The social cost of carbon revisited

An estimate of the social cost of carbon (SCC) is crucial to climate policy. But how should we estimate the SCC? A common approach uses an integrated assessment model (IAM) to simulate time paths for the atmospheric CO₂ concentration, its impact on temperature, and resulting reductions in GDP. I have argued that IAMs have deficiencies that make them poorly suited for this job, but what is the alternative? I present an approach to estimating an average SCC, which I argue can be a useful guide for policy. I rely on a survey of experts to elicit opinions regarding (1) probabilities of alternative economic outcomes of climate change, but not the causes of those outcomes; and (2) the reduction in emissions required to avert an extreme outcome, i.e., a large climate-induced reduction in GDP. The average SCC is the ratio of the present value of lost GDP from an extreme outcome to the total emission reduction needed to avert that outcome. I discuss the survey instrument, explain how experts were identified, and present results. I obtain SCC estimates of $200/mt or higher, but the variation across experts is large. Trimming outliers and focusing on experts who expressed a high degree of confidence in their answers yields lower SCCs, $80 to $100/mt, but still well above the IAM-based estimates used by the U.S. government.     

生活垃圾无害化处理大气污染物排放清单

为全面评估中国大陆地区生活垃圾处理大气污染物排放状况,系统收集和整理全国31个省市基础统计信息,采取排放因子法建立了2016年中国大陆地区生活垃圾无害化处理大气污染物排放清单.结果表明,2016年,全国生活垃圾填埋处理排放气态污染物的CH₄、VOCs、NH₃、TSP、PM₁₀和PM_2.5总量分别是3472084.50、185117.10、66.45、54.94、25.99和3.92 t,焚烧处理排放气态污染物的CH₄、SO₂、NO_x、NH₃、VOCs、CO、TSP、PM₁₀、PM_2.5和BC总量分别是25389.10、6419.30、70923.84、221.36、435.33、3025.19、221.36、221.36、2.21和2.86 t.通过对固体废弃物处理源、大气污染物时空分布特征以及对各省市焚烧厂在生活垃圾无害化处理厂数量的占比分析,确定生活垃圾焚烧源和填埋源处理排放的气态污染物总量在2010~2016年期间呈现上升趋势,2016年生活填埋处理是我国最主要的垃圾处理方式,主要集中在中部和西部等人口密度适中和土地资源较多的地区,生活垃圾焚烧处理主要集中在长三角、珠三角和京津冀等地区的发达城市.     

Understand the local and regional contributions on air pollution from the view of human health impacts

• PM_2.5-related deaths were estimated to be 227 thousand in BTH & surrounding regions. • Local emissions contribute more to PM_2.5-related deaths than PM_2.5 concentration. • Local controls are underestimated if only considering its impacts on concentrations. • Rural residents suffer larger impacts of regional transport than urban residents. • Reducing regional transport benefits in mitigating environmental inequality. The source-receptor matrix of PM_2.5 concentration from local and regional sources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and surrounding provinces has been created in previous studies. However, because the spatial distribution of concentration does not necessarily match with that of the population, such concentration-based source-receptor matrix may not fully reflect the importance of pollutant control effectiveness in reducing the PM_2.5-related health impacts. To demonstrate that, we study the source-receptor matrix of the PM_2.5-related deaths instead, with inclusion of the spatial correlations between the concentrations and the population. The advanced source apportionment numerical model combined with the integrated exposure–response functions is used for BTH and surrounding regions in 2017. We observed that the relative contribution to PM_2.5-related deaths of local emissions was 0.75% to 20.77% larger than that of PM_2.5 concentrations. Such results address the importance of local emissions control for reducing health impacts of PM_2.5 particularly for local residents. Contribution of regional transport to PM_2.5-related deaths in rural area was 22% larger than that in urban area due to the spatial pattern of regional transport which was more related to the rural population. This resulted in an environmental inequality in the sense that people staying in rural area with access to less educational resources are subjected to higher impacts from regional transport as compared with their more resourceful and knowledgeable urban compatriots. An unexpected benefit from the multi-regional joint controls is suggested for its effectiveness in reducing the regional transport of PM_2.5 pollution thus mitigating the associated environmental inequality.     

Emission and life-cycle assessment of alternative-fuel buses: a case study of the Delaware Authority of Regional Transit

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 motivated transit agencies to utilize alternative-fuel transit buses in addition to their popular diesel buses. Transit agencies have planned to add a significant number of alternative-fuel buses to their current transit fleets. This study is to inform policy makers who may allocate public funds for alternative-fuel bus projects to make a smarter decision in this regard. For each of the eight alternative-fuel buses, technologies introduced by the ACT, fuel efficiency, life-cycle cost (LCC) and emission are estimated and compared with the available information for the ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel buses. A case study in the State of Delaware is presented to demonstrate how the proposed approaches can be employed to evaluate the relative importance of the most viable alternative-fuel transit buses according to the predefined set of criteria. The results show that buses propelled by hybrid-diesel engine have the least LCC and emissions and are the most suitable alternative for the ULSD buses in the short- and midterm.     

中原城市群国家干线公路SOA生成潜势估算

二次有机气溶胶（SOA）是大气污染的主要成分之一,估算汽车尾气所生成的SOA对交通大气污染治理具有重要意义.本文基于国家干线公路交通量调查数据,根据监测站点和代表路段长度建立了中原城市群干线路网线性参考系统,并以车流量为基础数据,采用排放系数法测算出中原城市群干线道路VOCs排放量,再根据气溶胶生成系数对SOA的生成潜势进行估算,并经核密度计算后转换为线性连续分布,进行交通SOA的空间定量分布研究.结果表明：①甲苯的SOA生成潜势最高,但1,4-二乙基苯的SOA生成能力最强,芳香烃的SOA生成能力总体高于烷烃;②中小型汽油客车是最大的SOA生成源,占SOA生成量的1/3左右,但SOA生成能力最强的是小型汽油货车;③汽油车的SOA生成能力高于柴油车,客车的SOA生成能力略微高于货车;④中原城市群的SOA排放强度具有明显的以郑州为中心的高强度聚集现象,汽油车的分布与总体相似,但柴油车的强度和聚集性明显下降,以郑州为中心,南北干线上的排放强度高于东西方向.     

季节性人工河滨湿地甲烷排放

2008年11月—2009年10月在美国俄亥俄州哥伦布市Olentangy河河滨湿地公园中具有14年历史的补偿河流分岔季节性人工湿地中,运用静态箱-气象色谱法测定了季节性人工湿地中甲烷（CH4）时空排放通量。结果表明：1）CH4排放通量非常低,全年的平均值（以CH4-C计）仅为0.09 mg·m-2·h-1;2）CH4排放通量具有明显的季节性变化规律,年周期的CH4排放通量呈单峰型变化规律,6月份出现排放峰值,但CH4排放通量与土壤温度却无显著相关性;3）季节性人工湿地中心区和边缘区域中的CH4排放量分别为0.03（0.06）和0.03（0.12）mg·m-2·h-1,无显著性差异（P〉0.05）。因此,可见通过设计具有既长又浅形状和湿-干-湿交替水文条件的人工湿地,不仅可应用于其他的河流冲积平原的修复,也可在不同的气候和水文条件下检验其生态服务功能。     

Dustiness in workplace safety and explosion protection – Review and outlook

Behavior of dust/air mixtures is very complex and difficult to predict since it depends on material properties as well as boundary conditions. Without other influences airborne particles deposit due to gravity but the time it takes for total deposition as well as easiness of resurrection depends very much on the specific dust sample and the boundary conditions. It still lacks a complete understanding of all interacting reasons and one approach is using experimentally determined characteristics, one is named dustiness.Dustiness is the tendency of dust to form clouds and to stay airborne. Dustiness is determined with two basic principles, which are light attenuation and ratio of filled-in and measured mass. Assessment of dustiness of industrial powders has been done for a long time regarding work place safety. Dustiness is used there to determine inhalable fraction and to evaluate health risks. Lately it became interesting in dust explosion protection as well. Dustiness could be used to optimize determination of zones, adaption of venting area and/or for positioning of suppression systems.Dustiness can be useful in many ways but is not a physical property of dusts, therefore it depends on material properties such as density, particle size distribution, shape and water content as well as boundary conditions or determination method. This makes it very difficult to compare dustiness for different techniques and apparatuses and determination method as well as results should be considered carefully. This work gives an overview of existing standards, recent research and suggests improvements to the new dustiness as proposed for dust explosion protection.     

Explosion of lycopodium-nicotinic acid–methane complex hybrid mixtures

With the terms “complex hybrid mixtures”, we mean mixtures made of two or more combustible dusts mixed with flammable gas or vapors in air (or another comburent).In this work, the flammability and explosion behavior of selected complex hybrid mixtures was studied. In particular, we investigated mixtures of nicotinic acid, lycopodium and methane. We performed explosion tests in the 20-L explosion vessel at different overall (nicotinic plus lycopodium) dust concentrations, nicotinic acid/lycopodium ratios, and methane concentrations.An exceptional behavior (in terms of unexpected values of rate of pressure rise and pressure) was found for the complex hybrid mixtures containing lycopodium and nicotinic acid in equal amounts. This mixture was found to be much more reactive than all the other dust mixtures, whatever the dust concentration and the methane content.     

2011年中国钢铁行业典型有害重金属大气排放清单

根据中国钢铁工业年鉴等统计资料,采用排放因子法,对2011年我国钢铁行业生产活动导致的汞(Hg)、铅(Pb)、镉(Cd)、砷(As)、铬(Cr)、镍(Ni)等6种有害重金属的大气排放及其分布特征进行了研究,并给出了分省区排放清单.结果表明,2011年中国钢铁行业汞、铅、镉、砷、铬、镍大气排放量分别约为18.8, 3745.8, 39.4, 132.2, 241.2, 105.3t;钢铁行业重金属大气排放集中在环渤海经济圈以及长三角地区,其中河北东部及中南部、山东中部等钢铁冶炼企业集中地区重金属大气排放强度较大;钢铁企业内部炼钢工艺对重金属大气排放贡献率较高,其中转炉工序对砷、铅排放贡献率较大,电炉工序对于镉、镍贡献率较大.     

燃煤电厂大气污染物“近零排放”技术研究及工程应用

在燃煤电厂实现大气污染物“近零排放”过程中,烟尘控制技术是关键,通过对除尘、脱硫、脱硝等先进环保技术的系统比较,提出了燃煤电厂大气污染物“近零排放”技术路线. 在地处长三角的国华舟山电厂4号机组采用高效低氮燃烧+SCR(选择性催化还原法)脱硝+旋转电极除尘+海水脱硫+湿式静电除尘的技术路线,ρ(烟尘)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO_x)的实际排放值分别为2.46、2.76、19.80 mg/m3;在地处京津冀的国华三河电厂1号机组,采用高效低氮燃烧+SCR脱硝+低温省煤器+静电除尘(高效电源)+湿法脱硫+湿式静电除尘的技术路线,ρ(烟尘)、ρ(SO₂)、ρ(NO_x)的实际排放值分别为5、9、35 mg/m3. 实践表明,立足国情走煤炭清洁高效利用之路,燃煤电厂可以在低成本下实现大气污染物的“近零排放”. 通过对技术路线优化、低浓度污染物在线测量技术及“近零排放”中存在的一些问题进行分析和探讨,提出了燃煤电厂大气污染物控制技术的研究和发展方向. 估算结果表明,如果全国燃煤机组自2015年起采用“近零排放”技术,5 a内烟尘、SO₂、NO_x年均减排率分别可达19.0%、18.9%、18.5%.