Statistical entropy is used to calculate concentration or dilution of a specific component in a process but a simple mass balance gives this data too. I like to know if there is any other point that statistical entropy gives more information in compare to simple mass balance!
Many Thanks,
The entropy measures the degree of uncertainty of a certain mass distribution.
You can also say in laymans terms that the entropy describes how well the waste mass is mixed, i.e. whether it is homogeneous/finely mixed or nonhomogeneous/"clumpy". This will be important to know, for example if you are controlling an industrial process.
The statistical entropy analysis (SEA) tells you about how substances are concentrated/diluted in a system. When applying SEA to a waste system, you can get useful information about how your system is capable of concentrating and recovering specific substance, e.g. through recycling processes. The advantage is that the method is not very data intensive and tells you also a bit about the quality of individual materials flows, something you don't get in only looking at mass flows distribution. The disadvantage, in my opinion, is that you have to analyze substances one-by-one. Also, in some cases, substance speciation may be an issue to take into consideration.
Prof. Rechberger at TU Vienna has been working extensively on SEA and has some nice publications out.
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