Water–energy–greenhouse gas nexus of urban water systems: Review of concepts,state-of-art and methods

Water supply and wastewater services incur a large amount of energy and GHG emissions. It is therefore imperative to understand the link between water and energy as their availability and demand are closely interrelated. This paper presents a literature review and assessment of knowledge gaps related to water–energy–greenhouse gas (GHG) nexus studies in an urban context from an ‘energy for water’ perspective. The review comprehensively surveyed various studies undertaken in various regions of the world and focusing on individual or multiple subsystems of an urban water system. The paper also analyses the energy intensity of decentralized water systems and various water end-uses together with the major tools and models used. A major gap identified from this review is the lack of a holistic and systematic framework to capture the dynamics of multiple water–energy–GHG linkages in an integrated urban water system where centralized and decentralized water systems are combined to meet increased water demand. Other knowledge gaps identified are the absence of studies, peer reviewed papers, data and information on water–energy interactions while adopting a ‘fit for purpose water strategy’ for water supply. Finally, based on this review, we propose a water–energy nexus framework to investigate ‘fit-for-purpose’ water strategy.     

“双碳”背景下北京市农业温室气体排放评估及“十四五”时期减排潜力预测

为实现"双碳"目标,北京市相关规划对"十四五"时期农业领域温室气体排放控制提出严格要求.通过收集北京市农业活动水平数据,计算和筛选排放因子,评估北京市2020年农业温室气体排放量,分析排放特征;结合北京市自然条件和种养模式,筛选适宜的减排措施,预测"十四五"时期温室气体减排潜力及分布,分析优化措施减排效果,并提出相关政策建议.结果表明,北京市2020年农业温室气体排放总量（以CO₂-eq计,下同）为45.6万t,以动物肠道发酵和动物粪便管理排放为主,贡献率分别为50.7%和26.7%,主要集中在顺义区、密云区、延庆区等畜禽养殖规模较大的郊区;预测"十四五"期间,北京市农业温室气体减排潜力为10.7万t.动物肠道发酵为减排潜力最大的排放源（6.0万t）,其次为动物粪便管理（3.7万t）;CH₄的减排潜力大于N₂ O;减排潜力主要分布在密云区、顺义区、延庆区、房山区和通州区等畜禽养殖规模较大的郊区;调整饲料结构和优化粪便管理方式为效果最明显的减排措施.     

Distributed generation by energy from waste technology: A life cycle perspective

Municipal Solid Waste in general and its organic fraction in particular is a potential renewable and non-seasonal resource. In this work, a life cycle assessment has been performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of two future scenarios using biogas produced from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) to supply energy to a group of dwellings, respectively comprising distributed generation using solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) micro-CHP systems and condensing boilers. The London Borough of Greenwich is taken as the reference case study. The system is designed to assess how much energy demand can be met and what is the best way to use the digestible waste for distributed energy purposes.The system is compared with two alternative scenarios fuelled by natural gas: a reference scenario, where the electricity is supplied by the grid and the heat is supplied from condensing boilers, and a fuel cell micro-CHP system. The results show that, although OFMSW alone can only supply between 1% and 4% of the total energy demand of the Borough, a saving of ∼130 tonnes of CO₂ eq per year per dwelling equipped with micro-CHP is still achievable compared with the reference scenario. This is primarily due to the surplus electricity produced by the fuel cell when the micro-CHP unit is operated to meet the heat demand. Use of biogas to produce heat only is therefore a less desirable option compared with combined heat and power production. Further investigation is required to identify locally available feedstock other than OFMSW in order to increase the proportion of energy demand that can be met in this way.     

National greenhouse gas inventory capacity: An assessment of Asian developing countries

The transparency framework of the Paris Agreement (PA) will be elaborated from the existing arrangements under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Yet, the capacities of developing countries to regularly report national GHG inventories vary, and their needs for capacity building are closely linked with efforts and achievements of previous inventory preparation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the status and changes in the capacity of 37 developing countries in Asia by using a matrix of capacity-indicators. Indicators were composed for four assessment categories: (1) international engagement of a country in the GHG inventory-related process; (2) institutional capacity to produce a GHG inventory; (3) existing technical capacity available to develop a GHG inventory; and (4) actual technical capacity applied to produce a GHG inventory. The paper also analyzed the scale of international support and variations in meeting with capacity building needs. Eleven countries were identified as having low capacity over time, while 9 improved their capacity. Seventeen countries, including 7 countries with established capacity, continuously had relatively high capacity over time. International support was scarce in the majority of Asian developing countries with the most capacity building needs. Improvements in basic technical capacity available for GHG inventory preparation, such as statistics and the scientific expertise, were found to be a key necessity for countries to respond to the PA’s enhanced transparency framework. Based on these findings, the study recommended increasing support for improvements in basic technical capacity, especially in countries where existing capacity is low and support is limited. Such capacity building efforts are also beneficial for countries to form and implement nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and other economic and development policies.     

Contribution of different sectors to developed countries’ fulfillment of GHG emission reduction targets under the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol

Greenhouse gas (GHG) data submitted in April 2014 on land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), energy, industrial processes, solvents and other product use, agriculture, and waste for 37 developed countries was analyzed to estimate the relative contributions of different sectors to GHG emission reductions. This GHG data from the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol included 35 parties to Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol, the United States and Canada. Results show that the contribution of each sector was, in order: energy (36.9%), industrial processes (12.4%), agriculture (9.9%), LULUCF (7.7%), waste (3.4%), and solvents and other product use (0.1%). The average proportion of base year emissions reduced in each sector by countries in Annex B was, in order: energy (7.4%), agriculture (2.7%), LULUCF (1.9%), industrial processes (1.2%), waste (0.5%), and solvents and other product use (0.1%). Overall, the energy sector contributed the highest GHG emission reductions, while the agriculture and LULUCF sectors also made contributions. Most countries achieved limited absolute GHG reductions from their chosen LULUCF activities, but the relative contribution of GHG emission reductions from LULUCF was significant but small. This suggests that, unless there are substantial changes to accounting rules, future emission reductions will mainly result from mitigation actions targeting fossil fuel consumption, while the agriculture and LULUCF sectors will continue to play auxiliary roles.     

Energy Embodied in Goods in International Trade of China: Calculation and Policy Implications

In recent years, China’s energy demand and Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have grown very fast, quite an amount of which was exported as energy embodied in goods in international trade rather than consumed domestically. Starting from the concept of embodied energy, based on input-output energy analysis approach, in this paper the energy embodied in goods in international trade of China during the period from 2001 to 2006 is calculated. The results show that although China has become a net importer of petroleum since 1993, China is a net exporter of embodied energy due to international trade in goods. In 2002, the total amount of energy embodied in exported goods was about 410 million tce (ton of coal equivalent, hereinafter referred to as "tce"). Eliminating the amount of energy embodied in imported goods of about 170 million tce, the net export of embodied energy was about 240 million tce, accounting for 16% of the aggregate primary energy consumption of that very year in China, and the net export of embodied emissions was about 150 million tons of carbon. With the rapid growth of China’s international trade, assuming no structural input-output changes of among sectors, in 2006 the net export of embodied energy went up to about 630 million tce, an increase of 162 % over 2002. In addition, this paper also analyzes the possible sources of error in calculation, and also discusses the policy implications according to the result of the calculation.     

Environmental benefits from the use of the residual biomass in nurseries

Every year, nurseries waste about 40 t of residual biomass for each ha of potted plants cultivation. The European nursery sector deals with about 90,000 ha of cultivated land and 120,000 ha of nurseries, with a turnover of 19.8 billion Euros in 2011. In recent years, a number of Italian projects highlighted that GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions for the nursery sector range between 37 tCO₂eq/ha/year and 45 tCO₂eq/ha/year for potted plants, mainly due to the consumption of electric energy, plastics and peat. Moreover, other studies analyse the impacts associated to nurseries, recommending best practices for energy reductions and waste recycle or reuse. Therefore, the present work focused its attention to the possible environmental benefits associated to the reuse of residues (wood and substrate) of potted plants that are discarded from the nursery production chain. GHG emissions and fossil energy requirement were quantified by considering the CO₂eq (CO₂ equivalent) and the CER (cumulative energy requirement) respectively, in order to assess the environmental impacts of two different scenarios proposed for the materials recovery. Final results highlighted that the solutions which are able to recover the substrate and the wood allow impact reductions compared to landfill disposal. In particular, the scenario consisting in the immediate separation of the substrate from the root-plant system and the successive chipping of wood for energetic reuse, allows higher savings than those obtainable through shredding and subsequent wind separation. Moreover, for what concerns the CO₂eq, an adequate use of the residual biomass make it possible to compensate the GHG emissions of the nurseries up to 15%.     

Quantification of the regional carbon cycle of the biosphere: policy, science and land-use decisions

This paper addresses some issues related to the carbon cycle and its utilization by society. Traditional uses for agriculture, forestry, as a source of fuel and other products, and for pastoral farming, among others, have recently been supplemented by identifying its potential for mitigating the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Through the Kyoto Protocol, carbon has become a commodity and the CO(2)-absorbing capability of the vegetation and soils an economically valuable asset. The multi-facetted roles of the C cycle and its sensitivity to human activities present a demand for techniques that permit accurate, timely and affordable characterization of the various components of this cycle, especially on land where most human activities take place. Such techniques must satisfy a range of demands in terms of purpose, clients for the information, and biosphere properties. However, if successful, they offer the potential to support monitoring, reporting, policy setting, and management of terrestrial biospheric resources. The context for these requirements and possibilities is illustrated with reference to the China Carbon Sequestration Project and its findings.     

生活垃圾制备衍生燃料(RDF-5)——以重庆市为例

以重庆市生活垃圾为例,通过分选、破碎和干燥预处理后,得到以塑料、纸类、竹木、织物和厨余为主要成分的制备衍生燃料(RDF-5)的原料,测试了不同含水率和成型压力条件下制得的RDF-5的理化性质.结果表明,原料含水率为8%,成型压力为10 MPa时,RDF-5的延展率和耐性指数良好,便于贮存和运输.燃烧试验表明,RDF-5燃烧后灰渣的热灼减率满足《生活垃圾焚烧污染控制标准》(GB 18485—2014)的要求(5%).另外,根据2006 IPCC国家温室气体名录导则和生命周期评价(LCA),制备RDF-5对温室气体排放贡献为455.92 g·kg-1RDF-5(以CO2当量计).     

The effective practices of mobile phone producers' green supply chain management in reducing GHG emissions

The aim of this study is to identify management practices that effectively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with regard to the green supply chain adopted by mobile phone producers. Six cases were surveyed (Apple, Samsung, LG, Huawei, Nokia, and ZTE). The main source of data was sustainability reports, which were retrieved from the Global Reporting Initiative database. A special data analysis technique called rank analysis was adopted. The results revealed that the effective practices to reduce GHG 1 emissions were related to production process and business travel; those that were effective for reducing GHG 2 emissions were related to facilities accreditation and energy saving; and those effective in reducing GHG 3 emissions were related to logistics and customer practices. No effective actions related to the management of relationships with suppliers were identified by this study. Indicative models for the relationship between actions and GHG emissions were developed, as was a value‐stream map. The previous studies reporting the effective practices in other industries reported results for reducing GHG 1 or GHG 3, or overall GHG emissions, without discriminating among the actions taken to reduce such emissions, although some limited actions were reported. This study describes the effective practices along the whole supply chain—both upstream and downstream—and it also lists the actions related to addressing all the emissions, whether GHG 1, 2, or 3.