Material Flow Analysis –

Case Study

Pradip P. Kalbar, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Centre for Urban Science and Engineering (CUSE)
IIT Bombay
kalbar@iitb.ac.in
Extn. 9330

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 Case Study: Regional Lead
Pollution
• Heavy meatals are part of both economic and
environmental cycles
• Mostly used in coatings and in alloys
• Most heavy metals are not useful for biosphere
• They are toxic to humans and other liviing organisms
• Hence, it is important to study their stocks and flows to
identify potential harmful sites of accumulation
• This case study is taken from a comprehensive study
(RESUB 3) on the flows and stocks of 12 elements in
a Swiss region (Bunz Valley) of 66 km 2 and 28,000
inhabitants.

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Private Households

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Wastewater Treatment Plant

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Planetary Boundary Layer

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Calculation of Lead Flows through
Process “Forest Soil”

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Calculation of Lead Flows through
Process “Agricultural Soil”

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 Calculation of Lead Flows
through Process “Urban Areas”

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Sewer System

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Industry

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Landfill

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River

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 Lead accumulation
in soils. Conc.
Limits??

About 1/6th of lead

imported remains
Sewage Sludge
forever in the
application to
system
soils??

MSW Management
options??

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 Learnings (1/2)
• MFA serves to provide early recognition of
environmental hazards

• MFA can be used to establish priorities for

environmental measures

• MFA can be used for efficient environmental

monitoring

• MFA can be used for regional materials

management and resource conservation

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 Learnings (1/2)
• MFA Compliments LCA

• MFA is used to derive inventory of primary

processes for LCA

• LCA is aimed at completeness – many

substances

• MFA is aimed at transparancy at single

substance level at each time

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