The second law of thermodynamics (2LT) helps to quantify the limits as well as the resource efficiency of the circular economy (CE) in the transformation of resources, which include materials, energy, or water, into products and residues, some of which will be irreversibly lost. Furthermore, material and energy losses will also occur, as well as the residues and emissions that are generated have an environmental impact. Identifying the limits of circularity of large-scale CE systems, i.e., flowsheets, is necessary to understand the viability of the CE. With this deeper understanding, the full social, environmental, and economic sustainability can be explored. Exergy dissipation, a measure of resource consumption, material recoveries, and environmental impact indicators together provide a quantitative basis for designing a resource-efficient CE system. Unique and very large simulation models, linking up to 223 detailed modeled unit operations, over 860 flows and 30 elements, and all associated compounds, apply this thermoeconomic (exergy-based) methodology showing (i) the resource efficiency limits, in terms of material losses and exergy dissipation of the CdTe photovoltaic (PV) module CE system (i.e., from ore to metal production, PV module production, and end-of-life recycling of the original metal into the system again) and (ii) the analysis of the zinc processing subsystem of the CdTe PV system, for which the material recovery, resource consumption, and environmental impacts of different processing routes were evaluated, and the most resource-efficient alternative to minimize the residue production during zinc production was selected. This study also quantifies the key role that metallurgy plays in enabling sustainability. Therefore, it highlights the criticality of the metallurgical infrastructure to the CE, above and beyond simply focusing on the criticality of the elements.

中文翻译：

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大型循环经济系统的基于模拟的火用分析：锌生产与CdTe光伏组件寿命周期耦合

热力学第二定律（2LT）有助于量化循环经济（CE）在将包括材料，能源或水在内的资源转化为产品和残渣的过程中的极限以及资源效率。不可逆转地迷失了。此外，还会发生材料和能量的损失，以及产生的残留物和排放物也会对环境造成影响。识别大型CE系统（例如流程图）的圆度限制对于了解CE的可行性是必要的。有了更深入的了解，就可以探索全面的社会，环境和经济可持续性。火用耗散，资源消耗，物料回收，与环境影响指标一起为设计资源高效的CE系统提供了定量基础。独特且超大型的仿真模型，可链接多达223个详细建模的单元操作，860多个流程和30个元素以及所有相关的化合物，并采用这种热经济（基于能量）方法论，该方法显示（i）在材料方面的资源效率限制CdTe光伏（CE）模块CE系统的损耗和火用耗散（即从矿石到金属生产，PV组件生产，以及将原金属的报废回收再利用到系统中）和（ii）分析CdTe光伏系统的锌加工子系统，评估了不同加工路线的材料回收，资源消耗和环境影响，选择了最节省资源的方法来最大程度地减少锌生产过程中的残留物产生。这项研究还量化了冶金在实现可持续性方面的关键作用。因此，除了简单地关注元素的关键性之外，它还突出了冶金基础设施对CE的关键性。