The Tropical Peatland Plantation-Carbon Assessment Tool: estimating CO2 emissions from tropical peat soils under plantations

Land use change on Indonesian peatlands contributes to global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Accessible predictive tools are required to estimate likely soil carbon (C) losses and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from peat soils under this land use change. Research and modelling efforts in tropical peatlands are limited, restricting the availability of data for complex soil model parameterisation and evaluation. The Tropical Peatland Plantation-Carbon Assessment Tool (TROPP-CAT) was developed to provide a user friendly tool to evaluate and predict soil C losses and CO₂ emissions from tropical peat soils. The tool requires simple input values to determine the rate of subsidence, of which the oxidising proportion results in CO₂ emissions. This paper describes the model structure and equations, and presents a number of evaluation and application runs. TROPP-CAT has been applied for both site specific and national level simulations, on existing oil palm and Acacia plantations, as well as on peat swamp forest sites to predict likely emissions from future land use change. Through an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, literature reviews and comparison with other methods of estimating soil C losses, the paper identifies opportunities for future model development, bridging between different approaches to predicting CO₂ emissions from tropical peatlands under land use change. TROPP-CAT can be accessed online from www.redd-alert.eu in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.     

CO2 emissions from tropical drained peat in Sumatra,Indonesia

With the increasing use of tropical peatland for agricultural development, documentation of the rate of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is becoming important for national greenhouse gas inventories. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil-surface CO₂ fluxes from drained peat under different land-use systems in Riau and Jambi Provinces, Sumatra, Indonesia. Increase of CO₂ concentration was tracked in measurement chambers using an Infrared Gas Analyzer (IRGA, LI-COR 820 model). The results showed that CO₂ flux under oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations ranged from 34?±?16 and 45?±?25 Mg CO₂ ha^–1 year^–1 in two locations in Jambi province to 66?±?25 Mg CO₂ ha^–1 year^–1 for a site in Riau. For adjacent plots within 3.2 km in the Kampar Peninsula, Riau, CO₂ fluxes from an oil palm plantation, an Acacia plantation, a secondary forest and a rubber plantation were 66?±?25, 59?±?19, 61?±?25, 52?±?17 Mg ha^–1 year^–1, respectively, while on bare land sites it was between 56?±?30 and 67?±?24 Mg CO₂ ha^–1 year^–1, indicating no significant differences among the different land-use systems in the same landscape. Unexplained site variation seems to dominate over land use in influencing CO₂ flux. CO₂ fluxes varied with time of day (p?<?0.001) with the noon flux as the highest, suggesting an overestimate of the mean flux values with the absence of night-time measurements. In general, CO₂ flux increased with the depth of water table, suggesting the importance of keeping the peat as wet as possible.     

Life cycle assessment of hydrotreated vegetable oil from rape,oil palm and Jatropha

A life cycle assessment of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel was performed. The study was commissioned by Volvo Technology Corporation and Volvo Penta Corporation as part of an effort to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact of potential future biobased liquid fuels for cars and trucks. The life cycle includes production of vegetable oil from rape, oil palm or Jatropha, transport of the oil to the production site, production of the HVO from the oil, and combustion of the HVO. The functional unit of the study is 1 kWh energy out from the engine of a heavy-duty truck and the environmental impact categories that are considered are global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP) and embedded fossil production energy. System expansion was used to take into account byproducts from activities in the systems; this choice was made partly to make this study comparable to results reported by other studies. The results show that HVO produced from palm oil combined with energy production from biogas produced from the palm oil mill effluent has the lowest environmental impact of the feedstocks investigated in this report. HVO has a significantly lower life cycle GWP than conventional diesel oil for all feedstocks investigated, and a GWP that is comparable to results for e.g. rape methyl ester reported in the literature. The results show that emissions from soil caused by microbial activities and leakage are the largest contributors to most environmental impact categories, which is supported also by other studies. Nitrous oxide emissions from soil account for more than half of the GWP of HVO. Nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions from soil cause almost all of the life cycle EP of HVO and contribute significantly to the AP as well. The embedded fossil production energy was shown to be similar to results for e.g. rape methyl ester from other studies. A sensitivity analysis shows that variations in crop yield and in nitrous oxide emissions from microbial activities in soil can cause significant changes to the results.     

Anthropogenic land use substantially increases riverine CO2 emissions

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from inland waters to the atmosphere are a pivotal component of the global carbon budget. Anthropogenic land use can influence riverine CO₂ emissions, but empirical data exploring cause-effect relationships remain limited. Here, we investigated CO₂ partial pressures (pCO₂) and degassing in a monsoonal river (Yue River) within the Han River draining to the Yangtze in China. Almost 90% of river samples were supersaturated in CO₂ with a mean ± standard deviation of 1474 ± 1614 µatm, leading to emissions of 557 - 971 mmol/m²/day from river water to the atmosphere. Annual CO₂ emissions were 1.6 - 2.8 times greater than the longitudinal exports of riverine dissolved inorganic and organic carbon. pCO₂ was positively correlated to anthropogenic land use (urban and farmland), and negatively correlated to forest cover. pCO₂ also had significant and positive relationships with total dissolved nitrogen and total dissolved phosphorus. Stepwise multiple regression models were developed to predict pCO₂. Farmland and urban land released nutrients and organic matter to the river system, driving riverine pCO₂ enrichment due to enhanced respiration in these heterotrophic rivers. Overall, we show the crucial role of land use driving riverine pCO₂, which should be considered in future large-scale estimates of CO₂ emissions from streams. Land use change can thus modify the carbon balance of urban-river systems by enhancing river emissions, and reforestation helps carbon neutral in rivers.     

中国流通业CO2排放的因素分解和脱钩分析

参照IPCC清单中的方法估算了2000~2012年中国流通业CO2排放量;运用LMDI方法分解分析了研究期间流通业CO2排放变化的影响因素;并基于DPSIR框架构建流通业脱钩努力指数模型测度了流通业CO2排放脱钩效应.结果表明:2000~2012年间,流通业CO2排放量增长明显,期间累计排放总量为692482.37万t;产业规模效应是CO2排放增量的主要因素,能源强度效应是CO2排放减量的主要因素,分别引起CO2排放量增加了67435.72万t和减少了12358.67万t,能源结构和排放因子效应对CO2排放影响有限,分别引起CO2排放量增加了519.89万t和减少了2590.94万t;流通业CO2排放脱钩状态呈“弱脱钩—未脱钩—弱脱钩—未脱钩”的变化特征,脱钩努力指数值呈“ ”型变化趋势;目前能源强度是决定流通业CO2排放脱钩状态的关键因素,但随着能源强度的下降幅度越来越小,未来更需要通过调整能源结构和降低排放因子来实现流通业CO2排放脱钩.     

Turnover of dissolved organic carbon fuels nocturnal CO2 emissions from a headwater catchment reservoir, Southeastern China: Effects of ecosystem metabolism on source partitioning of CO2 emissions

Dam reservoirs in headwater catchments, as critical zones for their proximity to terrestrial sources, play important roles in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) cycling. However, the effects of ecosystem metabolism (EM) on DOC cycling are not well known. Here, in-situ diurnal and monthly observations were conducted to measure EM (including gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and heterotrophic respiration (HR)), DOC turnover and CO₂ emissions in a headwater catchment reservoir in Southeastern China in 2020. Our study showed the nocturnal CO₂ emission rate was about twice as high as in daytime, and was strongly driven by EM. The values for DOC turnover velocity ranged from 0.10 to 1.59 m/day, and the average DOC turnover rate was 0.13 day⁻¹, with the average removal efficiency of 12%. The contribution of respired DOC to daily CO₂ emissions ranged from 17% to 61%. The accumulated efficiencies were estimated to be 13% for the selected 15 reservoirs throughout the Changjiang River network, corresponding to about 0.34 Tg C/year of the respired DOC. The modified CO₂ flux was 0.75 Tg C/year, and respired DOC accounted for about 45% of total emitted CO₂ from the 15 larger reservoirs. Our research emphasizes the necessity of incorporating the effects of EM into studies of reservoir DOC removal and CO₂ emissions.     

食用植物油加工VOCs排放特征

获取了菜籽和大豆植物油加工行业VOCs排放系数、成分谱和臭氧生成贡献,并对其全国VOCs排放量进行了计算.结果表明,菜籽油加工过程VOCs排放系数为1.20kg/t菜籽用量和6.32kg/t菜籽油产量,大豆油加工过程VOCs排放系数为0.36kg/t大豆用量和2.35kg/t大豆油产量.菜籽油和大豆油加工排放的VOCs主要来自于有机溶剂挥发.VOCs排放占比最大的物种是正己烷,其次是甲基戊烷（包括3-甲基戊烷和2-甲基戊烷）,再次是甲基环戊烷.植物油加工行业OFP为931.47μg/m³,其中,烷烃贡献最大,占比为61.90%;其次是烯烃和OVOCs,占比分别为19.61%和15.14%,.2019年中国大豆和油菜籽植物油加工VOCs排放量为5.12万t,大豆和油菜籽植物油分别贡献65.4%和34.6%,山东、湖北、江苏、广东、河南、广西、天津、河北、湖南、福建是贡献最大的10个省份,合计占比72.0%.     

Employing the shared socioeconomic pathways to predict CO2 emissions

Predicting CO₂ emissions is of significant interest to policymakers and scholars alike. The following article contributes to earlier work by using the recently released “shared socioeconomic pathways” (SSPs) to empirically model CO₂ emissions in the future. To this end, I employ in-sample and out-of-sample techniques to assess the prediction accuracy of the underlying model, before forecasting countries’ emission rates until 2100. This article makes three central contributions to the literature. First, as one of the first studies, I improve upon the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) by incorporating the SSPs, which did not exist when the RCPs have been released. Second, I calculate predictions and forecasts for a global sample in 1960–2100, which circumvents issues of limited time periods and sample selection bias in previous research. Third, I thoroughly assess the prediction accuracy of the model, which contributes to providing a guideline for prediction exercises in general using in-sample and out-of-sample approaches. This research presents findings that crucially inform scholars and policymakers, especially in light of the prominent 2 °C goal: none of the five SSP scenarios is likely to be linked to emission patterns that would suggest achieving the 2 °C goal is realistic.     

CO2 from fossil fuel burning: a comparison of ORNL and EDGAR estimates of national emissions

There is increasing interest and importance in estimating national emissions of greenhouse gases. We enquire whether two (partially) independent estimates of emissions of CO₂ from fossil-fuel combustion provide insight into the quality or uncertainty of emissions estimates. Using two published data sets that estimate CO₂ emissions for all countries, we show that the two ostensibly similar efforts to estimate emissions using ostensibly similar energy statistics have produced results that differ significantly for many countries. There is no obvious systematic bias between the two data sets and the two produce very similar estimates for the total of global emissions. Absolute differences between the two estimates are largest for a few countries with very large total emissions, but the largest relative differences occur in countries with small total emissions and weaker national systems of energy statistics. The magnitude of the differences reported has important implications for monitoring and verification of national emissions and potential national commitments.     

Renewable energy from palm oil – innovation on effective utilization of waste

Protecting the environment has been the priority of many sectors in our endeavor to ensure sustainable development. Implementation of green energy development based on the use of biomass is in the right path in adopting a holistic approach in the promotion of renewable energy. Malaysia has very substantial potential for biomass energy utilization given its equatorial climate that is ideal for dense tropical forest growth and agricultural vegetation. Biomass power potentials from wood processing and palm oil were estimated at 280 TJ and 250 TJ, respectively. By the year 2010, the biomass energy potential is expected to increase to 820 TJ. The paper describes the effective use of biomass as the first of the renewable energy sources to be developed for large-scale applications, especially in the palm oil industry and the methodology for energy harness by innovative utilization of waste from palm oil cultivation and processing.     

Zero emissions of oil in water from offshore oil and gas installations: economic and environmental implications

‘Produced water’ is seawater mixed with hydrocarbons and derives from the extraction of oil and gas from under the seabed. Its discharge into the marine environment of the North Sea is strictly regulated. This paper discusses the environmental concerns associated with produced water, and the regulatory approach that is currently being taken to reduce produced water discharges into the sea. It is found that there is currently no evidence of harm to the marine environment from produced water, but a number of areas of uncertainty remain. A novel methodology, involving the analysis of material and energy flows, and their associated financial and environmental implications, is used to compare a number of different techniques of reducing these discharges. It is found that these techniques have significant environmental and financial implications. In the absence of evidence of actual environmental harm being caused by produced water, there are three possible precautionary approaches to its management and regulation. The approach that involves zero emissions of produced water implies a relatively high social valuation of the reduction in environmental risk that this achieves.     

2020年中国发电行业碳减排目标规划相符性分析

基于发电行业节能减排技术的现有应用规划,预测3种不同的GDP增长情景,即减速发展,基准情景和高速发展情景下,若能实现我国现有关于发电行业节能减排技术的规划目标,2020年发电行业的CO2排放量将达到35.32,39.15,43.20亿t.同时基于中国2020年碳强度减排承诺,计算得国家2020年CO2排放目标在不同发展情景下将达到97.30~127.96亿t不等.结合上述结果讨论,发电行业规划目标相符要求2020年的CO2排放比例为33.27%~36.82%.结果表明,若能实现我国现有关于发电行业节能减排技术的规划目标,则对应于不同的GDP增长速度,发电行业总碳排放量能够完成国家承诺碳强度减排的分解目标.     

Removal of phenol by activated carbons prepared from palm oil mill effluent sludge

The study was attempted to produce activated carbons from palm oil mill effluent （POME） sludge. The adsorption capacity of the activated carbons produced was evaluated in aqueous solution of phenol. Two types of activation were followed, namely, thermal activation at 300, 500 and 800%, and physical activation at 150% （boiling treatment）. A control （raw POME sludge） was used to compare the adsorption capacity of the activated carbons produced. The results indicated that the activation temperature of 800℃ showed maximum absorption capacity by the activated carbon （POME 800） in aqueous solution of phenol. Batch adsorption studies showed an equilibrium time of 6 h for the activated carbon of POME 800. It was observed that the adsorption capacity was higher at lower values ofpH （2--3） and higher value of initial concentration of phenol （200--300 mg/L）, The equilibrium data were fitted by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The adsorption of phenol onto the activated carbon POME 800 was studied in terms of pseudo-first and second order kinetics to predict the rate constant and equilibrium capacity with the effect of initial phenol concentrations. The rate of adsorption was found to be better correlation for the pseudo-second order kinetics compared to the first order kinetics.     

Activated carbons derived from oil palm empty-fruit bunches： Application to environmental problems

Activated carbons derived from oil palm empty fruit bunches （EFB） were investigated to find the suitability of its application for removal of phenol in aqueous solution through adsorption process, Two types of activation namely; thermal activation at 300, 500 and 800℃and physical activation at 150℃ （boiling treatment） were used for the production of the activated carbons. A control （untreated EFB） was used to compare the adsorption capacity of the activated carbons produced from these processes. The results indicated that the activated carbon derived at the temperature of 800℃ showed maximum absorption capacity in the aqueous solution of phenol. Batch adsorption studies showed an equilibrium time of 6 h for the activated carbon at 800℃. It was observed that the adsorption capacity was higher at lower values of pH （2-3） and higher value of initial concentration of phenol （200-300 mg/L）. The equilibrium data fitted better with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm compared to the Langmuir. Kinetic studies of phenol adsorption onto activated carbons were also studied to evaluate the adsorption rate. The estimated cost for production of activated carbon from EFB was shown in lower price （USD 0.50/kg of activated carbon） compared the activated carbon from other sources and processes.     

中国4个城市范围CO2排放比较研究

基于点排放源和辅助数据,自下而上构建重庆1km CO2排放空间网格,分析市域(UB1)、市辖区(UB2)、建成区(UB3)和城区(UB4)4个城市范围的CO2排放特征.UB4是重庆城市合理表征,而UB1更适合于区域边界.城市边界选择的不同,将导致很大的排放差异.UB4的CO2总排放量仅为UB1的17.13%,但UB4的人均CO2排放量是UB1的1.6倍.UB4形成了重庆UB1的CO2排放核心,其内单位网格的平均排放量超过了10000t,而UB1内超过70%的范围内单位网格的排放水平都低于200t.工业排放占据绝对主体导致UB4人均排放水平较高,并且高于临近周边及区域人均水平,这和国际城市的情况正好相反.全局和局部显著空间正自相关性说明部分地区高强度的经济活动和能源活动对周边区域的排放有显著影响.基于网格的累积排放分析显示,个别网格的排放量已经占到UB4总排放的40%以上.UB4内7.00%的面积,UB1内1.21%的面积和UB2内3.84%的面积,其CO2排放都超过了其相应范围内总排放的85%.     

Energy modeling on cleaner vehicles for reducing CO2 emissions in Japan

This study is to evaluate the impact of cleaner vehicles on energy systems and CO₂ emissions in the transportation sector in Japan. The transportation sector has the characteristic of spending petroleum. Even when the cost of petroleum rises, conventional vehicles cannot switch fuels to alternative energy right away. Cleaner vehicles, such as fuel cell vehicles, would be one of the alternative technologies in the transportation sector. It is supposed to have excellent performance in fuel efficiency and has strong possibility to reduce CO₂ drastically. This paper uses a multi-period market equilibrium model to explore the impacts of cleaner vehicles on the passenger transportation sector in Japanese energy system out to the year 2040. A Btu tax is tentatively imposed to evaluate the effect of fuel cost on energy consumption in the transportation sector. Financial parameters such as capital cost and operating cost are considered to summarize the profit in taxation case. The result of this study shows that fuel cell vehicles have a great effect on reducing CO₂ emissions especially when Btu taxes are imposed, which in turn has the advantage of encouraging a more diverse set of technologies and fuels. The analysis that petroleum consumption can be reduced using fuel cell vehicles will have effects on perspectives on energy systems in Japan.     

Avoiding CO2 capture effort and cost for negative CO2 emissions using industrial waste in chemical-looping combustion/gasification of biomass

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a combustion process with inherent separation of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is achieved by oxidizing the fuel with a solid oxygen carrier rather than with air. As fuel and combustion air are never mixed, no gas separation is necessary and, consequently, there is no direct cost or energy penalty for the separation of gases. The most common form of design of chemical-looping combustion systems uses circulating fluidized beds, which is an established and widely spread technology. Experiments were conducted in two different laboratory-scale CLC reactors with continuous fuel feeding and nominal fuel inputs of 300 W_th and 10 kW_th, respectively. As an oxygen carrier material, ground steel converter slag from the Linz–Donawitz process was used. This material is the second largest flow in an integrated steel mill and it is available in huge quantities, for which there is currently limited demand. Steel converter slag consists mainly of oxides of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), and manganese (Mn). In the 300 W unit, chemical-looping combustion experiments were conducted with model fuels syngas (50 vol% hydrogen (H₂) in carbon monoxide (CO)) and methane (CH₄) at varied reactor temperature, fuel input, and oxygen-carrier circulation. Further, the ability of the oxygen-carrier material to release oxygen to the gas phase was investigated. In the 10 kW unit, the fuels used for combustion tests were steam-exploded pellets and wood char. The purpose of these experiments was to study more realistic biomass fuels and to assess the lifetime of the slag when employed as oxygen carrier. In addition, chemical-looping gasification was investigated in the 10 kW unit using both steam-exploded pellets and regular wood pellets as fuels. In the 300 W unit, up to 99.9% of syngas conversion was achieved at 280 kg/MW_th and 900 °C, while the highest conversion achieved with methane was 60% at 280 kg/MW_th and 950 °C. The material’s ability to release oxygen to the gas phase, i.e., CLOU property, was developed during the initial hours with fuel operation and the activated material released 1–2 vol% of O₂ into a flow of argon between 850 and 950 °C. The material’s initial low density decreased somewhat during CLC operation. In the 10 kW, CO₂ yields of 75–82% were achieved with all three fuels tested in CLC conditions, while carbon leakage was very low in most cases, i.e., below 1%. With wood char as fuel, at a fuel input of 1.8 kW_th, a CO₂ yield of 92% could be achieved. The carbon fraction of C₂-species was usually below 2.5% and no C₃-species were detected. During chemical-looping gasification investigation a raw gas was produced that contained mostly H₂. The oxygen carrier lifetime was estimated to be about 110–170 h. However, due to its high availability and potentially low cost, this type of slag could be suitable for large-scale operation. The study also includes a discussion on the potential advantages of this technology over other technologies available for Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS. Furthermore, the paper calls for the use of adequate policy instruments to foster the development of this kind of technologies, with great potential for cost reduction but presently without commercial application because of lack of incentives.

     

Identification of main influencing factors of life cycle CO2 emissions from the integrated steelworks using sensitivity analysis

The amount of CO₂ emissions from steelworks accounts for a great share of the total CO₂ emissions from industry in China. Thus, reducing CO₂ emissions from steelworks is urgent for China's environmental protection and sustainable development. This study aims at identifying factors that influence CO₂ emissions from steelworks and proposing measures to reduce CO₂ emissions. The life cycle inventory (LCI) of iron and steel products implies the relationship between the CO₂ emissions of the steelworks and the input variables of the LCI. The Tornado Chart Tool is utilized to calculate the variation of CO₂ emissions caused by the change of each input variables of LCI. Then, mean sensitivity of each input variable is calculated and the ranking criterion developed is used to identify the main factors influencing the integrated steelworks. Subsequently, measures for reducing CO₂ emissions are proposed. The results indicate that the very important influencing factors of CO₂ emissions in steelworks are the CO₂ emission factor of Blast Furnace Gas (BFG), liquid steel unit consumption of continuous casting, continuous casting slab unit consumption of hot rolling and hot metal ratio of steel making. Consequently, many efficient measures for reducing CO₂ emissions have been proposed, such as removing CO₂ contained in BFG, decreasing the hot metal ratio of Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF), recycling BFG, optimizing the products' structure, etc.     

中国能源消费排放的CO2测算

基于“能源-经济-环境”的MARKAL-MACRO模型和数理人口学中的Keyfitz模型,测算未来中国能源消费需求;考虑能源效率、能源结构的变化以及气候变化问题的约束,设定了能源消费的3种情景,并分别测算了CO2排放量.结果表明,在基准情景下,中国的CO2排放在2042年达到峰值,为118.47亿t;在能源结构优化情景下,CO2排放在2036年达到峰值,为107.53亿t;在气候变化约束情景下,CO2排放在2031年达到峰值,为94.72亿t,相对于基准情景,排放峰值降低了23.75亿t,且峰值时间提前11a.随着城市化与工业化的推进,电力、水泥、钢铁行业的碳排放将先上升后下降;由于机动车保有量的增加,交通运输业的碳排放将持续上升.     

风电场生命周期CO2排放核算与不确定性分析

提出了风力发电技术生命周期能耗和CO2排放核算的详细方法.应用上海某风电场数据进行核算,结果认为,风机生产阶段能耗和CO2排放占风电场生命周期能耗和CO2排放的比例均为最大,分别为68.23%和67.18%.不确定性分析认为,在所有强度参数中,钢生产综合能耗最为灵敏.风电场能耗强度和CO2强度分别为3.24gce/(kW?h)和9.47g/(kW?h),明显低于300MW火力发电机组的相同指标,分别为330gce/(kW?h)和915g/(kW?h). 20a服役期的50MW风电场满期后,同比300MW火电机组少排放CO2约234万t.