Material flow analysis

Introduction

Material flow analysis (MFA) is a methodology to analyze the flow of "materials" in-and-out of a system.

Built upon the law of conservation of energy, where energy can never be created or destroyed, only transferred, you can use material-balance equations to model complex systems such as the Seed Eco-Home.

See Material flow Analysis on Wikipedia for additional information.

Unanswered Research Questions

Can the formal concept of "Material flow analysis (MFA)" prove useful in the design of close-looped sustainable systems?

Diagrams

A diagram related to MFA that may prove useful are Sankey diagrams.

Resources

• Practical Handbook of Material Flow Analysis by Paul H. Brunner and Helmut Rechberger