Techno-ecological synergy (TES) is a framework that encourages integration of technological and ecological systems. Specifically, it incorporates the role of natural capital in engineering assessment and design by quantifying both demand and supply of ecosystem services. Emergy can provide valuable support to improve and interpret TES evaluation, as it is a methodology particularly useful for evaluating systems at the biosphere–technosphere interface. The present study evaluates how the TES framework based on emergy can shed new light by comparing conventional technological alternatives and ecological alternatives for meeting a particular ecosystem service demand. Both the demand and supply of ecosystem services are quantified in consistent units of emergy to obtain aggregated TES metrics. Specifically it was found that additional equipment to treat air pollutants have a higher emergy investment as compared to the forest ecosystem, while the technological unit to treat wastewater requires less emergy as compared to the horizontal subsurface flow wetland, its ecological counterpart. This new approach is tested by application to a biodiesel production plant and by calculating emergy metrics. This work shows that emergy can provide a fundamental improvement to the current TES framework, as it provides an aggregated metric for multiple ecosystem services.

技术生态协同（TES）是一个鼓励技术与生态系统整合的框架。具体而言，它通过量化生态系统服务的需求和供给，将自然资本的作用纳入了工程评估和设计。能值可以为改进和解释TES评估提供宝贵的支持，因为它是一种在生物圈-技术圈界面评估系统特别有用的方法。本研究通过比较满足特定生态系统服务需求的常规技术替代方案和生态替代方案，评估了基于能值的TES框架如何能够崭露头角。生态系统服务的需求和供应都以能值的一致单位进行量化，以获得汇总的TES指标。具体而言，发现与森林生态系统相比，用于处理空气污染物的附加设备具有更高的能值投入，而与生态系统对应的水平地下流湿地相比，用于处理废水的技术单元所需的能值更低。通过将其应用于生物柴油生产工厂并通过计算能值指标，对这种新方法进行了测试。这项工作表明，能值可以为当前的TES框架提供根本性的改进，因为它为多种生态系统服务提供了汇总指标。通过将其应用于生物柴油生产工厂并通过计算能值指标，对这种新方法进行了测试。这项工作表明，能值可以为当前的TES框架提供根本性的改进，因为它为多种生态系统服务提供了汇总指标。通过将其应用于生物柴油生产工厂并通过计算能值指标，对这种新方法进行了测试。这项工作表明，能值可以为当前的TES框架提供根本性的改进，因为它为多种生态系统服务提供了汇总指标。