The focus of this is based on the sustainable development approach considering a robust design that integrates reliable, simple, efficient, ecologic and low cost materials and systems with the aim of achieving the automation and control of the microenvironment.
Modern process design consists of developing not a unique flowsheet but alternatives, from which the best one is refined, integrated and optimized with respect to high efficiency of materials and energy, ecologic performance, and operability properties.
Only with this knowledge can the biocompatibility of QD technology with the social and ecologic systems in which these materials will be applied be achieved, and can we ensure that this technology develops responsibly, with sound public support.
The interest of recycling this material, both in ecologic and economical terms, is not only due to its aggressiveness towards the environment but also to its high volume of landfilled material along with the fact that it is non-biodegradable.
In order to ecologically guide the project it was chosen materials with fabrication and recycling processes that allow the final solution to be the most ecologic as possible.
Based on observations of dental plaque and sessile communities in mountain streams, Costerton et al. (5) in 1978 put forth a theory of biofilms that explained the mechanisms whereby microorganisms adhere to living and nonliving materials and the benefits accrued by this ecologic niche.
While startups like EcoLogic LLC are trying to get plastic manufacturers to make their materials less persistent, using high-tech additives and processes, several industry players want to increase plastic bag recycling programs.
Ecologic systems, which are involved mainly in the processing of energy and materials, are actually nested one inside another they are simultaneously parts and wholes.
However, linking socio-economic and ecologic models, and tracking the time-dependent distribution and configuration of material and energy flows across the entire city are imperatively needed in urban metabolism model development.
Two examples are presented briefly in Supplemental Material, Appendix B (http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2007/9332/suppl.pdf), to illustrate the conceptual model for humans and for ecologic systems.
