Thermoeconomics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Laws of thermodynamics
Zeroth Law
First Law
Second Law
Third Law
Fundamental Relation
v • d • e

Thermoeconomics is the name given to a type of heterodox economic theory that attempts to explicitly apply the principles of thermodynamics to economics.[1] The term "thermoeconomics" was coined in 1962 by American engineer Myron Tribus,[2][3][4] and developed by the statistician and economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen.[5] Thermoeconomics can be thought of as the statistical physics of economic value.[6] Thermoeconomics is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood through the second law of thermodynamics but in terms of such economic criteria as productivity, efficiency, and especially the costs and benefits (or profitability) of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work.[7][8] As a result, thermoeconomics are often discussed in the field of ecological economics, which itself is related to the fields of sustainability and sustainable development.

In Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt (George Allen & Unwin 1926), Frederick Soddy turned his attention to the role of energy in economic systems. He criticized the focus on monetary flows in economics, arguing that “real” wealth was derived from the use of energy to transform materials into physical goods and services. Soddy’s economic writings were largely ignored in his time, but would later be applied to the development of bioeconomics and ecological economics in the late 20th century.[9] They are receiving renewed interest and thought in the light of the 2008 economic crisis.[10]

Thermoeconomists claim that human economic systems can be modeled as thermodynamic systems. Then, based on this premise, they attempt to develop theoretical economic analogs of the first and second laws of thermodynamics.[11] In addition, the thermodynamic quantity exergy, i.e. measure of the useful work energy of a system, is the most important measure of value. In thermodynamics, thermal systems exchange heat, work, and or mass with their surroundings; in this direction, relations between the energy associated with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services can be determined.[12]

Thermoeconomists argue that economic systems always involve matter, energy, entropy, and information.[13] Moreover, the aim of many economic activities is to achieve a certain structure. In this manner, thermoeconomics attempts to apply the theories in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, in which structure formations called dissipative structures form, and information theory, in which information entropy is a central construct, to the modeling of economic activities in which the natural flows of energy and materials function to create scarce resources.[1] In thermodynamic terminology, human economic activity may be described as a dissipative system, which flourishes by transforming and exchanging resources, goods, and services.[14] These processes involve complex networks of flows of energy and materials.


Scientists have speculated on different aspects of energy accounting for some time as to how it might relate to alternatives in social systems.[15] Many variations of energy accounting are in use now, as this issue relates to current (price system) economics directly, as well as projected models in possible Non-market economics systems.[16]

Exergy analysis is performed in the field of industrial ecology to use energy more efficiently.[17] The term exergy, was coined by Zoran Rant in 1956, but the concept was developed by J. Willard Gibbs. In recent decades, utilization of exergy has spread outside of physics and engineering to the fields of industrial ecology, ecological economics, systems ecology, and energetics.


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sieniutycz, Stanislaw; Salamon, Peter (1990). Finite-Time Thermodynamics and Thermoeconomics. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8448-1668-X. 
  2. ^ Yehia M. El-Sayed (2003). The Thermoeconomics of Energy Conversions (pg. 4). Pergamon.
  3. ^ A. Valero, L. Serra, and J. Uche (2006). Fundamentals of Exergy Cost Accounting and Thermoeconomics. Part I: Theory, Journal of Energy Resources Technology, March, Volume 128, Issue 1, pp. 1-8
  4. ^ Gong, Mei, Wall, Goran. (1997). On Exergetics, Economics and Optimization of Technical Processes to Meet Environmental Conditions. Exergy Studies.
  5. ^ Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1971). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-25781-2. 
  6. ^ Chen, Jing (2005). The Physical Foundation of Economics - an Analytical Thermodynamic Theory. World Scientific. ISBN 981-256-323-7. 
  7. ^ Peter A. Corning 1 *, Stephen J. Kline. (2000). Thermodynamics, information and life revisited, Part II: Thermoeconomics and Control information Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Apr. 07, Volume 15, Issue 6 , Pages 453 – 482
  8. ^ Corning, P. (2002). “Thermoeconomics – Beyond the Second Law” – source: www.complexsystems.org
  9. ^ http://www.eoearth.org/article/Soddy,_Frederick Soddy, Frederick - Encyclopedia of Earth
  10. ^ Eric Zencey, "Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy", The New York Times, Opinion Section, April 12, 2009.
  11. ^ Burley, Peter; Foster, John (1994). Economics and Thermodynamics – New Perspectives on Economic Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-9446-1. 
  12. ^ http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/environ/m3/s3/05account.shtml Environmental Decision making, Science and Technology
  13. ^ Baumgarter, Stefan. (2004). Thermodynamic Models, Modeling in Ecological Economics (Ch. 18)
  14. ^ Raine, Alan; Foster, John; and Potts, Jason (2006). "The new entropy law and the economic process". Ecological Complexity 3: 354–360. doi:10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.02.009. 
  15. ^ Stabile, Donald R. "Veblen and the Political Economy of the Engineer: the radical thinker and engineering leaders came to technocratic ideas at the same time", American Journal of Economics and Sociology (45:1) 1986, 43-44.
  16. ^ Cutler J. Cleveland, "Biophysical economics", Encyclopedia of Earth, Last updated: September 14, 2006.
  17. ^ http://exergy.se/goran/thesis/ Exergy - a useful concept by Göran Wall

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoeconomics"
Personal tools
Languages