Actual Emission Data Research Articles

The Impact of Green Innovation on Enterprise Green Economic Efficiency.

In the process of China's transformation from high-speed to high-quality development, the role of green innovation has gradually begun to receive attention. Using 2163 observations of 687 listed companies from 2016 to 2020, this paper examined whether green innovation can improve green economic efficiency. The study found that green innovation significantly reduces the green economic efficiency of enterprises. In the case of insufficient protection of innovation achievements, limited knowledge and technology accumulation, and the absence of enterprise engagement in heavily polluting production and operation activities, the negative impact of green innovation on their green economic efficiency is more significant. Moreover, upgraded production processes, a high degree of freedom of technology selection and high market competition can help alleviate the negative impact of green innovation on enterprises' green economic efficiency, and when the above three conditions are simultaneously met, green innovation significantly promotes the green economic efficiency of enterprises. The above findings are contradictory to the assumption of most literature intuitively. However, after a series of tests, this paper found that green innovation can still stimulate overall environmental and economic performance in some conditions. Starting from the microenterprise level and based on actual emissions data, this paper examines whether and how green innovation affects high-quality development. The findings are of great significance to academic research, policy formulation, and enterprise production and operation.

Use of STAX data in global-scale simulation of 133Xe atmospheric background

A global-scale simulation of the 133Xe atmospheric background is automated at the French National Data Center (NDC) for the purpose of categorizing the radionuclide measurements of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) International Monitoring System (IMS). These simulations take into account 133Xe releases from all known major industrial emitters in the world, compiled from the literature and described as constant values. Emission data measured directly at the stack of the Institute for Radio Elements (IRE), a medical isotope production facility located in Fleurus (Belgium), were implemented in the simulations with a time resolution of 15 minutes. This work discusses the contribution of real (measured) emissions to the prediction of the 133Xe atmospheric background at IMS noble gas stations and at a location near Paris, for which IMS-like 133Xe measurements were available. For the purpose of this study, simulations initiated with the IRE measured emissions were run in parallel to those with the a priori emissions used to date. The benefits of including actual emissions in the simulations were found as a function of the distance between the station and the source of the release. At the closest stations, i.e., near Paris (France) and at Schauinsland, Freiburg (Germany), respectively 250 and 400 km from Fleurus, the simulated activity concentrations differed by a factor greater than 2 more than one third of the time, and by a factor of more than 5 about 10% of the time. No significant or detectable differences were found beyond 1500–2000 km. Furthermore, at the Paris station, the timing of the measured peaks was better reproduced with the actual emission data. However, not all peak amplitudes were correctly reproduced even though the real emissions were used, highlighting the remaining uncertainties, primarily in the meteorological data and transport modeling.

A Study on the Improvement of Air Pollutant Permissible Discharge Standards in the Integrated Environmental Permission System

Objectives : Analysis of overseas cases, and evaluated feasibility of setting permissible discharge standards method in domestic integrated environmental permission system. Through the evaluation results, it is intended to improvement the method of setting permissible discharge standards.Methods : The method of setting permissible discharge standards in the United states, Germany and United kingdom were compared, and evaluated feasibility of the method was conducted by applying nitrogen oxide actual emission data. In addition, analyzed problems derived from the case of integrated permits and suggested solutions. Results and Discussion : It was confirmed that permissible discharge standards for pollutants were established by reflecting characteristics of country. As a result of evaluated feasibility of the permissible discharge standards setting method, when the criteria set by referring to overseas evaluation standards were applied rather than domestic evalution criteria, the number of stacks that required setting permissible discharge standard through discharge impact analysis tended to increase. Through this, it was confirmed that the method of setting permissible discharge standards in domestic system was not excessively strengthened. In standard modeling(AERMOD) of discharge impact anaysis, it was confirmed that topographical data and stack information had a great influence on calculation of process contribution.Conclusion In order to improve domestic integrated environmental permission system, it is necessary to consider reflecting effective stack height in AERMOD, setting the evaluation of ultrafine dust(PM-2.5) or Ozone(O3) with reference to the United States evaluation method or domestric environmental impact assessment evaluation method, applying a simplified analysis to company where the pollutants emitted have little effect on the air, applying ADJ_U * in order to prevent AERMOD pollutants from being overestimated at high concentrations when the atmosphere is stable and the wind speed is low.

Sustainable Policy Evaluation of Vehicle Exhaust Control—Empirical Data from China’s Air Pollution Control

With the increase of car ownership, mobile pollution has become an important source of air pollution, which makes it more difficult for China to control air pollution. In order to control mobile pollution from automobile exhaust, China has taken a series of comprehensive measures. The paper studies the emission reduction effect from the perspective of flow pollution and stock pollution. First of all, the paper uses the actual emission data of motor vehicles to study the emission reduction effect by gasoline and diesel vehicles. The results show that: (1) Fuel price, fuel tax (except diesel), and emission and gasoline standards have an emission reduction effect on gasoline vehicle exhaust control, while the restriction has no effect. (2) In gasoline cars, the emission reduction effect in the Middle East is more significant than in the West, and the effect in the West is better than that in the Middle East. (3) As for diesel vehicles, the effect of policy in the West is superior to the East. Further, the east is better than in the middle. Secondly, based on the actual emission data of Chinese motor vehicles, the paper simulates the change value of stock pollution from automobile exhaust under different policies, and concludes that the economic effect of policy depends on the ecological absorption rate and discount rate. When the net discount value NPV is positive, the government should do its best to interfere with the emission of automobile exhaust. When the net discount value NPV is negative, the government doesn’t have to interfere with the emission of automobile exhaust.

Model Established on Exhaust Emissions of Vehicle Based on Speed and Vehicle Specific Power

A diesel exhaust emission model of vehicle based on speed and vehicle specific power is proposed in this paper. The actual emission data of the vehicle measured in a city road is taking as the research object. After constructing the vehicle driving cycle, a clustering algorithm based on real-time vehicle specific power and emission-sharing rate is used to classify the similar driving states. The relationship between the average emission rate and driving parameters is established by the least-squares regression fitting, thus the micro emission model of the driving parameters and emissions of the vehicle is established. The results show that the prediction error of the exhaust emission rate model which established by the method proposed in this paper is less than 4% for the same vehicle. Within a certain accuracy range, the modeling method proposed in this paper can predict emissions preferably.

Numerical simulations of atmospheric dispersion of iodine-131 by different models.

Nowadays, several dispersion models are available to simulate the transport processes of air pollutants and toxic substances including radionuclides in the atmosphere. Reliability of atmospheric transport models has been demonstrated in several recent cases from local to global scale; however, very few actual emission data are available to evaluate model results in real-life cases. In this study, the atmospheric dispersion of 131I emitted to the atmosphere during an industrial process was simulated with different models, namely the WRF-Chem Eulerian online coupled model and the HYSPLIT and the RAPTOR Lagrangian models. Although only limited data of 131I detections has been available, the accuracy of modeled plume direction could be evaluated in complex late autumn weather situations. For the studied cases, the general reliability of models has been demonstrated. However, serious uncertainties arise related to low level inversions, above all in case of an emission event on 4 November 2011, when an important wind shear caused a significant difference between simulated and real transport directions. Results underline the importance of prudent interpretation of dispersion model results and the identification of weather conditions with a potential to cause large model errors.

Environmental impacts of ethylene production from diverse feedstocks and energy sources

Quantitative cradle-to-gate environmental impacts for ethylene production from naphtha (petroleum crude), ethane (natural gas) and ethanol (corn-based) are predicted using GaBi® software. A comparison reveals that the majority of the predicted environmental impacts for these feedstocks fall within the same order of magnitude. Soil and water pollution associated with corn-based ethylene are however much higher. The main causative factor for greenhouse gas emissions, acidification and air pollution is the burning of fossil-based fuel for agricultural operations, production of fertilizers and pesticides needed for cultivation (in the case of ethanol), ocean-based transportation (for naphtha) and the chemical processing steps (for all feedstocks). An assessment of the environmental impacts of different energy sources (coal, natural gas and fuel oil) reveals almost similar carbon footprints for all the fossil fuels used to produce a given quantity of energy. For most of the environmental impact categories, the GaBi® software reliably predicts the qualitative trends. The predicted emissions agree well with the actual emissions data reported by a coal-based power plant (Lawrence Energy Center, Lawrence, KS) and a natural gas-based power plant (Astoria Generating Station, Queens, NY) to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The analysis shows that for ethylene production, fuel burning at the power plant to produce energy is by far the dominant source (78–93 % depending on the fuel source) of adverse environmental impacts.

Further Validation of Artificial Neural Network-Based Emissions Simulation Models for Conventional and Hybrid Electric Vehicles

With the advent of hybrid electric vehicles, computer-based vehicle simulation becomes more useful to the engineer and designer trying to optimize the complex combination of control strategy, power plant, drive train, vehicle, and driving conditions. With the desire to incorporate emissions as a design criterion, researchers at West Virginia University have developed artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. The ANN models were trained on engine and exhaust emissions data collected from transient dynamometer tests of heavy-duty diesel engines then used to predict emissions based on engine speed and torque data from simulated operation of a tractor truck and hybrid electric bus. Simulated vehicle operation was performed with the ADVISOR software package. Predicted emissions (carbon dioxide [CO2] and oxides of nitrogen [NOx]) were then compared with actual emissions data collected from chassis dynamometer tests of similar vehicles. This paper expands on previous research to include different driving cycles for the hybrid electric bus and varying weights of the conventional truck. Results showed that different hybrid control strategies had a significant effect on engine behavior (and, thus, emissions) and may affect emissions during different driving cycles. The ANN models underpredicted emissions of CO2 and NOx in the case of a class-8 truck but were more accurate as the truck weight increased.

Transfer of dioxin risk between nine major municipal waste incinerators in Taiwan

The objective of this study was to assess site-specific carcinogenic risks of incinerator-emitted dioxins and risk transfers among the areas covered by nine municipal incinerators in Taiwan. We used actual emission data and the industrial source complex short-term model (ISCST3) to determine the dioxin impact areas within the 8×8-km simulation regions surrounding the incinerators. We then used multimedia model to estimate cancer risks in individual impact areas for two exposure scenarios, which were sufficient (SFP) and insufficient food production (IFP) for residents' consumption in each impact area. We also used information of food supply and consumption between impact areas to calculate risk transfers among these nine incinerators. We found that dioxins' carcinogenic risks ranged from 1.4×10 −8 (Incinerator F) to 7.1×10 −5 (Incinerator A) for the nine incinerators under the exposure scenario of SFP, and ranged from 8.7×10 −8 (Incinerator D) to 1.1×10 −6 (Incinerator E) under the exposure scenario of IFP. The food ingestion was the main exposure pathway, which accounted for 64–99% of total dioxin risks among nine impact areas. For the nine major food items consumed by residents in the impact areas, eggs (14–35%) and chicken (11–26%) were two main routes of dioxin exposure in the SFP scenario, while chicken (8–78%) and vegetables (0.2–81%) were two main routes of dioxin exposure in the IFP scenario. Significant risks of dioxins were transferred among incinerators, which accounted for up to 88% among the incinerators. Incinerator E was the major risk-exporting source to six Incinerators C, D, F, G, H, and I. For these six incinerators, Incinerator E accounted for their 51–88% imported risks. We concluded that risk transfers among incinerators through routes of food consumption should be considered in assessing health risks associated with incinerator-emitted dioxins in Taiwan. We should place high priority on implementing control measures to lower dioxin emissions in important food-exporting areas like Incinerator E. We should also emphasize analyzing dioxin contents in eggs, chicken, and vegetables in order to improve dioxin-related health risk assessments in the future.

Clarifying the SF 5 CF 3 Record

W. T. Sturges and colleagues report on the identification of SF5CF3 in the atmosphere and point out that this compound could be an important greenhouse gas (Reports, “A potent greenhouse gas identified in the atmosphere: SF5CF3,” 28 Jul., p. [611][1]). The identification is based on the mass spectrum of this compound, which the authors list as “68.995 (CF3+), 88.967 (SF3+), and 126.964 (SF5CF3+).” This latter assignment is wrong: the ion at the mass-to-charge ratio ( m/z ) of 126.964 is due to SF5+. This mistake may be just a typographical error, but it could be misleading by suggesting that a molecular ion for this molecule has been observed, which it has not. Incidentally, contrary to the authors' statement, a library mass spectrum for SF5CF3 is available in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Mass Spectral Library (version 1.6). # Clarifying the SF5CF3 Record {#article-title-2} Sturges et al . indicate in their report an uncertainty as to the origin of SF5CF3. We know that one source of this compound is as a by-product of the manufacture of certain 3M fluorochemicals. The authors correctly suggest that concentrations of SF5CF3 detected in the atmosphere are so small as to be a minor contributor to overall radiative forcing. Despite this, they appropriately call attention to the prudence of limiting releases of SF5CF3. In fact, 3M had already implemented a comprehensive program to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions, including SF5CF3, from company operations. Since 1995, the company has reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40%, and additional reductions, on the order of 50% or more, are planned over the next 1 to 5 years. # Clarifying the SF5CF3 Record {#article-title-3} We thank Hites for noting the typographical error. Mass 126.964 is indeed attributable to the SF5+ ion, not SF5CF3+ as stated in our report ([1][2]). The molecular ion is not formed. It is true that SF5CF3 now appears in the latest version of the NIST Mass Spectral Library (version 1.6), but this version was not supported on our particular instrument at the time of the study. We can, however, confirm an excellent match between the spectrum we obtained from the pure compound and that given in the updated NIST library (see the [figure][3]). We remain confident in our identification of SF5CF3 in the atmosphere, as is also illustrated in the figure. ![Figure][4] Mass spectrum ( m/z 50 to 200) of SF5CF3. ( A ) Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) measurements by this group (1) and ( B ) NIST Mass Spectral Library Version 1.6d entry 23164. The ions marked 1 to 3 correspond to CF3+, SF3+, and SF5+, respectively. The ion SF4+ ( m / z 107.966) is also observed at low abundance. The inset shows the GC-MS analysis of 200 standard cubic centimeters per minute of “clean” ambient air [Colorado Mountains, collected in 1994 ([1][2])] showing peaks of m / z corresponding to the same ions (1 to 3) in the traces from the bottom to top, respectively, at the retention time expected for SF5CF3. Regarding the letter from Santoro of 3M, he suggests a plausible origin of SF5CF3 in the atmosphere, presumably from the electrochemical fluorination production of widely used intermediates and products such as trifluoromethanesulfonic (“triflic”) acid and fluorosurfactants. This process has been in use since the late 1950s, which fits our observations of detectable SF5CF3 in air samples dating from the 1960s. What is not clear, however, is whether the amounts released by electrochemical fluorination can account for the year-on-year rise in emissions to a current rate of 270 metric tons per year. In the absence of actual emission data, the possibility of other sources cannot be ruled out. Efforts by private companies such as 3M to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions are, however, to be commended. 1. [↵][5]1. W. T. Sturges 2. et al. , Science 289, 611 (2000). [OpenUrl][6][Abstract/FREE Full Text][7] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.289.5479.611 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #F1 [4]: pending:yes [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [6]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DScience%26rft.stitle%253DScience%26rft.issn%253D0036-8075%26rft.aulast%253DSturges%26rft.auinit1%253DW.%2BT.%26rft.volume%253D289%26rft.issue%253D5479%26rft.spage%253D611%26rft.epage%253D613%26rft.atitle%253DA%2BPotent%2BGreenhouse%2BGas%2BIdentified%2Bin%2Bthe%2BAtmosphere%253A%2BSF5CF3%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1126%252Fscience.289.5479.611%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F10915622%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [7]: /lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6Mzoic2NpIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjEyOiIyODkvNTQ3OS82MTEiO3M6NDoiYXRvbSI7czoyMjoiL3NjaS8yOTAvNTQ5My85MzUuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9

Dispersion modelling of dioxin releases from the waste incinerator at Avonmouth, Bristol, UK

A modified Gaussian atmospheric dispersion model, Industrial Source Complex (ISCST3), is used to estimate toxic equivalent ground level concentrations (GLC) of dioxins emitted from the Avonmouth municipal waste incinerator (MWI) in Bristol, UK. The sensitivity of the predicted GLC to various vapour and particle partitioning scenarios is reported. Predictions incorporating local terrain and actual emission data are used to estimate the mean incremental intake of dioxin due to MWI operation for local residents, through an existing multi-pathway human exposure model. Results are compared with predictions of incremental intake for a generalised MWI. The mean incremental dioxin intake for a hypothetical maximum exposed individual (HMEI) is shown to be up to 46.5% of the background intake compared to only 1.14% for the generalised MWI scenario. This indicates that the use of local terrain and emission data in MWI dispersion modelling is crucial for health risk assessments associated with human dioxin intake, especially in view of the current debate over the tolerable daily intake for dioxins.

Estimation of multimedia environmental contamination of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD emissions from municipal waste incinerators

Abstract2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo–p–dioxin (2,3,7,8–TCDD) is known to be most toxic among congeners of polychlorinated dibenzo–p–dioxins (CDD), and is known to cause cancer to humans upon prolonged exposure—even at extremely low dosag. The municipal waste incinerator is one of the combustion devices where literature test result have shown the presence of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD or CDDs in flue gas or ash. A recent report compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [13] also lists other combustion devices such as smelters, sewage sludge incinerators, wire reclamation incinerators, and drum and barrel furnaces. In addition, Sheffield [11] mentions forest fires and several types of chemical production facilities as sources. Des rosier and Lee [2] cite PCB transformer fires as a potential source of 2,3,7,8–TCDD formation. The primary focus of this paper is to present the potential of environmental contamination due to emissions of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD and disposal of fly ash generated from the incineration of municipal waste. Example assessments for municipal incinerators presented in this paper are based on presently available estimation techniques and hence represent estimates for environmental concentrations. exposures and health risks. Although actual emission data are used, uncertainties associated with the estimates cannot be fully assessed until these estimates are compared with some monitoring data, especially concerning environmental concentrations related to indirect exposure pathways.