Year in review—EROI or energy return on (energy) invested

Murphy, David J.; Hall, Charles A. S.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05282.x

Cited by 398 publications

(244 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…As stated by Murphy and Hall [15], there needs to be a concerted effort to make energy information more transparent to the people so we can better understand what we are doing and where we are going. Given what we do know, it seems that the EROI of the fuels we depend on most are in decline; whereas the EROI for those fuels we hope to replace them with are lower than we have enjoyed in the past.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently as energy prices have again been increasing the interest in EROI has again increased (e.g., Heinberg [8], many web sites). Additionally many papers on energy and emerging economic fields discuss this ratio and what it means to current and future economies (e.g., Hall and Klitgaard [9], Hall [10], Mearns [11], Day et al [12], Hall et al [13], Hall and Day [14], Murphy and Hall [15]). However, given the number of decades the concept of EROI has been around, only a small, although growing, body of work is available on the subject [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Past and Current State of EROI Data

2011

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This is a review of the literature available on data for the EROI (prior to this special issue) of the following 12 sources of fuel/energy: oil and natural gas, coal, tar sands, shale oil, nuclear, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, wave/tidal and corn ethanol. Unfortunately, we found that few studies have been undertaken since the 1980s, and such as have been done are often marked more by advocacy than objectivity. The most recent summary of work and data on the EROI of fuels was conducted in the summer of 2007 at SUNY ESF and appeared on The Oil Drum website and in a readable summary by Richard Heinberg. This paper summarizes the findings of that study, and also those preceding and subsequent to it where available. It also summarizes issues raised by some concerning the findings of these studies and with the calculations within. While there are many who believe that such EROI studies are critical to understanding our financial and social future there seems to be very little interest by governments and industries in supporting this research or in using or promulgating such research as has been done. We view this as critical as our main fuels are progressively depleted and as we are faced with making extremely important decisions on a very meager analytical and data base, and with few scientists trained to cut through the reams of insufficiently analyzed energy advocacy saturating our media and the blogosphere.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Past and Current State of EROI Data

2011

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“…It should be noted that the system boundaries for the calculation of the output energy were fixed in the same terms as that of the CED calculation (Murphy and Hall 2010). Therefore, the assumption was made that all the edible protein energy content in the species assessed when landed at the fishing ports is finally delivered for human consumption, disregarding the potential food wastes that may occur in the on land supply chains (FAO 2011).…”

Section: Quantification Of the Energy Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, the use of ep-EROI in seafood products has shown to be highly relevant when examining the fishery stage, which in many cases may be highly energy intensive (Tyedmers 2001(Tyedmers , 2004. In fact, ep-EROI provides a policy relevant approach to monitor the underlying energy sources used in fisheries in a way that markets cannot (Murphy and Hall 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The coupling of these two methods (i.e., LCA and EROI) pursues a reduction in the uncertainties linked to the two main limitations of EROI: data quality and the fixation of the system boundaries (Murphy and Hall 2010). Additionally, the life cycle approach suggested allows a more robust comparison in terms of EROI between production systems as compared to more simplistic estimations such as fuel use intensity (FUI), since the latter does not consider the energy requirements of many fishery operations that rely on other sources of energy (e.g., electricity, net, and ice production).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Edible Protein Energy Return on Investment Ratio (ep-EROI) for Spanish Seafood Products

Vázquez‐Rowe

Villanueva-Rey

Moreira

et al. 2013

AMBIO

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) has developed into a useful methodology to assess energy consumption of fishing fleets and their derived seafood products, as well as the associated environmental burdens. In this study, however, the life cycle inventory data is used to provide a dimensionless ratio between energy inputs and the energy provided by the fish: the edible protein energy return on investment (ep-EROI). The main objective was to perform a critical comparison of seafood products landed in Galicia (NW Spain) in terms of ep-EROI. The combination of energy return on investment (EROI) with LCA, the latter having standardized mechanisms regarding data acquisition and system boundary delimitation, allowed a reduction of uncertainties in EROI estimations. Results allow a deeper understanding of the energy efficiency in the Galician fishing sector, showing that small pelagic species present the highest ep-EROI values if captured using specific fishing techniques. Finally, results are expected to provide useful guidelines for policy support in the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.

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Long‐run evolution of the global economy: 1. Physical basis

Garrett

2014

Earth's Future

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Climate change is a two-way street during the Anthropocene: civilization depends upon a favorable climate at the same time that it modifies it. Yet studies that forecast economic growth employ fundamentally different equations and assumptions than those used to model Earth's physical, chemical, and biological processes. In the interest of establishing a common theoretical framework, this article treats humanity like any other physical process; that is, as an open, nonequilibrium thermodynamic system that sustains existing circulations and furthers its material growth through the consumption and dissipation of energy. The link of physical to economic quantities comes from a prior result that establishes a fixed relationship between rates of global energy consumption and a historical accumulation of global economic wealth. What follows are nonequilibrium prognostic expressions for how wealth, energy consumption, and the Gross World Product (GWP) grow with time. This paper shows that the key components that determine whether civilization "innovates" itself toward faster economic growth include energy reserve discovery, improvements to human and infrastructure longevity, and reductions in the amount of energy required to extract raw materials. Growth slows due to a combination of prior growth, energy reserve depletion, and a "fraying" of civilization networks due to natural disasters. Theoretical and numerical arguments suggest that when growth rates approach zero, civilization becomes fragile to such externalities as natural disasters, and is at risk is for an accelerating collapse.Summary Linking physical to economic quantities comes from a fixed relationship between rates of global energy consumption and historical accumulation of global economic wealth. When growth rates approach zero, civilization becomes fragile to externalities, such as natural disasters, and is at risk for accelerating collapse.

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Year in review—EROI or energy return on (energy) invested

Cited by 398 publications

References 38 publications

A Review of the Past and Current State of EROI Data

A Review of the Past and Current State of EROI Data

Edible Protein Energy Return on Investment Ratio (ep-EROI) for Spanish Seafood Products

Long‐run evolution of the global economy: 1. Physical basis

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