Exergetic material input per unit of service (EMIPS) for the assessment of resource productivity of transport commodities

This paper focuses on the assessment of the sustainability of transport technologies in terms of resource productivity. It proposes a concept that presents a firm base for quantification of material input on the one hand and generated transport service on the other hand. The concept of material input per unit of service (MIPS) is quantified in terms of the second law of thermodynamics, allowing the calculation of both resource input and service output in exergy terms. This exergetic material input per unit of service (EMIPS) has been elaborated for transport technology. The service not only takes into account the total mass to be transported and the total distance, but also the mass per single transport and the delivery time. The applicability of the EMIPS methodology has been illustrated by a case study comparing railway, truck and passenger car transport. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.