Models for Decarbonization in the Chemical Industry.

Various technologies and strategies have been proposed to decarbonize the chemical industry. Assessing the decarbonization, environmental, and economic implications of these technologies and strategies is critical to identifying pathways to a more sustainable industrial future. This study reviews recent advancements and integration of systems analysis models, including process analysis, material flow analysis, life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, and machine learning.

Uncertain Future of American Lithium: A Perspective until 2050.

During the 20th century, the United States went from being the largest producer and user of lithium to being heavily reliant on imports from Asia, particularly lithium-ion batteries. To explore different futures for U.S.

Material Flow Analysis from Origin to Evolution.

Material flow analysis (MFA), a central methodology of industrial ecology, quantifies the ways in which the materials that enable modern society are used, reused, and lost. Sankey diagrams, termed the "visible language of industrial ecology", are often employed to present MFA results. This Perspective assesses the history and current status of MFA, reviews the development of the methodology, presents current examples of metal, polymer, and fiber MFAs, and demonstrates that MFAs have been responsible for creating related industrial ecology specialties and stimulating connections between industrial ecology and a variety of engineering and social science fields.

Assessing the Reliability of Material Flow Analysis Results: The Cases of Rhenium, Gallium, and Germanium in the United States Economy.

Decision-makers traditionally expect "hard facts" from scientific inquiry, an expectation that the results of material flow analyses (MFAs) can hardly meet. MFA limitations are attributable to incompleteness of flowcharts, limited data quality, and model assumptions. Moreover, MFA results are, for the most part, based less on empirical observation but rather on social knowledge construction processes.

Deriving the Metal and Alloy Networks of Modern Technology.

Metals have strongly contributed to the development of the human society. Today, large amounts of and various metals are utilized in a wide variety of products. Metals are rarely used individually but mostly together with other metals in the form of alloys and/or other combinational uses.

Criticality of non-fuel minerals: a review of major approaches and analyses.

The criticality of nonfuel minerals is an emerging research subject that captures both the supply risks and the vulnerability of a system to a potential supply disruption. The significance of material criticality for the mass deployment of sustainable and other key technologies is currently obscured by diverse, often immature, and still evolving methodologies. This review explores why principal studies agree or disagree in designating the criticality of certain nonfuel minerals.

EPA at 40: bringing environmental protection into the 21st century.

Sustainability science suggests that effective environmental protection requires an integrated systems approach.

Getting serious about sustainability.

Sustainability and sustainable development are catchwords that dominate today's environmental science and policy discourse. It is easy to demonstrate that most of the activities of today's industrial society are unsustainable. Unfortunately, much of the talk about sustainability lacks a basic understanding of what truly sustainable activity would be.