Introduction

Our civilization is based mainly on the non-renewable natural resources. Depletion of these resources is accelerated by an increasing consumption level of society. We should aiming at minimization of depletion of non-renewable resources. Within such minimization an objective criterion based on the physical laws has to be applied. Such ecological criterion should become more and more important. Thermodynamics offers as advanced tools to measure the quality of resources as well as efficiency of resources transformation in local and global scale. Exergy can be applied both as a measure of quality of resources as well as measure of real losses appearing in chains of production processes. Exergy analysis integrated with system approach represents the thermodynamic tool for sustainable management of natural resources. Within the book a series of advanced exergetic tools for assessment of efficiency of natural resources transformations are presented. First part of book (part A) is mainly focused on methodology, while the second part (part B) includes examples of practical applications in wide range of ecological problems.