermodynamic efficiency. In the long term, a shift of paradigm is expected, fostering local development and educating about resources overconsumption. Regarding Chilean economic sectors, exergy efficiency was found to be higher in extractive activities, such as mining (53%), and manufacturing (53%). In general, exergy efficiency was lower in services and end-use sectors, such as transportation (21%), and households (10%). This is considered to be related with omission of labor in the analysis, as end-use sectors show a higher dependency on human work compared to industrial/extractive activities. Despite of methodological difficulties, interesting suggestions were obtained from the analysis. Structural changes are proposed in the manufacturing sector, to improve the efficiency of transformations carried out in agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture activities. Food industry as a whole would improve its thermodynamic performance if steps in this direction were taken. Likewise, fostering a technological shift towards electric vehicles would imply a much better use of the available resources. In the same way, improvements in water and space heating are desirable, as these two end-uses are the most exergy intensive applications in household consumption.