A future bamboo-structure residential building prototype in China: Life cycle assessment of energy use and carbon emission

A comprehensive assessment of energy use, environmental degradation, and economic progress can play a significant role in transition towards low-carbon economy, and it can serve as a reference for the green economic development for the rest of the developing world. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the current status of conventional and renewable energy use and environmental degradation. Following this, we have analyzed the decoupling relation among environmental degradation, energy use, and economic progress in Pakistan. The study adopted the comprehensive data from year 1972-2017 and applied Tapio decoupling method to explore the decoupling status of environmental degradation, energy use, and economic progress in Pakistan. The key finding from the study shows that the overall value of carbon emissions in Pakistan is relatively increasing with the passage of time and shows about 5.26% average growth rate which is creating severe environmental degradation. There were observed several fluctuations in the trend of carbon emissions which is basically due to the policy changes in the country. From the decoupling point of view, we found the decoupling linkage between energy use and carbon emissions that is growth negative decoupling, whereas a weak decoupling relation has been observed among carbon emissions and economic progress which means that in most of the year's county has achieved more economic growth compared with the carbon emissions. In addition, the similar weak decoupling relationship was found among energy use and economic progress. In the light of these findings, it is suggested to policymakers to promote technological advancement and alternate energy that will not only improve environmental quality, but it will also promote a low-carbon economy.

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 基于MSIASM和能源消费碳排放的中国四大直辖市社会代谢分析 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201306081461 作者: 作者单位: 浙江大学生命科学学院生态研究所,浙江大学生命科学学院生态研究所,浙江大学生命科学学院生态研究所,美国佐治亚理工学院地理信息系统中心 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 浙江省科技厅科技攻关项目"浙江省发展生态旅游产业对策研究"(2005C30013, 2005.04-2006.04); 浙江省哲学社会科学基金重大项目"浙江省旅游生态化发展与管理的对策研究"(WT0316, 2003.06-2005.06) Societal metabolism analysis of China's four municipalities based on MSIASM theory and carbon emissions from energy consumption Author: Affiliation: Institute of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University,Institute of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University,, Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:通过社会代谢多尺度综合评估(Multi-Scale Integrated Assessment of Societal Metabolism, MSIASM)方法,采用生物-经济压力和不同组织尺度下的体外能代谢率、能源密度指标,并将能源消费碳排放融入评估框架,评价了中国四大直辖市2004年至2010年的社会代谢及其综合发展状况。研究中能源消费碳排放的加入较好补充了MSIASM在生态评估方面的弱势。研究结果显示,四大直辖市整体社会代谢发展良好,体外能代谢率和生物-经济压力稳步上升,能源密度和单位能耗碳排放不断降低,总体呈现良性发展态势。从各个直辖市的社会经济系统各部门表现来看,各城市体现了自己的突出特点。在深入到行业尺度研究体外能代谢率、能源密度后,整体显示出控制工业部门和交通运输部门的能耗增长对于提高经济生产能源效率的突出作用,同时应继续加大金融和计算机等低能耗高经济生产率行业的发展力度。 Abstract:The Multi-Scale Integrated Assessment of Societal Metabolism method has been widely used to comprehensively evaluate levels of social development and sustainability. It can also be regarded as the basis of urban development policy creation for urban managers and decision-makers. However, although there is an increasing amount of research about variables and scales of the method, very little focuses on the ecological aspect and the impacts of scale on the variables. This study evaluates the societal metabolism and comprehensive development situation of China's four municipalities between 2004 and 2010 by adopting the method of Multi-Scale Integrated Assessment of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM). This method includes indicators of Exosomatic Metabolic Rate and Energy Intensity at different organizational scales, as well as Bio-economic Pressure. The carbon emissions from energy consumption was first introduced into MSIASM to assess the ecological aspect of urban development and to assess the impacts of different organizational scales on the indicators The results demonstrates that overall development of China's four municipalities' societal metabolism is in good condition with a steady increase in Exosomatic Metabolic Rate and Bio-economic Pressure and a ceaseless decrease in energy intensity and carbon emissions per unit of energy consumption. In terms of the integrated performance of social economic systems, each municipality reflected its own unique developmental characteristics. In the case of Shanghai, the gradual downsizing of the agricultural industry and the high-level development of the manufacturing industry, reflected the typical characteristics of the late-industrialization city in China. The development of Beijing showed a close relationship with the city's preparation for the Olympic Games. This included strict limitations on energy investment and industrial pollution as well as vigorous development on the construction of transportation infrastructure. Tianjin's development presented the status of the booming manufacturing industry and the relatively lagging service industry, which are the features of a rapidly industrializing city in general. The overall level of development level in Chongqing was lower than the other three cities, embodying the city's traits during the transformation of industry structure from agriculture to industrialization. Additionally, the indicators were affected by scale and show different characteristics, especially for the Exosomatic Metabolic Rate, Energy Intensity and Economic Labor Productivity under the industry scale.The prominent role of controlling the energy consumption of the manufacturing industry and the transportation department on rising energy efficiency of production. The development of low energy consumption and high economic productivity industry such as the financial industry and the computer industry are also very important to take into consideration. In conclusion, this study introduces ecological indicators and dynamic working time data into the classic MSIASM method for a more comprehensive evaluation of the city's sustainability and firstly applies the model down to the industry scale. It can detect the composite effects of number of employee and average working hour. It provides a new perspective for environmental impact assessment of energy use and a new tool to guide future urban planning and development. Based on the result that EMR and BER show different characteristics under different scales, this method should be carefully used when face to evaluate the level of regional social development. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Assessment of energy use and carbon footprint for low-rank coal-based oxygen-thermal and electro-thermal calcium carbide manufacturing processes

Assessment of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with dairy products needs to account for the whole life cycle of the products, particularly with the debate about "food miles"(the transportation of product from producer to consumer). A life cycle assessment (LCA) of an average NZ dairy farm for 2005 showed that total energy use per kg milk from the "cradle-tomilk- in-the-vat" was 45-65% of that from EU farms. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or carbon footprint showed similar relative trends although differences were smaller due, at least in part, to lower methane efficiency from lower-producing NZ cows. Energy use associated with shipping dairy product (e.g. cheese) from NZ to UK is equivalent to about one-quarter of the on-farm use. Even when added together, the energy use from the NZ farm and from shipping would still be less than onfarm energy use for the EU farms. However, this is affected by intensification and the Dexcel Resource Efficient Dairying trial showed that increasing maize silage use, and nitrogen fertiliser use in particular, increased the energy use and GHG emissions per kg milk by up to 190% and 23%, respectively. Thus, the trend for intensification on NZ dairy farms means that our comparative advantage with EU farms is diminishing. A focus on improved farm system practices and integration of mitigation options is required to reverse this trend. Keywords: food miles, greenhouse gases, energy, life cycle assessment, milk, New Zealand, efficiency

Is there a turning point in the relationship between income and energy use and/or carbon emissions?

Construction and operation of buildings and infrastructure is a main contributor to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Sweden. The embodied energy of construction, meaning all the energy that is used until the completion of the construction project, cause roughly 10 million tones of CO₂ equivalent emissions each year which equals to the emissions from all cars in Sweden (IVA 2014). About 6 million tones of CO₂ equivalent emissions are attributed to the embodied energy of roads, railroads and other civil works while the remaining 4 million tones are attributed to the embodied energy of buildings (IVA 2014). Although reducing energy use and associated GHG-emissions in road and railroad construction is prioritized by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket 2012), the GHG-emissions from such construction projects have increased in recent years (Boverket 2014). Many of the existing efforts to reduce energy use and associated GHG-emissions focus on individual phases of the life cycle and don’t take into consideration the effects at other stages during the whole life cycle of a project (Boverket 2011). A crucial step in the assessment of energy use and associated GHG-emissions is to clarify and categorize the different phases of a life cycle. Figure 1 shows a proposed categorization of life cycles phases and use of energy based on previous research (Davies et al. 2014). Buildings’ main use of energy happens during its operational phase from e.g. heating, lighting and use of electrical appliances (Sartori and Hestnes 2007). In infrastructure projects such as road construction the embodied energy is roughly equal to the operational energy for roads with lighting, or in fact considerably higher if the road lacks lighting (Stripple 2001).

This study provides an empirical assessment of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with high and low residential development. Three major elements of urban development are considered: construction materials for infrastructure (including residential dwellings, utilities, and roads), building operations, and transportation (private automobiles and public transit). Two case studies from the City of Toronto are analyzed. An economic input–output life-cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model is applied to estimate the energy use and GHG emissions associated with the manufacture of construction materials for infrastructure. Operational requirements for dwellings and transportation are estimated using nationally and/or regionally averaged data. The results indicate that the most targeted measures to reduce GHG emissions in an urban development context should be aimed at transportation emissions, while the most targeted measures to reduce energy usage should focus on building operations. The results also show that low-density suburban development is more energy and GHG intensive (by a factor of 2.0–2.5) than high-density urban core development on a per capita basis. When the functional unit is changed to a per unit of living space basis the factor decreases to 1.0–1.5, illustrating that the choice of functional unit is highly relevant to a full understanding of urban density effects.

In this study, we used Argonne National Laboratory's Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model to assess the life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts of four soybean-derived fuels: biodiesel fuel produced via transesterification, two renewable diesel fuels (I and II) produced from different hydrogenation processes, and renewable gasoline produced from catalytic cracking. Five approaches were employed to allocate the coproducts: a displacement approach; two allocation approaches, one based on the energy value and the other based on the market value; and two hybrid approaches that integrated the displacement and allocation methods. The relative rankings of soybean-based fuels in terms of energy and environmental impacts were different under the different approaches, and the reasons were analyzed. Results from the five allocation approaches showed that although the production and combustion of soybean-based fuels might increase total energy use, they could have significant benefits in reducing fossil energy use (>52%), petroleum use (>88%), and GHG emissions (>57%) relative to petroleum fuels. This study emphasized the importance of the methods used to deal with coproduct issues and provided a comprehensive solution for conducting a life-cycle assessment of fuel pathways with multiple coproducts.

This report surveys world energy use and carbon emissions patterns, with particular emphasis on the non-OECD countries. The non OECD is important not only because it currently makes up 84% of world population, but because its energy consumption, carbon emissions, population, and grow domestic product have all been growing faster than OECD`s. This presentation has seven major sections: (1) overview of key trends in non-OECD energy use and carbon emissions since 1970; (2) Comparison and contrasting energy use and carbon emissions for five major non OEDC regions (former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, Pacific Rim including China, Latin America, other Asia; Africa; 3-7) presentation of aggregate and sectoral energy use and carbon emissions data for countries within each of the 5 regions.

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon has differential impacts on energy use and carbon emissions in buildings depending on the climate of the region and the urban planning strategies in place. This study explores the differential effects of UHI on energy use and carbon emissions in warm and cold climates, using North Africa and North Europe as case studies. We address the following research questions: 1) How does the UHI phenomenon impact energy use and carbon emissions in buildings in these regions? 2) What urban planning strategies are currently in place to mitigate the negative impacts of UHI on energy demand and emissions in these regions? 3) How effective are these strategies in mitigating the negative impacts of UHI on energy demand and emissions in both warm and cold climates? 4) What additional urban planning strategies could be implemented to reduce further the negative impacts of UHI on energy demand and emissions in both warm and cold climates? The UHI increases energy bills and emissions due to the higher demand for cooling energy in warm climates, while in cold climates, UHI reduces energy demand and emissions by decreasing the need for heating energy. Urban planning strategies, such as incorporating green space, using reflective materials, choice of colors, and designing for natural ventilation, can effectively mitigate the negative impacts of UHI on energy demand and emissions in both warm and cold climates. However, the effectiveness of these strategies varies depending on the climate of the region and the specific urban context. In this study, we will provide a recommendation for urban planning strategies that can be implemented to further reduce the negative impacts of UHI on energy demand and emissions in both warm and cold climates. Our study contributes to the understanding of the UHI phenomenon. It provides insights for urban planners and policymakers in developing effective strategies to reduce energy use and carbon emissions in buildings and cities.

SummaryThis first article of a two‐article series describes a framework and life cycle–based model for typical almond orchard production systems for California, where more than 80% of commercial almonds on the world market are produced. The comprehensive, multiyear, life cycle–based model includes orchard establishment and removal; field operations and inputs; emissions from orchard soils; and transport and utilization of co‐products. These processes are analyzed to yield a life cycle inventory of energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, criteria air pollutants, and direct water use from field to factory gate. Results show that 1 kilogram (kg) of raw almonds and associated co‐products of hulls, shells, and woody biomass require 35 megajoules (MJ) of energy and result in 1.6 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2‐eq) of GHG emissions. Nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation water are the dominant causes of both energy use and GHG emissions. Co‐product credits play an important role in estimating the life cycle environmental impacts attributable to almonds alone; using displacement methods results in net energy and emissions of 29 MJ and 0.9 kg CO2‐eq/kg. The largest sources of credits are from orchard biomass and shells used in electricity generation, which are modeled as displacing average California electricity. Using economic allocation methods produces significantly different results; 1 kg of almonds is responsible for 33 MJ of energy and 1.5 kg CO2‐eq emissions. Uncertainty analysis of important parameters and assumptions, as well as temporary carbon storage in orchard trees and soils, are explored in the second article of this two‐part article series.

SummaryThis is the second part of a two‐article series examining California almond production. The part I article describes development of the analytical framework and life cycle–based model and presents typical energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for California almonds. This part II article builds on this by exploring uncertainty in the life cycle model through sensitivity and scenario analysis, and by examining temporary carbon storage in the orchard.Sensitivity analysis shows life cycle GHG emissions are most affected by biomass fate and utilization, followed by nitrous oxide emissions rates from orchard soils. Model sensitivity for net energy consumption is highest for irrigation system parameters, followed by biomass fate and utilization.Scenario analysis shows utilization of orchard biomass for electricity production has the greatest potential effect, assuming displacement methods are used for co‐product allocation. Results of the scenario analysis show that 1 kilogram (kg) of almond kernel and associated co‐products are estimated to cause between −3.12 to 2.67 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2‐eq) emissions and consume between 27.6 to 52.5 megajoules (MJ) of energy. Co‐product displacement credits lead to avoided emissions of between −1.33 to 2.45 kg CO2‐eq and between −0.08 to 13.7 MJ of avoided energy use, leading to net results of −1.39 to 3.99 kg CO2‐eq and 15.3 to 52.6 MJ per kg kernel (net results are calculated by subtracting co‐product credits from the results for almonds and co‐products).Temporary carbon storage in orchard biomass and soils is accounted for by using alternative global warming characterization factors and leads to a 14% to 18% reduction in CO2‐eq emissions. Future studies of orchards and other perennial cropping systems should likely consider temporary carbon storage.

The unavoidable option for socially sustainable development is a low-carbon economy. One of the essential steps for China to attain high-quality development is reducing carbon emissions. It is necessary to realize low-carbon development in Sichuan, as it is not only an important economic zone but also an ecological protected area. The concurrent relationship among energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth was examined in this study using the Tapio decoupling indicator, and the factors affecting energy consumption and carbon emissions in Sichuan were broken down using the logarithmic mean Divisia indicator (LMDI). The findings demonstrate a fundamental relative decoupling relationship between Sichuan's energy use and carbon emissions. Analysis of energy consumption and carbon emissions in Sichuan Province from 2005 to 2020 shows distinct patterns. From 2005 to 2012, in 2014, and from 2016 to 2020, the relationship between energy use and carbon emissions was relatively decoupled, with decoupling values ranging between 0 and 1. Absolute decoupling occurred in specific years: 2010, from 2013 to 2018, and in 2020. These periods are characterized by economic growth alongside reductions in carbon emissions. Factors affecting energy consumption and carbon emissions were consistently analyzed, showing similar impacts throughout the study periods. We find that population and economic growth are the main driving forces of these effects. The effects of energy intensity and industrial structure mainly play restraining roles, and the latter has a slightly weaker effect than the former.

Many areas in the world with chronic and intermittent water shortages rely on informal water systems for much of their daily water needs with water from tanker trucks, purchased bottled water, rainwater cisterns, or pumped well water. These alternative sources all require varying amounts of energy. Water–energy nexus studies have not yet considered environmental impacts of informal water sources, specifically from an energy intensity and carbon emissions perspective. This study compares energy use and carbon emissions per cubic meter and per capita for both formal and informal water sources for a neighborhood in Beirut Lebanon. Energy use and carbon emissions are calculated for three delivery stages per source including pumping, treatment and distribution. The results show that informal sources have the highest energy use and carbon emissions. From the total water delivered to households, they account for 83% of energy use and 72% of carbon emissions per capita, even though they only provide 23% of total delivered volume per capita. Bottled water and distribution of water by tanker trucks have the highest energy intensity values per cubic meter of all water sources. Moreover, internal building water pumping, which is not typically accounted for, takes up to 14% of total energy use and 23% of total carbon emissions per capita compared to other water sources. To address model uncertainty, we conduct a sensitivity analysis, showing that the base model presented reasonably stable results and identifying the most sensitive parameters for further research. While informal sources help communities overcome water shortages they result with negative impacts. Strategies are proposed to improve the environmental performance of the Lebanese electrical grid, reduce water losses, replace inefficient truck engines and incentivize household to invest in low carbon technologies.

This article takes Henan Province as the research object and analyzes the relationship between the green energy use, carbon emissions and economic growth in Henan Province by constructing a VAR model. The results show that: 1) There is a long-term equilibrium relationship between the green energy use, carbon emissions and economic growth in Henan Province. The green energy use can simultaneously promote the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and sustainable growth of economy; 2)The article examines the “creative” effect and “destructive” effect of green energy use on economic structure in Henan Province, and the “creative” effect is greater than the “destructive” effect, so, the green energy use can help Henan Province to achieve green and low-carbon economic growth; 3) Carbon dioxide emission and economic growth are the important factors affecting the green use of energy in Henan Province. Recently, the call of national carbon emission reduction and the pressure of economic development transition have induced Henan Province to change to a clean and green use of energy to some extent; 4) The contribution rate of green energy use to economic growth shows an inverted U-shaped trend, which increases first and then decreases. Carbon emission has influence on both green energy use and economic growth to a certain degree. Finally, targeted recommendations are presented to promote the green energy use and ensure the coordinated and sustainable development of economy and environment of Henan Province.