Umberto

Whatever system an engineer is working on, he or she needs tools to understand, model, test and optimize it. Any system can be described as a structured material support, traversed by flows of matter, energy, information and money. This structure and these flows enable the system to perform certain functions. One of the most general methods of analysis is therefore to study the way in which flows pass between the different compartments of the system, and how this dynamic influences its behavior.

This very general approach has been applied in a variety of ways in different sectors. It is, for example, an integral part of process engineering and chemistry, but can also be found in agronomy and, more recently, in urban planning. From the 1970s onwards, growing environmental concerns gave new impetus to this approach. It emerged as an essential step towards understanding, measuring and managing the impact of any system on its environment. It has provided answers to questions concerning the depletion of non-renewable natural resources, the dispersion of pollutants in the environment (air, water and soil), and more generally, the long-term sustainability of economic activities. Its methodology has been reviewed and generalized and its name, in environmental science circles, has become "analysis of material and energy flows", or AFME. Sometimes artificially contrasted with other methods, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), AFME is in fact the basic building block of most environmental studies.

Umberto ^® is a software package specially designed for AFME, with some versions also including in-depth LCA, cost analysis and carbon footprint functions. More generally, this tool is part of :

• improving the material or energy efficiency (known as "eco-efficiency") of a wide variety of industrial systems (production processes, industrial sites, etc.) and optimizing costs;

• pollution prevention (emissions of polluting gases and effluents, waste production);

• environmental assessment of products or services (LCA) and eco-design ;

• environmental assessment at company level (construction and monitoring of eco-efficiency indicators, preparation of sustainable development reports, etc.) or at regional level.

This article reviews the general principles of AFME and shows how Umberto ^® supports...