Greenhouse gas emissions from oilfield-produced water in Shengli Oilfield, Eastern China

Greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions from oil and gas systems are an important component of the GHG emission inventory. To assess the carbon emissions from oilfield-produced water under atmospheric conditions correctly, in situ detection and simulation experiments were developed to study the natural release of GHG into the atmosphere in the Shengli Oilfield,the second largest oilfield in China. The results showed that methane(CH4) and carbon dioxide(CO2) were the primary gases released naturally from the oilfield-produced water.The atmospheric temperature and release time played important roles in determining the CH4 and CO2emissions under atmospheric conditions. Higher temperatures enhanced the carbon emissions. The emissions of both CH4 and CO2from oilfield-produced water were highest at 27°C and lowest at 3°C. The bulk of CH4 and CO2was released from the oilfield-produced water during the first release period, 0–2 hr, for each temperature, with a maximum average emission rate of 0.415 g CH4/(m3·hr) and 3.934 g CO2/(m3·hr), respectively. Then the carbon emissions at other time periods gradually decreased with the extension of time. The higher solubility of CO2 in water than CH4 results in a higher emission rate of CH4 than CO2over the same release duration. The simulation proved that oilfield-produced water is one of the potential emission sources that should be given great attention in oil and gas systems.     

陕西省生态承载力供需平衡研究

陕西省经济发展主要依赖矿产资源的开发,尤其是煤炭资源的开发,随着全省经济的快速增长,生态环境问题也逐渐凸显,这一矛盾越来越引起人们的重视.为揭示陕西省生态环境破坏现状及生态环境承载能力,利用生态足迹理论,定量分析了陕西省生态承载能力及可利用空间.经过计算,2014年全省人均生态足迹1.3403 hm2,人均生态承载力1.9286 hm2,可利用人均生态承载力0.3569 hm2.结果表明,陕西省生态承载整体还有盈余,但草地、茶园和化石燃料用地均出现生态赤字,最后分析了产生生态赤字的原因.     

Using triple bottom line metrics and multi-criteria methodology in corporate settings

With the growing importance of environmental sustainability in the corporate sector, businesses are compelled to progress from assessing and benchmarking their environmental impact to making decisions on how to prioritize impact reduction alternatives. Most often, business decisions are driven by financial metrics, but with sustainability improvements becoming a business goal, it is also important to assess metrics from environmental and social spheres; nevertheless, practically and systematically performing such an assessment is challenging. We present an application of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method that addresses the aforementioned challenges in a corporate setting. Our case study company – one of the largest inland marine freight carriers in the United States – promotes a business culture focused on financially viable, yet socially and environmentally responsible solutions. Thus, we combine life cycle analysis (LCA), financial calculation methods, and corporate surveys to quantify environmental, economic, and social performance measures, respectively. Multiattribute utility theory is integrated with analytic hierarchy processes (AHPs) and fuzzy analysis to create a carefully designed framework for corporations with diverse groups of stakeholders. With company leadership, implementation is feasible and successful at prioritizing alternatives among diverse stakeholders. The process provides a platform for negotiation and promotes discussions on decision drivers. The use of MCDA methodologies promoted the inclusion of a suite of metrics that aligned with the company's sense of social and environmental responsibility, generating an in-depth analysis of the alternatives that factored in other things besides economics. Return-on-investments (ROI) calculations, the typical approach used in the corporate setting, would have required significantly less time and effort from the company, but the results of our MCDA application indicated that inclusion of triple bottom line metrics delve deeper into stakeholder preferences. Thus, our case study company gained a holistic view of the candidate alternatives, in addition to creating a platform for structured discussions about company goals and priorities.     

The relationship between economic and carbon footprint changes in EU: The achievements of the EU sustainable consumption and production policy implementation

The Sustainable Consumption and Production policy is a key objective in the renewed European Union (EU) Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). EU countries implement the targets of Sustainable Consumption and Production policy at different a level. Nevertheless, SDS targets are concerned more with production than consumption side. In addition, analysis of the carbon footprint data, which was supplied by the Global Footprint Network, showed that in all EU countries consumption-based carbon footprint caught-up and exceeded the level of production-based carbon (except Denmark and Estonia) during 1993–2010 period. The significant absolute decoupling in terms of carbon footprint from production-based perspective was observed in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland, United Kingdom and Germany, meanwhile from consumption-based perspective only in Denmark, Estonia and Germany. Moreover in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Croatia the consumption-based carbon footprint grew faster than economy in general. Results imply that EU should put more focus on consumption side in terms of Sustainable Consumption and Production policy and measures taken. A commitment to reduce the environmental impact from consumption-based perspective should be more addressed covering values and lifestyles.     

Carbon accounting of material substitution with biomass: Case studies for Austria investigated with IPCC default and alternative approaches

There is evidence that the replacement of carbon-intensive products with bio-based substitutes (‘material substitution with biomass’) can be highly efficient in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on two case studies (CS1/2) for Austria, potential benefits of material substitution in comparison to fuel substitution are analysed. GHG savings are calculated according to default IPCC approaches (Tier 2 method assuming first-order decay) and with more realistic approaches based on distribution functions. In CS1, high savings are achieved by using wood residues for the production of insulating boards instead of energy. The superiority of material substitution is due to the establishment of a long-term carbon storage, the high emission factor of wood in comparison to natural gas and higher efficiencies of gas-fired facilities.The biomass feedstock in CS2 is lignocellulosic ethanol being used for bio-ethylene production (material substitution) or replacing gasoline (fuel substitution). GHG savings are mainly due to lower production emissions of bio-ethylene in comparison to conventional ethylene and significantly lower than in CS1 (per unit of biomass consumed). While CS1 is highly robust to parameter variation, the long-term projections in CS2 are quite speculative.To create adequate incentives for including material substitution in national climate strategies, shortcomings of current default accounting methods must be addressed. Under current methods the GHG savings in both case studies would not (fully) materialize in the national GHG inventory. The main reason is that accounting of wood products is confined to the proportion derived from domestic harvest, whereas imported biomass used for energy is treated as carbon-neutral. Further inadequacies of IPCC default accounting methods include the assumption of exponential decay and the disregard of advanced bio-based products.     

Fe-N co-doped coral-like hollow carbon shell toward boosting peroxymonosulfate activation for efficient degradation of tetracycline: Singlet oxygen-dominated non-radical pathway

Fe-N co-doped coral-like hollow carbon shell (Fe-N-CS) was synthesized via a simply impregnation-pyrolysis method. The Fe-N-CS showed an excellent ability for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS), which could degrade about 93.74% tetracycline (20 mg/L) in 12 min. The Fe-N-CS/PMS system exhibited a good anti-interference capacity of various pH, inorganic anions, HA and different water qualities. More importantly, the Fe nanoparticles were anchored uniformly in the carbon layer, effectively limiting the metal leaching. The quenching tests and electron spin resonance (ESR) manifested that non-radical singlet oxygen (¹O₂) was the main reactive oxygen species (ROS) for TC degradation. The mechanism study showed that Fe nanoparticles, defect and graphite N played a key role in activating PMS to produce ROS. Moreover, three probable degradation pathways were proposed by using LC-MS measurements. Generally, this work had a new insight for the synthesis of heterogeneous Fe-N-C catalysts in the advanced oxidation process based on PMS.     

1997-2007年中国生态地租变化分析

生态地租是衡量生态资源利用带来的社会经济效果的重要指标.以投入产出表和生态足迹为基础,分析中国1997 - 2007年生态地租变化情况.结果表明,1997-2007年中国各产业单位经济产出的生态地租量呈减少趋势,农林牧渔业,电、热及水生产和供应业单位经济产出的生态地租量明显高于其他产业；生态地租总量呈不断增加趋势,构成上以工矿业和农林牧渔业生态地租为主,生态地租在行业间转移越来越多；以2007年为对照组,总产出量、生态足迹和生物承载力以及农地面积等参数的变化引起生态地租显著变化,其中以农林牧渔业生态地租变化最为敏感.如果考虑生态地租的影响,人类消费产品价格将大幅增加,这相当于人类因过度攫取自然资源而应当支付的用于环境治理的高昂代价.     

甘肃省2003年的水足迹评价

水足迹是指在一定的物质生活水平下,维持一定人群消费所需要的总的水资源数量。由于考虑了社会经济系统中虚拟水的消费量,水足迹真实地反映了一个地区人类消费对水资源的占有情况,为水资源科学管理提供了一个新的方法。论文引入了水足迹的概念和计算方法及其相关评价指标,计算分析了2003年甘肃省的水足迹。结果表明,甘肃省2003年的水足迹总量为226.67×10^{8,/sup>m3,人均水足迹878m3,水足迹占总可更新水资源的26%,水资源消费自给率为99.52%,如此高的水资源消费占用比例和自给率,对甘肃省生态环境造成了巨大的压力。}     

绿色大学建设中的生态足迹

生态足迹分析法是评价绿色大学建设水平最好的指标之一.生态足迹分析法有综合法和成分法2种.本文简要介绍了生态足迹成分法的基本原理和算法,并以东北大学为例将该方法应用大学校园的研究.结果表明,东北大学2003年的生态足迹为24787hm2,即需要约25000hm²的生态生产性土地支持学校的各类消费并吸纳所产生的废弃物.其生态效率(即单位生态生产性土地可支持的学生数)为0.94人·hm^-2.生态足迹中,能源消费的足迹最大,占总足迹的2/3多;食物消费和固态垃圾次之,分别占总足迹的21.9%和5.7%.     

The ‘hidden’ social costs of forestry offsets

The article quantifies the size of ‘hidden’ social costs that are incurred by forestry offsets in the voluntary market that promise to offset present emissions sometime in the future. It does this by estimating the difference between the social costs of carbon (C) emitted and of costs offset by removal of C from the atmosphere by reforestation/afforestation. All current attempts to make forestry offsets more reliable focus on quality control rather than the mismatch of the timing of emissions and their offset. Recommendations that follow from the analysis are twofold. First, that markets for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) removals by voluntary offsets should be confined to the annual incremental removals actually achieved. Second, the promoters of voluntary offsets projects should declare the annual stream of carbon credits and debits expected so that buyers can place a present value on such projects.