Industrial metabolism is a concept to describe the material and energy turnover of industrial systems. It was proposed byRobert Ayres in analogy to the biologicalmetabolism as "the whole integrated collection of physical processes that convertraw materials andenergy, pluslabour, into finishedproducts andwastes..."[1] In analogy to the biological concept of metabolism, which is used to describe the whole of chemical reactions in, for example, a cell to maintain its functions and reproduce itself, the concept of industrial metabolism describes the chemical reactions, transport processes, and manufacturing activities in industry.
Industrial metabolism presupposes a connection between different industrial activities by seeing them as part of a larger system, such as a material cycle or the supply chain of a commodity. System scientists, for example inindustrial ecology, use the concept as paradigm to study theflow of materials or energy through the industrial system in order to better understandsupply chains, the sources and causes ofemissions, and the linkages between the industrial and the widersocio-technological system.[2]
Industrial metabolism is a subsystem of theanthropogenic or socioeconomic metabolism, which also comprises non-industrial human activities in households or the public sector.
