Zero Waste Engineering

M. M. Khan was recently a lecturer in chemical engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, before moving to Canada. He has written a dozen papers and coauthored a book on zero waste engineering and sustainable technology.M. R. Islam is Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the Civil and Resource Engineering Department of Dalhousie University, Canada. He has over 700 publications to his credit, including 6 books. He is on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. In addition to his teaching duties, he is also director of Emertec Research and Development Ltd. and has been on the boards of a number of companies in North America and overseas.

• Preface xiii1 Introduction 11.1 Background 11.2 The Deficiency of Current Engineering Practices 81.3 The Zero-Waste Approach 171.4 Scope of the Book 171.5 Organization of the Book 192 A Delinearized History of Time and Its Impact on Scientific Cognition 232.1 Introduction 232.2 The Importance of The Continuous Long-Term History 282.3 Delinearized History of Time and Knowledge 322.4 Role of Water, Air, Clay and Fire in Scientific Characterization 522.5 A Reflection on the Purposes of Sciences 702.6 Role of Intention in Technology Development 862.7 Cyclic Nature of Civilization 902.8 About the “New Science” of Time and Motion 982.9 What is New Versus what is Permitted: Science and the Establishment? 1172.10 The Nature-Science Approach 1272.11 Conclusions 1343 Towards Modeling of Zero-Waste Engineering Processes with Inherent Sustainability 1373.1 Introduction 1373.2 Development of a Sustainable Model 1393.3 Problem with the Current Model: The Case of Electricity 1403.4 How Could We Have Averted the Downturn? 1613.4.1 Violation of Characteristic Time 1673.5 Observation of Nature: Importance of Intangibles 1693.6 Analogy of Physical Phenomena 1733.7 Intangible Cause to Tangible Consequence 1743.8 Removable Discontinuities: Phases and Renewability of Materials 1753.9 Rebalancing Mass and Energy 1763.10 ENERGY — The Existing Model 1783.11 Conclusions 1814 The Formulation of a Comprehensive Mass and Energy Balance Equation 1834.1 Introduction 1834.2 The Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy 1884.3 Continuity of Matter and Phase Transition 1894.4 The Science of Water and Oil 2054.5 From Natural Energy to Natural Mass 2304.6 The Avalanche Theory of Mass and Energy 2564.7 Aims of Modeling Natural Phenomena 2624.8 Simultaneous Characterization of Matter and Energy 2644.9 Consequences of Nature-Science for Classical Set Theory and Conventional Notions of Mensuration 2694.10 Conclusions 2715 Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Honey Sugar Saccharine Aspartame (HSSA) Degradation in Modern Engineering 2735.1 Introduction 2735.2 Background 2745.3 The Need for the Science of Intangibles 2755.4 The Need for Multidimensional Study 2845.5 Assessing the Overall Performance of a Process 2905.6 Facts about Honey and the Science of Intangibles 2955.7 CCD In Relation to Science of Tangibles 3035.8 Possible Causes of CCD 3115.9 The HSS®A® (Honey → Sugar → Saccharin® → Aspartame®) Pathway 3225.10 Honey and Cancer 3445.11 The Sugar Culture and Beyond 3625.12 The Culture of the Artificial Sweetener 3685.13 The Honey-Sugar-Saccharin-Aspartame Degradation in Everything 4065.14 The Nature Science Approach 4115.15 A New Approach to Product Characterization 4135.16 A Discussion 4165.17 Conclusions 4196 Zero-Waste Lifestyle with Inherently Sustainable Technologies 4216.1 Introduction 4216.2 Energy from Kitchen Waste (KW) and Sewage 4256.3 Utilization of Produced Waste in a Desalination Plant 4326.4 Solar Aquatic Process to Purify Desalinated/Waste Water 4386.5 Direct Use of Solar Energy 4456.6 Sustainability Analysis 4517 A Novel Sustainable Combined Heating/Cooling/Refrigeration System 4557.1 Introduction 4557.2 Einstein Refrigeration Cycle 4587.3 Thermodynamic Model and its Cycle’s Energy Requirement 4607.4 Solar Cooler and Heat Engine 4637.5 Actual Coefficient of Performance (COP) Calculation 4647.6 Absorption Refrigeration System 4667.7 Calculation of Global Efficiency 4687.8 Solar Energy Utilization in the Refrigeration Cycle 4757.9 The New System 4767.8 Pathway Analysis 4787.9 Sustainability Analysis 4827.10 Conclusions 4848 A Zero-Waste Design for Direct Usage of Solar Energy 4878.1 Introduction 4878.2 The prototype 4918.3 Results and Discussion of Parabolic Solar Technology 4958.4 Conclusions 5029 Investigation of Vegetable Oil as The Thermal Fluid in A Parabolic Solar Collector 5039.1 Introduction 5039.2 Experimental Setup and Procedures 5079.3 Experimental Procedure 5119.4 Results and Discussion 5119.5 Conclusions 51510 The Potential of Biogas in Zero-Waste Mode of a Cold-Climate Environment 51710.1 Introduction 51710.2 Background 51810.3 Biogas Fermentation 52010.4 Factors Involved in Anaerobic Digestion 52110.5 Heath and Environmental Issue 52610.6 Digesters in Cold Countries 52810.7 Experimental Setup and Procedures 52910.8 Discussion 53210.9 Conclusions 53611 The New Synthesis: Application of All Natural Materials for Engineering Applications 53711.1 Introduction 53711.2 Metal Waste Removal with Natural Materials 53811.3 Natural Materials as Bonding Agents 54412 Economic Assessment of Zero-Waste Engineering 56912.1 Introduction 56912.2 Delinearized History of the Modern Era 57012.3 Insufficiency of Conventional Economic Models 58112.4 The New Synthesis 58412.5 The New Investment Model, Conforming to the Information Age 58712.6 The Most Important Research Questions in the Information Age 59012.7 Future Engineering Projects 59412.8 Economics of Zero-Waste Engineering Projects 59512.9 Quality of Energy 60512.10 Conclusions 60713 General Conclusions and Recommendations 60913.1 Summary 60913.2 Conclusions 61313.3 Recommendations 61513.4 Future Projects 616References and Bibliography 619Index 665