LCA of local strategies for energy recovery from waste in England, applied to a large municipal flow

An intense waste management (WM) planning activity is currently undergoing in England to build the infrastructure necessary to treat residual wastes, increase recycling levels and the recovery of energy from waste. From the analyses of local WM strategic and planning documents we have identified the emerging of three different energy recovery strategies: established combustion of residual waste; pre-treatment of residual waste and energy recovery from Solid Recovered Fuel in a dedicated plant, usually assumed to be a gasifier; pre-treatment of residual waste and reliance on the market to accept the ‘fuel from waste’ so produced. Each energy recovery strategy will result in a different solution in terms of the technology selected; moreover, on the basis of the favoured solution, the total number, scale and location of thermal treatment plants built in England will dramatically change. To support the evaluation and comparison of these three WM strategy in terms of global environmental impacts, energy recovery possibilities and performance with respect to changing ‘fuel from waste’ market conditions, the LCA comparison of eight alternative WM scenarios for a real case study dealing with a large flow of municipal wastes was performed with the modelling tool WRATE. The large flow of waste modelled allowed to formulate and assess realistic alternative WM scenarios and to design infrastructural systems which are likely to correspond to those submitted for approval to the local authorities. The results show that all alternative scenarios contribute to saving abiotic resources and reducing global warming potential. Particularly relevant to the current English debate, the performance of a scenario was shown to depend not from the thermal treatment technology but from a combination of parameters, among which most relevant are the efficiency of energy recovery processes (both electricity and heat) and the calorific value of residual waste and pre-treated material. The contribution and relative importance of recycling and treatment/recovery processes change with the impact category. The lack of reprocessing plants in the area of the case study has shown the relevance of transport distances for recyclate material in reducing the efficiency of a WM system. Highly relevant to the current English WM infrastructural debate, these results for the first time highlight the risk of a significant reduction in the energy that could be recovered by local WM strategies relying only on the market to dispose of the ‘fuel from waste’ in a non dedicated plant in the case that the SRF had to be sent to landfill for lack of treatment capacity.     

低碳经济形势下江西省发展核产业链的潜力和对策

围绕民用核电的发展，核能利用的产业链存在着很大的发展空间。江西省是全国最大的铀矿资源基地，有较齐备的核技术产业体系、国内核学科门类最全的高校、丰富的核电厂址资源等优势，其应加深认识，充分发挥该省铀矿基地优势，通过积极与国家有关涉核单位协作、完善促进核产业链形成的政策措施、加大核领域人才培养力度、加强核技术在农业及农产品加工中的运用、适当发展核供热产业等具体措施培育和发展核产业链，为该省经济增长提供能源支持，实现江西经济的跨越式发展，并能改变该省目前以煤炭为主的能源消费结构，降低碳排放，保护其清洁环境，实现低碳目标     

工厂供配电系统运行和维护的安全技术要求

工厂供配电系统触电事故以及电气火灾和爆炸事故时有发生,不但影响生产,还造成巨大的经济损失甚至人员伤亡。介绍了工厂供配电系统运行和维护的安全要求,主要包括变配电所的运行和维护、电力线路的运行和维护及其他安全管理要求。     

输变电项目竣工环保验收存在的问题及对策分析

结合输变电项目环保验收的调查实践，分析了输变电项目竣工环保验收中存在问题，提出对策及建议。     

Automation design in advanced control rooms of the modernized nuclear power plants

This study evaluated the effects of levels of automation (LOAs) decisions in advanced control rooms of the modernized nuclear power plants. Following advancements in design of digitalized human–system interfaces (HSIs), the roles of human operators have changed significantly. Negative performance and safety consequences may occur as a result of these changes. These problems are viewed as the out-of-the-loop (OOTL) performance problems. This study conducted an experiment to compare the effects of different LOAs under different operating procedures on operating performance. Experimental results indicated that blended decision-making (level 6 LOA) generates the lowest mental workload. Furthermore, the pattern of SA observed in this study is found better SA at intermediate LOA and poorer SA at low level of automation and full automation. Subjective rating results suggest that LOAs distribute the roles of option generation, and selection between human and/or computer servers which significantly impacts automated system performance. This study provides a direction for the HSI designers in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Additionally, based on results obtained by this study, the user interfaces of PCTRAN system and the alarm reset system should be improved to ensure safe operation of NPPs.     

乌鲁木齐市水泥行业污染现状分析

根据乌鲁木齐市水泥行业的验收监测结果，对其污染现状进行了分析。     

大力发展循环经济 抢占国际竞争高地

中国在后国际金融危机时代要保持国民经济持续稳定快速增长,必须大力发展循环经济,全面提升国际竞争力。中国经济所处的发展阶段决定了不仅要在包括战略性新兴产业的高新技术领域抢占国际竞争的制高点,更要在国内市场需求快速增长的传统产业领域,通过自主创新抢占国际竞争的制高点。     

燃煤电厂应对新标准的烟尘控制对策研究

回顾了电力工业烟尘排放标准及除尘技术的发展,总结了烟尘排放状况,根据新修订排放标准的要求,有针对性地提出了现有未达标除尘器改造方向,以及2010年以后新建电厂实现30mg/m3排放的控制对策。     

林业产业集群竞争力研究

林业产业集群竞争力的定量评价是林业产业竞争力水平分析和政策制定的重要基础。GEM模型是当前产业集群竞争力评价研究中最具影响力的模型,本文以GEM模型为基础,考虑了林业产业近年来受到政策和社会因素的重要影响,提出了将政策环境和社会环境作为第四个因素对而对GEM模型做出拓展,构建GEMS模型,以适用于林业产业集群竞争力的评价。在此基础上,本文建立了林业产业集群竞争力的GEMS评价指标体系,提出了指标赋值标准,并且在量化过程中提出了最终GEMS得分的评价标准。运用GEMS模型及指标体系可以对林业产业竞争力水平的衡量以及类似产业间的比较,并据此做出合理的应对措施。     

An empirical survey of the benefits of implementing pay for safety scheme (PFSS) in the Hong Kong construction industry

Introduction

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has implemented different safety initiatives to improve the safety performance of the construction industry over the past decades. The Pay for Safety Scheme (PFSS), which is one of the effective safety measures launched by the government in 1996, has been widely adopted in the public works contracts. Both the accident rate and fatality rate of public sector projects have decreased noticeably over this period.

Method

This paper aims to review the current state of application of PFSS in Hong Kong, and attempts to identify and analyze the perceived benefits of PFSS in construction via an industry-wide empirical questionnaire survey. A total of 145 project participants who have gained abundant handson experience with the PFSS construction projects were requested to complete a survey questionnaire to indicate the relative importance of those benefits identified in relation to PFSS. The perceived benefits were measured and ranked from the perspectives of the client and contractor for crosscomparison.

Results

The survey findings suggested the most significant benefits derived from adopting PFSS were: (a) Increased safety training; (b) Enhanced safety awareness; (c) Encouragement of developing safety management system; and (d) Improved safety commitment. A wider application of PFSS should be advocated so as to achieve better safety performance within the construction industry.

Impact on Industry

It is recommended that a similar scheme to the PFSS currently adopted in Hong Kong may be developed for implementation in other regions or countries for international comparisons.