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Year in review—EROI or energy return on (energy) invested
Author(s) -
Murphy David J.,
Hall Charles A. S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05282.x
Subject(s) - return on investment , economics , production (economics) , microeconomics
There have been five foremost empirical efforts regarding energy return on investment (EROI) analysis over the past few years, including the topics of: (1) whether corn ethanol is a net energy yielder; (2) a summary of the state of EROI for most major fuel types; (3) alternative applications of EROI, such as energy return on water invested (EROWI); (4) the relation between EROI and the economy; and (5) an attempt to calculate the minimum EROI for a sustainable society. This paper offers a review of these five main areas of interest and provides a history of the development of EROI as well as a review of some of the various definitions of EROI and how they apply to EROI analyses. The paper concludes by listing numerous areas of improvement that are needed within EROI research.