Resumo

HUERTA, José Miguel; CAYUMIL MONTECINO, Romina  e  SANCHEZ MEDINA, Mario. A thermodynamic approach to understand the circular economy applied to the mining - metallurgical field. REV. MAMYM [online]. 2021, vol.6, n.1, pp.26-32. ISSN 2519-5352.

The Circular Economy is an economic concept linked to sustainable development and the green economy, but it goes much deeper into it. It aims not only to reduce the environmental impact of industries and reduce the amount of waste generated, but also to produce goods and services through the sustainable management of materials and energy sources.  We consider that this approach is based on the observation of the behavior of the markets and that it can be enriched with theoretical aspects from Thermodynamics. To do this, we propose the inclusion of some concepts such as Gibbs Free Energy and the irreversibility of the processes. We believe that adding ideas allows to emphasize the deep link that can be established between the Circular Economy and Thermodynamics. The objective of the work is to investigate the way in which Thermodynamic definitions allow broadening the view on the flows related to the Circular Economy. Cases of the metallurgical and mining fields are presented and are briefly commented with this new approach. It concludes by presenting the concepts of Thermodynamics as an extension of the theoretical aspects of the Circular Economic approach.

Palavras-chave : Circular Economy; Thermodynamics; Mining and Metallurgical Processes.

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