Study of the efficiency of application of scale inhibitors for water

Improving water utilization efficiency can effectively alleviate the contradiction between water shortage and water demand in the process of rapid urbanization. The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin, China, are characterized by water shortage. In order to improve water use efficiency, taking the 43 prefecture-level units in this region as the study area, industrial and agricultural water use efficiency is calculated based on the undesired SBM-DEA model. Then, the Tobit model is used to explore their influencing factors. The results show that the regional average agricultural water use efficiency is greater than the industrial water use efficiency. The temporal trend indicates that the agricultural water use efficiency shows a fluctuating upward trend, while industrial water use efficiency has a fluctuating downward trend. The gravity center of industrial water use efficiency moves from northwest to southeast in a “Z” shape, while the gravity center of agricultural water use efficiency moves westward as a whole. From the perspective of spatial patterns, the standard deviation ellipse of industrial water use efficiency shows that the industrial water use efficiency is higher in the east–west direction, while the agricultural water use efficiency is higher in the northwest–southeast direction. The improvement of urbanization level is conducive to the improvement of industrial water use efficiency; however, the development of urbanization has a significant inhibitory effect on improving agricultural water use efficiency.

Comprehensive analysis of water use and pollution management plays an important role in regional water security and sustainable socio-economic development. This study applies the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), Gini index and elasticity coefficient methods to conduct an investigation of industrial and domestic water use and pollution management in Shandong. The results show that industrial water pollution generally displayed a coordinated relationship with socio-economic development, while an uncoordinated relationship occurred between domestic water pollution and socio-economic development. Meanwhile, the Gini index between domestic water use and population in 2017 (0.101) was superior to that of 2003 (0.165), and the Gini index of industrial water use and second industry output in 2017 (0.273) was better than that of 2003 (0.292), indicating that the allocation and equity of domestic and industrial water use in Shandong kept to a good development trend. Additionally, the industrial effect is better than the domestic effect in terms of the control of wastewater emissions and the governance of typical pollutants in wastewater. Accordingly, domestic water pollution has gradually become one of the major sources of water pollution, and the allocation of industrial and domestic water use has room to improve further in Shandong. Conjunctive use of the aforementioned three methods provides an approach to investigate the integrated management of water use and water pollution control from multiple angles.

The construction of urban agglomerations around Poyang Lake is an important starting point of the strategy for the improvement of central China, but the spatial agglomeration of industry and population brings great pressure to the ecological environment. It is of great practical value to explore the impact of rapid urbanization on the water use efficiency of important ecological functional areas. Considering the undesired output of industrial production, this paper adopts the SE-SBM model to measure industrial green water use efficiency, comprehensively considers different aspects of urbanization of the urban agglomeration around Poyang Lake, empirically tests its inhibiting or boosting effect on industrial green water use and explores its spatial spillover effect with the help of a spatial metrology model. The results show that (1) the industrial green water use efficiency of urban agglomerations shows an overall upward trend, and the efficiency value of central cities is significantly higher than that of non-central cities and continues to show a state of diffusion; (2) social urbanization, environmental urbanization, and balanced urbanization can significantly improve industrial green water use efficiency, while industrial urbanization or industrialization inhibits the improvement in water use efficiency; (3) considering the spatial spillover factor, there are significant positive local effects between population urbanization and balanced urbanization, and significant positive spatial spillover effects between industrial urbanization and environmental urbanization; (4) the original model can pass the significance test by replacing the output-oriented water use efficiency with the input-oriented or non-oriented water use efficiency; the study area is extended to Jiangxi Province, and the impact of urbanization on industrial water use efficiency is basically consistent. We should adhere to the new type of urbanization that improves well-being and is friendly to the environment, rationally plan the industrial spatial pattern of urban agglomerations, adhere to the ecological and environmental threshold on undertaking industrial transfer, and promote the flow and sharing of green production factors.

Problems in estimating self-supplied industrial water use by indirect methods, the California example

Regional differences in the industrial water use efficiency of China: The spatial spillover effect and relevant factors

: This report documents over 50 substantial studies of the response of municipal and industrial water use to price in an attempt to correct the poorly understood phenomenon of the sensitivity of water use to price. Most likely price elasticity ranges are given for non-seasonal and seasonal residential water use; average residential water use; and reported elasticities for industrial and commercial water use. (Author)

Achieving carbon neutrality enables China to attain its industrial water-use target

Decomposition methods for analyzing changes of industrial water use

This paper investigates the existence of the Kuznets curve in industrial water use. The result shows that industrial water use in most countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD has experienced an increase, followed by a leveling off and then a decrease to some extent as income rises. The relationship between changes in industrial water use and income appears to comply with the environmental Kuznets curve, i.e., an inverted U-shaped curve seen in the relationship between income changes and environmental quality. It is found that the income threshold corresponding to the turning point of industrial water use varies across the OECD countries with a majority falling in the range of 10,000 United States dollars USD/capita-25,000USD/capita 1995 constant prices. Further examination suggests that decrease in the share of the secondary industry in the national economy is a precon- dition for the stabilization and decline in industrial water use. In the OECD countries, the share of the secondary industry in total GDP was around 40% at the turning point of industrial water use. The verification of the existence of the Kuznets curve relationship in industrial water use and the identification of the share of the secondary industry in total GDP corresponding to the turning point help in projecting the scale of future increase in industrial water use in developing countries.

Over the past two decades, the industrial sector of China has experienced rapid development, which has correspondingly led to a significant increase in water resource consumption. To better understand the dynamics of industrial water use, and formulate appropriate water resource conservation and management policies, it is necessary to evaluate the evolution of industrial water use efficiency and its influencing factors in China. Given the high sensitivity and accuracy of the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model for efficiency assessment, the Tobit model is more suitable for regression analyses of truncated data. This study employed the SFA–Tobit panel model to evaluate the industrial water use efficiency of provinces in China from 2003 to 2021. The results indicate that national industrial water use efficiency improved from 0.41 to 0.65 during the study period. All provinces showed significant improvements, with developed provinces exhibiting higher industrial water use efficiency than undeveloped provinces. Regionally, the eastern areas demonstrated superior industrial water use efficiency compared to the western regions, with the central regions having the lowest overall water use efficiency. Moreover, the efficiency gap between regions has been narrowing. The national industrial water-saving potential is estimated at 31.306 billion cubic meters, with Jiangsu province having the highest saving potential at 3.709 billion cubic meters. In comparison, Beijing has the lowest at just 32,000 cubic meters. The Tobit regression results reveal that economic development and technological progress positively contribute to increased industrial water use efficiency. In contrast, water use intensity, openness, and urbanization levels negatively impacted the improvement of industrial water use efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to increase investment in technological innovation, strictly control industrial water intensity, appropriately balance import and export trade with urbanization levels, and promote sustainable economic development. This study can provide effective support for the subsequent green transformation of China’s industry.

根据2003年至2014年景德镇市农业、工业、生活、生态环境等行业的用水量资料，分析景德镇市近12年来行业用水的变化发展，结合SPSS统计软件对引起行业用水变化的主要驱动力因子进行分析和说明。结果表明：景德镇市的水资源利用以农业用水为主，占用水总量的50.6%，工业用水占用水总量的34.5%，比重相对较大，生活用水和生态环境用水所占用水总量的比重较小，分别为13.9%和1.0%；景德镇市用水总量基本稳定，无整体上升或下降趋势，农业用水量及其所占用水总量的比重呈现整体上升的趋势，工业用水量及其所占用水总量的比重呈现出先上升而后下降的趋势，生活用水量及其所占用水总量的比重近10年来呈现逐年攀升的趋势，生态环境用水量及其所占用水总量的比重呈现略微上升的态势；因子分析的结果显示人口因素、经济发展因素和农田灌溉因素是景德镇市行业用水演变的主要驱动力。 According to the agricultural, industrial, life, public and ecological environment water use data of Jing-dezhen city from 2003 to 2014, the paper analyzes the change of water use in various industries in Jing-dezhen city during the last 12 years, and analyzes and explains the main driving factors of the develop-ment of water use in various industries by using SPSS statistical software. The results show that the water resources utilization in Jingdezhen city is mainly agricultural water use, which accounts for 50.6% of the total amount; the proportion of industrial water use is relatively larger, which accounts for 34.5% of the total amount; the proportion of water used for life, public and ecological environment is small, which accounts for 13.9% and 1.0% of the total amount. The total amount of water use in Jingdezhen is basically stable, and there is no overall rise or fall, agricultural water use, water use of the ecological environment are showing an overall upward trend and the proportion of total water use in agriculture and ecological environment is also increasing; industrial water use and its proportion of the total water use showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing trend; water use for life and public and their proportion of the total water use in the past 10 years has been rising year by year. Factor analysis results show that the main driving force of the development of water use in various industries in Jingdezhen city is the population, economic development and farmland irrigation.

Evaluating and improving water use efficiency is considered one of the main ways of tackling water shortage challenges in water-scarce cities. A useful indicator for evaluating industrial water use efficiency is the relative water use efficiency (RWUE). In this paper, an industrial RWUE evaluation scheme is proposed based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) theory. In this scheme, the RWUE is divided into overall efficiency (OE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE). In order to help decision-makers specify the focal industry of efficiency improvement, direct water use is distinguished from indirect water use. By employing this industrial RWUE evaluation scheme, this research calculated the industrial RWUEs for 25 representative industries of Beijing (1990–2010). Results show that the OE, PTE, and SE of Beijing have improved significantly. In the primary industry, the scale adjustment fundamentally lifted OE. For the secondary industries, there still exists much room for water use efficiency improvement in technical innovation. Some emerging tertiary industries replaced traditional tertiary industries as the most efficient water users. This study serves as a valuable reference for the implementation of the Strictest Administration of Water Resources (SAWR) of China, and provides policy-makers worldwide with a useful framework of understating industrial water use efficiency.

S team systems are a ubiquitous element in nearly every type of manufacturing plant. In the United States, steam systems are the single largest consumer of energy in the industrial sector, where they account for 37% of annual onsite energy use. Steam use is particularly prominent in the chemicals, paper, petroleum refining, and food and beverage industries, where it is used in a wide range of processes, including reforming, distillation, concentration, cooking, and drying. Together, these four industries comprise nearly 90% of U.S. industrial steam demand, with chemicals manufacturing (30%) and paper manufacturing (30%) holding the largest shares. At the national level, industrial steam systems account for around 6% of U.S. total primary energy use, or 5,900 trillion British thermal units (TBtu). As such, much attention has been paid to steam system energy efficiency improvements as part of corporate, utility, and government energy and air pollution initiatives. Key incentives include local utility rebates, tax incentives, and lowor no-cost steam system energy efficiency audits. Steam system energy efficiency not only makes sense from an environmental perspective, but also from an economic perspective. As of 2006, U.S. manufacturers spent $21 billion on externally purchased boiler fuels. The actual price tag of industrial steam is likely much higher; nearly one-half of U.S. boiler fuels are self-generated within plants in the form of waste gas, black liquor, wood wastes, and other byproducts. These byproduct fuels are not free, as they are generated from purchased materials and typically require further processing for efficient combustion. Reducing demand for boiler fuels can, therefore, help reduce operating costs and improve profit margins. While clearly justified, the historical focus on reducing energy use has overlooked an increasingly compelling benefit of steam system efficiency: namely, reduced water use. Compared to the many public and private incentives for industrial energy efficiency, there are surprisingly few external incentives for industrial water efficiency. One key barrier to such incentives is the lack of credible data on industrial water use, which, unlike data on energy use, are not compiled at the manufacturing industry or process level in regular national surveys. This dearth of data contributes to a general lack of awareness of the sources and scale of industrial water use within the engineering and policy communities, which limits broader attention to water efficiency beyond the plant floor. Another barrier to steam system water efficiency is that the cost of boiler water—and the associated chemicals required for its treatment—typically only represents a small fraction of boiler operating costs, which are dominated by the costs of fuel. However, as we discuss in this Perspective, U.S. industrial steam systems consume copious amount of water. It follows that steam systems are worth a closer look as a manufacturing water efficiency target. Several current trends suggest that water efficiency will play an increasingly prominent role in the financial and sustainability plans of U.S. manufacturers. Recent water stress due to droughts and rising water infrastructure costs have led to increased public water rates around the country. These conditions may worsen with a changing climate. An increasing number of manufacturers are reporting water use as an important environmental indicator in annual corporate sustainability reports, which raises both public awareness of and accountability for water efficiency. Many manufacturers are also being asked by their corporate customers for environmental “footprint” data as part of large-scale sustainable Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to E. Masanet at eric.masanet@northwestern.edu; M.E. Walker at mwalker9@hawk.iit.edu.

China is facing severe pressure on its water resources and water environments. Calculating the industrial water efficiency of each province is an important index for the central government to evaluate local governments. In the traditional water resources evaluation index, the industrial water use efficiency and pollutant discharge are evaluated separately. In this paper, we collected industrial input data, output data and pollutant discharge data with a four-stage data envelopment analysis to calculate China's industrial water use efficiency with and without considering pollutant discharge, and then analyzed the factors influencing the industrial water use efficiency. The results show that the eastern coastal provinces of China have the highest water use efficiency and are less affected by pollutant discharge than other provinces. The industrial water use efficiency of the central and western provinces is lower than that of the other provinces, and the industrial water use efficiency in the central provinces is greatly affected by pollutant discharge. Factor endowment, economic development level, scientific and technological progress, industrial structure, proportion of foreign investment, water consumption per 10000 yuan of value-added by industry, industrial sewage treatment capacity and educational investment have a significant influence on the industrial water use efficiency of China. We suggest that the government strengthen the construction of sewage plants and other related infrastructure in central provinces when conducting the industrial transfer of heavy polluting enterprises.

Low industrial water use efficiency has become a resource bottleneck to industrial development in China. The SBM-undesirable and meta-frontier models were used in combination with empirical data in 30 provinces in mainland China (Tibet excluded due to data missing from 1999 to 2013), to compare industrial water use efficiency in mainland China under meta-frontier and group-frontier, and explore the influencing factors. The empirical results of the study reveal that: (a) there is a large difference in the industrial water use efficiency between meta-frontier and group-frontier in mainland China, due to the heterogeneity in the levels of industrial water use technology; (b) given the low recycle rate of polluted industrial water, there is room for improvement in the industrial water use efficiency in the 30 provinces in mainland China. Further, the study finds that the current price of industrial water is distorted to some extent, failing to coordinate with the use of water resources. Policy implications indicate that industrial water use efficiency is not only related to technological heterogeneity in different regions, but also the control and treatment of industrial water pollution. Therefore, the current price of industrial water should be gradually raised. A scalar water pricing system as residential water could also be applied to industrial water.