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Heat, a form of energy, is partly potential energy and partly kinetic energy

Energy quality is the contrast between different forms of energy, the different trophic levels in ecological systems and the propensity of energy to convert from one form to another. The concept refers to the empirical experience of the characteristics, or qualia, of different energy forms as they flow and transform. It appeals to our common perception of the heat value, versatility, and environmental performance of different energy forms and the way a small increment in energy flow can sometimes produce a large transformation effect on both energy physical state and energy. For example the transition from a solid state to liquid may only involve a very small addition of energy. Methods of evaluating energy quality are sometimes concerned with developing a system of ranking energy qualities in hierarchical order.

Introduction

Since before antiquity there has been deep philosophical, aesthetic and scientific interest in the contrast of quality with quantity. In some respects the history of modern and postmodern thought can be characterized by the phenomenological approach to these two concepts. A central question has been whether the many different qualitative aspects of the world can be understood in terms of rational quantities, or whether the qualitative and quantitative are irreconcilable: that is, there is no "rational quality", or quale ratio. Many scientists and analytic philosophers say they are not, and therefore consider some qualitative phenomena like, for instance, spirituality, and astrology to be unquantifiable, unanalysable by scientific methods, and therefore ungrounded in physical reality. The notion of energy quality therefore has a tendency to be linked with phenomena many scientists consider unquantifiable, or at least incommunicable, and are consequently dismissed out of hand.

At the same time many people have also recognised qualitative differences in the way things can be done by different entities (both physical and biological). Humans, for example have qualitatively different capacities than many other mammals, due, in part, to their opposable thumb. In the attempt to formalise some of the qualitative differences, entities were grouped according to distinguishing features or capacities. Different schools of thought used different methods to make distinctions. Some people chose taxonomic and genome structure, while others chose energetic function as the basis of classifications. The former are often associated with biology, while the latter with the trophic food chain analysis of ecology. These can be considered attempts to formalise quantitative, scientific studies of the qualitative differences between entities. The efforts were not isolated to biology and ecology, since engineers were also interested in quantifying the amount of work that qualitatively different sources of energy could provide.

Ohta

According to Ohta (1994, pp. 90–91) the ranking and scientific analysis of energy quality was first proposed in 1851 by William Thomson under the concept of "availability". This concept was continued in Germany by Z. Rant, who developed it under the title, "die Exergie" (the exergy). It was later continued and standardised in Japan. Exergy analysis now forms a common part of many industrial and ecological energy analyses. For example, I.Dincer and Y.A. Cengel (2001, p. 132) state that energy forms of different qualities are now commonly dealt with in steam power engineering industry. Here the "quality index" is the relation of exergy to the energy content (Ibid.). However energy engineers were aware that the notion of heat quality involved the notion of value – for example A. Thumann wrote, "The essential quality of heat is not the amount but rather its 'value'" (1984, p. 113) – which brings into play the question of teleology and wider, or ecological-scale goal functions. In an ecological context S.E. Jorgensen and G.Bendoricchio say that exergy is used as a goal function in ecological models, and expresses energy "with a built-in measure of quality like energy" (2001, p. 392).

Energy quality evaluation methods

There appear to be two main kinds of methodology used for the calculation of energy quality. These can be classed as either receiver or donor methods. One of the main differences that distinguishes these classes is the assumption of whether energy quality can be upgraded in an energy transformation process.

Receiver methods: view energy quality as a measure and indicator of the relative ease with which energy converts from one form to another. That is, how much energy is received from a transformation or transfer process. For example, A. Grubler [1] used two types of indicators of energetic quality pars pro toto: the hydrogen/carbon (H/C) ratio, and its inverse, the carbon intensity of energy. Grubler used the latter as an indicator of relative environmental quality. However Ohta says that in multistage industrial conversion systems, such as a hydrogen production system using solar energy, the energy quality is not upgraded (1994, p. 125).

Donor methods: view energy quality as a measure of the amount of energy used in an energy transformation, and that goes into sustaining a product or service (H.T.Odum 1975, p. 3). That is how much energy is donated to an energy transformation process. These methods are used in ecological physical chemistry, and ecosystem evaluation. From this view, in contrast with that outlined by Ohta, energy quality is upgraded in the multistage trophic conversions of ecological systems. Here, upgraded energy quality has a greater capacity to feedback and control lower grades of energy quality. Donor methods attempt to understand the usefulness of an energetic process by quantifying the extent to which higher quality energy controls lower quality energy.

Energy quality in physical-chemical science (direct energy transformations)

Constant energy form but variable energy flow

T.Ohta suggested that the concept of energy quality may be more intuitive if one considers examples where the form of energy remains constant but the amount of energy flowing, or transferred is varied. For instance if we consider only the inertial form of energy, then the energy quality of a moving body is higher when it moves with a greater velocity. If we consider only the heat form of energy, then a higher temperature has higher quality. And if we consider only the light form of energy then light with higher frequency has greater quality (Ohta 1994, p. 90). All these differences in energy quality are therefore easily measured with the appropriate scientific instrument.

Variable energy form, but constant energy flow

The situation becomes more complex when the form of energy does not remain constant. In this context Ohta formulated the question of energy quality in terms of the conversion of energy of one form into another, that is the transformation of energy. Here, energy quality is defined by the relative ease with which the energy transforms, from form to form.

If energy A is relatively easier to convert to energy B but energy B is relatively harder to convert to energy A, then the quality of energy A is defined as being higher than that of B. The ranking of energy quality is also defined in a similar way. (T.Ohta 1994, p. 90).

Nomenclature: Prior to Ohta's definition above, A.W.Culp produced an energy conversion table describing the different conversions from one energy to another. Culp's treatment made use of a subscript to indicate which energy form is being talked about. Therefore, instead of writing "energy A", like Ohta above, Culp referred to "J_e", to specify electrical form of energy, where" J" refers to "energy", and the "e"subscript refers to electrical form of energy. Culps notation anticipated Scienceman's (1997) later maxim that all energy should be specified as form energy with the appropriate subscript.

Energy quality in biophysical economics (indirect energy transformations)

The notion of energy quality was also recognised in the economic sciences. In the context of biophysical economics energy quality was measured by the amount of economic output generated per unit of energy input (C.J. Cleveland et al. 2000). The estimation of energy quality in an economic context is also associated with embodied energy methodologies. Another example of the economic relevance of the energy quality concept is given by Brian Fleay. Fleay says that the "Energy Profit Ratio (EPR) is one measure of energy quality and a pivotal index for assessing the economic performance of fuels. Both the direct and indirect energy inputs embodied in goods and services must be included in the denominator." (2006; p. 10) Fley calculates the EPR as the energy output/energy input.

Ranking energy quality

Energy abundance and relative transformation ease as measure of hierarchical rank and/or hierarchical position

Ohta sought to order energy form conversions according to their quality and introduced a hierarchical scale for ranking energy quality based on the relative ease of energy conversion (see table to right after Ohta, p. 90). It is evident that Ohta did not analyse all forms of energy. For example, water is left out of his evaluation. It is important to note that the ranking of energy quality is not determined solely with reference to the efficiency of the energy conversion. This is to say that the evaluation of "relative ease" of an energy conversion is only partly dependent on transformation efficiency. As Ohta wrote, "the turbine generator and the electric motor have nearly the same efficiency, therefore we cannot say which has the higher quality" (1994, p. 90). Ohta therefore also included, 'abundance in nature' as another criterion for the determination energy quality rank. For example, Ohta said that, "the only electrical energy which exists in natural circumstances is lightning, while many mechanical energies exist." (Ibid.). (See also table 1. in Wall's article for another example ranking of energy quality).

Transformity as an energy measure of hierarchical rank

Like Ohta, H.T.Odum also sought to order energy form conversions according to their quality, however his hierarchical scale for ranking was based on extending ecological system food chain concepts to thermodyanmics rather than simply relative ease of transformation . For H.T.Odum energy quality rank is based on the amount of energy of one form required to generate a unit of another energy form. The ratio of one energy form input to a different energy form output was what H.T.Odum and colleagues called transformity: "the EMERGY per unit energy in units of emjoules per joule" (H.T.Odum 1988, p. 1135).

See also

References