Eco-efficiency trends of the Flemish industry: decoupling of environmental impact from economic growth

A methodology for eco-efficiency reporting is proposed with eco-efficiency indicators for climate change, acidification, photo-oxidant formation, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, eutrophication, energy consumption and waste generation. The method is applied to emission, consumption and production data of the Flemish industry provided by the Flemish environmental agency for the period 1995–2006. For climate change, acidification, photo-oxidant formation, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity and eutrophication, the eco-efficiency improved by 39, 55, 41, 58, 72 and 53%, respectively. For each of these impact categories, the total environmental impact decreased despite an increase in production, indicating absolute decoupling of environmental impact from economic growth. The eco-efficiency indicator for energy consumption and waste generation improved by 16 and 14%, respectively. However, due to the increase in production, the total energy consumption and the amount of waste generated increased: for these two environmental themes decoupling from economic growth was relative. Despite the improved eco-efficiency, industry remains one of the main polluters in Flanders. The application of the method to emission, energy consumption and production data of the Flemish industry resulted in a comprehensive and correct source of information for the general public and the government. Moreover, it can serve as a basis for economically and environmentally sound decisions and for the evaluation of the impact of former decisions.     

中国工业行业的生态效率

中国工业是资源消费和污染物排放的主要源头,解析工业各行业的生态效率可为中国产业结构调整和整体环境质量改善提供必要信息.在分析工业构成并构建工业系统与外部环境之间关系的基础上,选择能源消费和废水、固体废物、SO2、工业烟尘、粉尘等污染物的排放量作为研究的环境影响类别,界定了与这些环境影响相关的生态效率,估算了中国2007年的工业生态效率现状,结果为:能源效率615.5万元·ktce-1;废水和固废方面的生态效率分别为54.3万元·kt-1和1.9万元·t-1;工业SO2、烟尘和粉尘方面的生态效率分别为59.6、169.2和184.6万元·t-1.深入分析了39个工业部门的生态效率,结果表明,以上几种生态效率具有明显的行业不均衡性,表现为不同行业在不同类型生态效率中的工业排序明显不同;与此同时,对于同一种生态效率,不同工业行业的数值可相差几百倍到几万倍,表明通过优化工业结构将具有较大的提高工业生态效率的可能性.     

焦作市工业行业的生态效率

以工业城市焦作市为例,选择工业能源消费和污染物(包括废水、固体废物、SO2、烟尘等)排放作为环境负荷,定量分析工业分行业的生态效率及分行业特定环境负荷对总环境负荷的贡献率.结果表明,能源效率最高的行业是黑色金属矿采选业(FMM),为43.19万元·tce-1,贡献率为0.003%;废水排放相关环境效率最高的是交通运输设...     

Implementing stricter environmental regulation to enhance eco-efficiency and sustainability: a case study of Shandong Province’s pulp and paper industry, China

There has been much debate on the topic of whether stricter environmental regulations can promote environmental performance and economic performance at the same time. Different researchers have used different indicators to measure environmental performance and economic performance in their empirical studies. However, it is a surprise that few studies have checked the relationship between environmental regulation and eco-efficiency, as the latter is widely regarded as a quite powerful tool of considering ecology and economy together.In this study the background is the implementation in 2003 of the Stricter Discharge Standard (SDS) in Shandong Province’s Pulp and Paper Industry (SPPI), compared to the national standards of China. The stricter regulations were intended to promote corporate change from passive management to active control and from end-of-pipe treatment to cleaner production. This study investigated the eco-efficiency trends of SPPI from 2001 to 2008 in three fields: water efficiency, energy efficiency and environment efficiency. A “de-linking” and “re-linking” tool was used to attain a further evaluation. The study showed that with the implementation of stricter regulation most of the efficiency indicators (except CO₂ emission and energy consumption) had achieved significant improvements, and the overall environmental performance trends of SPPI showed it to be more sustainable. However, the study also found that it was not enough to address a single indicator in the environmental regulation of the pulp and paper industry. More holistic eco-efficiency indicators need to be further considered and introduced to the industry as the next step to create true sustainable development.     

Low-carbon transition of iron and steel industry in China: Carbon intensity, economic growth and policy intervention

As the biggest iron and steel producer in the world and one of the highest CO₂ emission sectors, China's iron and steel industry is undergoing a low-carbon transition accompanied by remarkable technological progress and investment adjustment, in response to the macroeconomic climate and policy intervention. Many drivers of the CO₂ emissions of the iron and steel industry have been explored, but the relationships between CO₂ abatement, investment and technological expenditure, and their connections with the economic growth and governmental policies in China, have not been conjointly and empirically examined. We proposed a concise conceptual model and an econometric model to investigate this crucial question. The results of regression, Granger causality test and impulse response analysis indicated that technological expenditure can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, and that investment expansion showed a negative impact on CO₂ emission reduction. It was also argued with empirical evidence that a good economic situation favored CO₂ abatement in China's iron and steel industry, while achieving CO₂ emission reduction in this industrial sector did not necessarily threaten economic growth. This shed light on the dispute over balancing emission cutting and economic growth. Regarding the policy aspects, the year 2000 was found to be an important turning point for policy evolution and the development of the iron and steel industry in China. The subsequent command and control policies had a significant, positive effect on CO₂ abatement.     

循环经济本质的探讨

循环经济、生态经济的本质是提高生态效率.生态效率是在经济目标和环境目标之间建立一种最佳的链接.     

Low-carbon transition of iron and steel industry in China: Carbon intensity,economic growth and policy intervention

As the biggest iron and steel producer in the world and one of the highest CO₂ emission sectors, China's iron and steel industry is undergoing a low-carbon transition accompanied by remarkable technological progress and investment adjustment, in response to the macroeconomic climate and policy intervention. Many drivers of the CO₂ emissions of the iron and steel industry have been explored, but the relationships between CO₂ abatement, investment and technological expenditure, and their connections with the economic growth and governmental policies in China, have not been conjointly and empirically examined. We proposed a concise conceptual model and an econometric model to investigate this crucial question. The results of regression, Granger causality test and impulse response analysis indicated that technological expenditure can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, and that investment expansion showed a negative impact on CO₂ emission reduction. It was also argued with empirical evidence that a good economic situation favored CO₂ abatement in China's iron and steel industry, while achieving CO₂ emission reduction in this industrial sector did not necessarily threaten economic growth. This shed light on the dispute over balancing emission cutting and economic growth. Regarding the policy aspects, the year 2000 was found to be an important turning point for policy evolution and the development of the iron and steel industry in China. The subsequent command and control policies had a significant, positive effect on CO₂ abatement.     

Eco-efficiency and industrial symbiosis – a counterfactual analysis of a mining community

Complex utilization, a production model analogous to those described by industrial symbiosis, was planned at the Russian Kola Science Center in mid-1980. The model integrates the waste streams of mining industries in the Kola Peninsula in such a way that waste from one industrial operator becomes raw material for another. Using a counterfactual method, this article determines the eco-efficiency of the model between the years 1985 and 2005. A parallel study of the eco-efficiency of the actual system, i.e. in the absence of complex utilization, is then performed for the same time period. The study shows that complex utilization would indeed have yielded increased eco-efficiency, even though not all environmentally harmful emissions would have decreased. As a result of market collapse and the use of upstream pollution prevention together with traditional end-of-pipe technologies, however, the actual system shows net emission reductions similar to those modeled in complex utilization. It is suggested that in systems like the mining industry of the Kola Peninsula, with high production volumes and poorly developed environmental technologies, upstream pollution prevention together with traditional end-of-pipe technologies may prove more attractive than industrial symbiosis, despite the substantial increases in eco-efficiency of the latter.     

中国平板玻璃生产碳排放研究

平板玻璃行业是典型的高能耗、高排放行业,目前关于中国平板玻璃行业的碳排放问题还没有得到深入的研究.因此,本文调查了中国300余条主要的平板玻璃生产线,并在此基础上从范围1(工艺过程和化石燃料燃烧引起的直接排放)和范围2(净购入电力和热力在生产阶段引起的间接排放)评估了中国平板玻璃行业从2005年到2014年的CO_2排放情况.结果发现,中国平板玻璃行业CO_2排放量逐年增加,由2005年的2626.9×10~4t逐步上升到2015年的4620.5×10~4t.研究表明:能源消耗是平板玻璃行业碳排放的最主要来源,占比在80%左右,节能降耗是促进平板玻璃行业CO_2减排的主要途径;平板玻璃生产原料中碳酸盐的热分解是CO_2的主要来源之一,占总排放量的20%左右,控制平板玻璃配合料的气体率,在减少平板玻璃生产过程中的CO_2排放有很大潜力;推荐平板玻璃新建项目使用天然气并配备大型熔窑(日熔化量650 t以上)的浮法玻璃生产线,以减少CO_2排放.     

Improving eco-efficiency in the steel industry: The ArcelorMittal Gent case

In addition to CO₂ released by the combustion of fossil fuel and leading to climate change, large steelworks emit pollutants that have other environmental impacts. ArcelorMittal Gent, an integrated steelwork producing ca. 5 × 10⁶ tons of steel per year, not only decreased its specific energy consumption and CO₂-emissions, but also reduced the environmental impact of its other emissions. This is illustrated by means of the evolution of 6 partial eco-efficiency indicators for the impact categories acidification, photo-oxidant formation, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, eutrophication and water use. The partial eco-efficiency indicators are eco-intensities, defined as the environmental impact in the respective impact category, divided by the amount of liquid steel produced. In the period 1995 – 2005 these indicators decreased by 45, 4, 52, 9, 11 and 33% respectively, whereas the steel production increased by 17%. The net impact of discharges of wastewater is negligible for human toxicity and is negative (concentrations lower than in the canal water used) for freshwater aquatic toxicity and eutrophication. For acidification, human toxicity (only emissions to air) and water use, the decoupling between environmental impact and production was absolute; for photo-oxidant formation, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (only emissions to air) and eutrophication, it was relative.     

中国水泥工业CO2排放现状及减排对策

水泥工业是中国制造业中温室气体CO2的主要排放源,因此,根据水泥生产的基本原理和工艺特点,建立了CO2排放的数学模型并确定排放强度,计算了2001—2010年中国水泥工业CO2的排放量,分析了影响CO2排放量的主要因素及其发展趋势,并提出水泥工业CO2减排对策.结果表明,中国水泥工业CO2排放总量逐年增长,与水泥产量和单位产品原料、燃料消耗定额呈线性关系;在CO2排放总量中,原料煅烧和燃料燃烧阶段的排放量分别占49%和51%;"十一五"期间单位水泥产品CO2排放强度由0.69t.t-1下降到0.65t.t-1.万元GDPCO2排放量呈下降趋势,2008年达到最低值为0.3054t,平均每年万元GDPCO2排放量下降10.69%,说明水泥工业10年间实施节能降耗、资源循环利用、提高经济效益等措施对于减少CO2排放具有明显效果.     

Assessment of cleaner production options for alcohol industry of China: a study in the Shouguang Alcohol Factory

The alcohol industry in China makes an important contribution to the national economy. However, the associated pollution problems cause gradual deterioration of the ambient environment and adverse impacts on the local community. Cleaner production (CP) technology, as an effective way to reduce waste emission and save resources, has been widely employed in the alcohol industry across the developed countries. In China, although such technologies have been applied in a number of factories, an integrated assessment and implementation procedure is lacking for proceeding with practical CP technologies for alcohol factories in China. To solve such problems, a series of cleaner production options are proposed and assessed in this study. Five groups of CP options were screened, on factory survey, expert questionnaires, and integrated assessment. With the consideration of environmental impacts and economic efficiency, four CP options combined with various advanced CP technologies, such as high-concentration wort fermenting, CO₂ reuse, different pressure distilling, methane and fertilizer production, were proposed. To verify the proposed options, a case study was carried out in the Shouguang Alcohol Factory (SAF), East China. The characteristics of resources consumption and waste emission during the production process were identified. A comprehensive evaluation of the proposed options was conducted from different aspects. An integrated cleaner production system based on the proposed options was formed and then implemented in the factory. Through the four years of practice, the productivity/quality of alcohol product were improved, but and the reduction of waste and pollution were achieved as well as a marked increase in water/energy savings. This study provides theoretical and practical support for extensive application of cleaner production technologies and sustainable development in the alcohol industry of China.     

Quantification of energy related industrial eco-efficiency of China

Improving eco-efficiency is propitious for saving resources and reducing emissions, and has become a popular route to sustainable development. We define two energy-related eco-efficiencies: energy efficiency (ENE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-related eco-efficiency (GEE) using energy consumption and the associated GHG emissions as the environmental impacts. Using statistical data, we analyze China’s energy consumption and GHG emissions by industrial subsystem and sector, and estimate the ENE and GEE values for China in 2007 as 4.871×10⁷ US/PJ and 4.26×10 < sup > 8 < /sup > US/PJ and 4.26×10⁸ US/TgCO₂eq, respectively. Industry is the primary contributing subsystem of China’s economy, contributing 45.2% to the total economic production, using 79.6% of the energy consumed, and generating 91.4% of the total GHG emissions. We distinguish the individual contributions of the 39 industrial sectors to the national economy, overall energy consumption, and GHG emissions, and estimate their energyrelated eco-efficiencies. The results show that although ferrous metal production contributes only 3.5% to the national industrial economy, it consumes the most industrial energy (20% of total), contributes 16% to the total industrial global warming potential (GWP), and ranks third in GHG emissions. The power and heat sector ranks first in GHG emissions and contributes one-third of the total industrial GWP, although it only consumes about 8% of total industrial energy and, like ferrous metal production, contributes 3.5% to the national economy. The ENE of the ferrous metal and power and heat sectors are only 8 and 2.1×10⁷ US/PJ, while the GEE for these two sectors are 9 and 4×10 < sup > 4 < /sup > US/PJ, while the GEE for these two sectors are 9 and 4×10⁴ US/GgCO₂eq, respectively; these are nearly the lowest ENE and GEE values among all 39 industry sectors. Finally, we discuss the possibility of ecoefficiency improvement through a comparison with other countries.     

黄河流域资源型城市生态效率时空演变及驱动因素

生态效率是区域发展质量和人地协调程度的综合体现。采用TOPSIS法测度2003—2017年黄河流域37个资源型城市的生态效率,借助泰尔指数、全局空间自相关和热点分析揭示其时空演变规律,利用面板Tobit回归模型探寻关键驱动因素。结果表明：（1）黄河流域资源型城市生态效率总体上以2007年为分水岭,先平稳、后上升;不同城市生态效率的增速和增幅差异较大,下游城市明显高于中、上游城市,再生型城市明显高于成长、成熟和衰退型城市。 （2）城市间生态效率差异大小先略微下降、后持续上升;生态效率空间格局由随机分布向集聚分布演变,低值集聚区从山西、河南交界处向山西中、北部移动,高值集聚区分布具有空间粘性,一直位于下游山东境内。（3）产业转型、科技创新、基础设施完善和区位条件对生态效率改善具有显著正向驱动作用,外向型经济、资源依赖和环境规制抑制生态效率提高,城镇化、工业化和外资利用对生态效率演变的影响不显著;不同类型资源型城市生态效率改善的主要驱动因素存在异质性。     

CO2 emission reduction for Japanese petrochemicals

Energy efficiency in the Japanese industry is one of the highest in the world. As a consequence, reduction of CO₂ emissions is considered to be difficult and costly. However little attention has been paid as of yet to changes related to so-called non-energy use of fossil fuels. The analysis in this paper suggests that a large number of options exist for emission reduction in the Japanese petrochemical industry. This includes the introduction of biomass feedstocks, the introduction of new catalytic production processes, and changes in waste handling. The use of bioplastics and the use of CO₂ feedstocks seem costly options for GHG emission reduction that should not be applied on the short term. Japanese GHG emissions can be reduced by 7.7% if the optimal set of emission mitigation options is applied. About 60 Mt emission reduction (4.9%) can be achieved by changes on the supply side, another 35 Mt emission reduction (2.8%) can be achieved by changes in waste management. While changes in waste management can be implemented before 2010, biomass introduction on the supply side will probably require a longer lead-time. About half of the emission reduction is cost–effective, but will require further technology development. The other half can be achieved at a cost level of 10,000 yen/t CO₂ (80 US$/t CO₂). The latter part is based on proven technology that is currently not cost–effective.     

Discrete event simulation to aid decision-making and mitigation in solid waste management

This article aims to evaluate municipal solid waste (MSW) management schemes in order to promote sustainability and eco-efficiency, core elements in global mitigation strategies in both public and private policies. A discrete event simulation (DES) approach was used to integrate the economic, environmental, and social aspects related to aseptic carton packages (ACP) in Itajuba, Brazil. The simulated scenarios consider three alternatives for disposing ACP: landfills, recycling, and incineration with energy recovery. According to our findings, incineration alternatives are preferred from an eco-efficiency perspective, given the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions and due to the possibility of energy recover, which reinforces the contribution of this technology to promote sustainability as largely found in the international literature. Given the context of MSW management in Brazil, this represents a significant opportunity to increase the effectiveness of mitigation strategies adopted in the country. Taking into account that this is by far the least applied technology, the authors strongly advocate that global strategies for mitigation consider different approaches to integrate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reductions related to the entire MSW management system and its alternatives, thus advancing from a waste disposal-oriented system to a life cycle–oriented system.

     

Proposal of a simple indicator for sustainable consumption: classifying goods and services into three types focusing on their optimal consumption levels

We calculated optimal consumption patterns of Japanese households using a linear programming model, taking into account the different environmental burdens to be minimized. Ninety-four industrial sectors and 94 commodities were defined in the model. In terms of environmental burdens to be minimized, this study considered energy consumption, CO₂ emission, waste, and NO_x emission. According to the direction (increase or decrease) of adjusted final demand for a commodity in the household, commodities were classified into three types: (1) a commodity for which optimal demand should be decreased in all cases of reducing various environmental burdens; (2) a commodity whose optimal demand should be increased in all cases; and (3) a commodity whose optimal demand depends on the type of environmental burden. Among 63 commodities whose final demand was assumed to be adjustable, 47 were categorized as commodity type 1, nine were categorized as commodity type 2, and seven belonged to commodity type 3. This work also characterized each type of commodity from the viewpoint of economic and environmental properties.     

生活垃圾分类处理方式的生态效率评价

中国生活垃圾产量大、增速快，若处理方式不当会给环境和社会带来巨大危害，近年来提倡的垃圾分类处理方式是垃圾减量化的关键一环.综合考虑垃圾处理对环境、能源、经济和社会四方面影响，构建适用于垃圾处理的3E+S生态效率评价模型.将垃圾源头分类、末端分类处理方式纳入垃圾处理生命周期中构建4种生活垃圾处理情景.结果表明，混合收运+末端分类的处理情景具有潜在最优生态效率，分类收运+焚烧的处理情景由于源头分类、收运环节更为复杂导致其总环境影响潜值最大，且生命周期成本最高.对比考虑或不考虑社会成本计算得到的生态效率表明，社会成本的加入显著影响生态效率.源头分类是影响生活垃圾分类处理生态效率的敏感性因素，通过降低垃圾源头分类单元过程多余的环境排放和成本或推广使用以末端机械化分类（PGAS）技术为代表的低污染低成本的垃圾分类新技术，都能够提高垃圾处理的生态效率.     

中国水泥工业CO2产生机理及减排途径研究

根据水泥生产的基本原理和工艺特点,推导出煤燃烧和石灰质原料煅烧时CO2排放因子分别为2.38 t·t-1和0.527 t·t-1;采用水泥工业CO2排放数学模型计算2001-2008年中国水泥工业CO2排放量,并分析了不同的生产技术水平和产品品种结构对CO2,排放量的影响.结果表明:中国水泥工业CO2排放量与单位产品的...