Individual based emergy analysis: A Lagrangian model of energy memory

Three new emergy computational methods are developed with identical outcomes to substantiate and in some cases improve the conventional emergy algebra, particularly with regard to the computations associated with system cycling. The power series, the algebraic method, and the individual-based methods are derived and presented by example. Considering energy flow and its accumulation from an individual quanta or energy particle perspective, the discrete individual-based approach that we present is constructed from a single, reasonably simple, agent-based rule of interaction. As such, emergy calculations are the result of a simulated agent-based method where discrete packets of available energy are labeled and tracked in time as they flow through system processes. To quantify energy memory, each particle has a transformity attribute derived from process inefficiencies. This agent- (or individual-) based method provides a way to compute emergy for complex multiple input, output, or even cycling systems, without assuming additional rules. We compare the outcomes from the power series, the algebraic, and the agent-based methods with the current algebra rules of conventional emergy computation. We also point out that the conventional emergy algebra, the power series, the algebraic, and the individual-based methods all need additional research and corresponding reconciliation with regard to the emergy of by-products. © 2012.