Carbon Abatement Technologies Research Articles

Determinants and their spatial heterogeneity of carbon emissions in resource-based cities, China

Global climate change associated with increased carbon emissions has become a global concern. Resource-based cities, by estimations, have emerged as major contributors to carbon emissions, accounting for approximately one-third of the national total. This underscores their pivotal role in the pursuit of carbon neutrality goals. Despite this, resource-based cities have long been neglected in current climate change mitigation policy discussions. Accordingly, using exploratory spatial data analysis and Geographical Weighted Regression method, this study investigates the determinants of carbon emissions and their spatial pattern in 113 resource-based cities in China. It can be concluded that: (1) The proportion of carbon emissions from resource-based cities in the national total has shown a marginal increase between 2003 and 2017, and the emissions from these cities have not yet reached their peak. (2) A relatively stable spatial pattern of “northeast high, southwest low” characterizes carbon emissions in resource-based cities, displaying significant spatial autocorrelation. (3) Population size, economic development level, carbon abatement technology, and the proportion of resource-based industries all contribute to the increase in carbon emissions in these cities, with carbon abatement technology playing a predominant role. (4) There is a spatial variation in the strength of the effects of the various influences.

Advancing COP26 climate goals: Leveraging energy innovation, governance readiness, and socio-economic factors for enhanced climate resilience and sustainability

Climate change adaptation and mitigation remain critical to achieving sustainable development while reducing climate vulnerability, particularly among climate-exposed and sensitive regions. Yet, achieving a balance between climate-resilience pathways, high economic productivity, high human development, and energy efficiency appears complex, leading to potential trade-offs. Here, we examine the overarching effect of the diversified energy portfolio, socio-economic drivers, and governance adaptation readiness on Climate change vulnerability across 212 economies. Contrary to the poor conventional panel techniques reported in the existing literature, we employ novel machine learning and dynamic panel estimation techniques that control for chaos, nonlinearity, mutual coupling, and heterogeneity in dynamic systems. The convergent cross-mapping causality technique reveals mutual coupling effects between energy portfolio, governance readiness, socio-economic drivers, and climate change vulnerability. The rapidly increasing population and increasing demand for resources under the business-as-usual society and economic structure that normalizes unsustainable development pathways due to weak governance structures create ineffective climate-resilient policies that lead to unabated emissions with consequences on climate change. The effect of social and governance readiness leads the transformation process to attain sustainable development. Thus, high social and governance readiness spurs climate resilience through climate change adaptation and mitigation to achieve sustainable development. Alternative (renewables) and nuclear energy have displacement effects on fossil fuels, yet, the magnitude of displacement is not large enough to replace future fossil fuel consumption. Conversely, a low-carbon future is still attainable by replacing the fossil energy portfolio with more natural gas and carbon-abatement technologies. Our study demonstrates that energy innovations are useful climate-resilience pathways that lessen climate change vulnerability.

Product line design and low-carbon investment strategies with consumer environmental concern

As environmental consciousness among consumers grows, firms are recognizing the importance of adopting carbon abatement technology as a crucial strategy to meet the rising demand for low-carbon products. Our study specifically examines the influence of a low-carbon investment strategy on a firm’s product line design, aiming to better align with consumer needs. Considering the impact of low-carbon investments and consumer environmental concern on the product line design has not been adequately examined in previous research. To fill this gap in research, our study proposes a model of a firm that designs the product line while determining the price and quality of each product. Our findings indicate that the single-product strategy is strictly inferior to the product line strategy when considering the low-carbon investment. This implies that the conventional wisdom that either the single-product strategy or the product line strategy could be an equilibrium strategy does not hold. Intuitively, the firm’s low-carbon investment in a specific product segment solely impacts the corresponding segment’s product quality and pricing decisions. While this intuition holds for the low-carbon investment strategy solely targeting high-end products, it does not apply when the low-carbon investment strategy applies solely to low-end products. Furthermore, our results show that the firm adopts the low-carbon investment strategy and traditional (without low-carbon investment) strategy when consumer environmental concern is relatively high and low, respectively. Finally, our results show that any of the four strategies (the traditional strategy and the low-carbon investment strategies for only low-end products, only high-end products, and both segments) could be optimal, depending on certain conditions, in the product line scenario.

Dynamic analysis of a low-carbon maritime supply chain considering government policies and social preferences

With the goal of achieving carbon peak and neutrality, the government and enterprises are trying their best to speed up the decarbonization process in the shipping industry. To analyze the long-term game behaviors of a port, a shipping company, and a forwarder under simultaneous effects of government policies and social preferences, this paper considers a three-echelon maritime supply chain with carbon abatement investment and low-carbon service investment (LCMSC). We focus on constructing a dynamic Stackelberg game model with heterogeneous expectations. Based on nonlinear dynamics theory, the dynamic evolution of the game and the influences of government policies, social preferences, and cost-sharing behaviors are investigated. The results indicate that: (1) Bifurcations and chaos caused by dynamic adjustment of the port and the shipping company will lead to the disorder of the pricing system and the effect of chaos on the development trend of expected profits and social welfare varies under different paths of the LCMSC system into chaos. (2) Government subsidies for carbon abatement technology not only significantly improve greenness and expected profits of all parties, but also improve the stability of the LCMSC system. The carbon emission quota for the port has nothing to do with LCMSC members' optimal strategy and the evolution of the LCMSC system's stability. However, it indirectly affects the decision strategy of multiple stakeholders through the variation of the carbon price. (3) Excessive fairness concerns and the port's risk-aversion awareness have negative impacts on greenness, social welfare and the system's stability, while high risk-aversion awareness of the shipping company and the forwarder play opposite roles. (4) The shipping company can promote a tripartite-wins situation for LCMSC and improve the stability of decision-making by appropriately sharing the carbon abatement cost of the port. This study expands the application scenario of nonlinear dynamics theory in the LCMSC. It also provides theoretical guides for the government to formulate policies to encourage the promotion of green shipping.

Regional disparities and drivers of carbon emissions in China: A temporal-spatial production-theoretical decomposition analysis.

Given the increasing interest in keeping global warming below 1.5°C, carbon emissions reduction has become a hot topic. However, the regional disparities and the driving factors were not paid enough attention. This article established an indicator to describe the catch-up effort of different regions and proposed a temporal-spatial production-theoretical decomposition model using meta-frontier and global-frontier to capture the driving forces of the catch-up effort of different provinces to benchmarking provinces. The new model was applied to analyze China's regional carbon emissions during 2007 to 2018. The main findings from the empirical study are: (1) Overall, the regional carbon emissions and their spatial variation kept increasing during the study period. (2) Economic activity, potential carbon factor, carbon-abatement technology efficiency and regional carbon-abatement technology gap were the main drivers. (3) The improvement efforts of carbon-abatement, energy-saving technical efficiency, and potential energy intensity were the dominant factors inhibiting the growth of carbon emissions. (4) The improvement efforts of advanced technology and potential energy intensity helped to reduce the regional gaps, but their impacts varied considerably across regions in China.

Adoption strategies of carbon abatement technologies in the maritime supply chain: impact of demand information sharing

ABSTRACT With the increasing pressure of global climate change, the government and enterprises are actively taking measures to accelerate emission reduction in the shipping industry. To analyse the optimal adoption strategies of carbon abatement technologies for enterprises in a turbulent environment under the cap-and-trade scheme, we construct the Stackelberg game model in the maritime supply chain and conduct a comparative analysis of profits and carbon emissions to explore the interaction between information sharing and technology adoption. The results show: (1) the impact of information sharing on profits varies under different technological conditions, and the optimal technology adoption will change with carbon price; (2) information sharing will not change total carbon emissions but significantly reduce wasted carbon emissions; (3) considering consumer's green preference, information sharing can benefit the port and the shipping company simultaneously, forming a win–win situation. This study guides maritime supply chain members in technology adoption under market uncertainty.

Exploring CO2 Bio-Mitigation via a Biophotocatalytic/Biomagnetic System for Wastewater Treatment and Biogas Production

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels have led industries to seek cheaper carbon abatement technologies to mitigate environmental pollution. Herein, the effect of a magnetic photocatalyst (Fe-TiO2) on biogas production in anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastewater was investigated with three bioreactors coupled with UV-light (18 W). Three experimental setups defined as the control (AD system with no Fe-TiO2), biophotoreactor (BP), and biophotomagnetic (BPM) systems were operated at a mesophilic temperature (35 ± 5 °C) for a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 30 days. The control system (ADs) had no Fe-TiO2 additives. The BPMs with 2 g Fe-TiO2 were exposed to a magnetic field, whereas the BPs were not. The removal rate of the chemical oxygen demand (COD), volatile solids (VS), and total solids (TS), together with biogas production and composition were monitored for each reactor. The degree of degradation of 75% COD was observed for the BPMs at a pH of 6.5 followed by the BPs (65% COD) and the ADs (45% COD). The results showed that the rate of degradation of COD had a direct correlation with the cumulative biogas production of the BPMs (1330 mL/d) > BPs (1125 mL/d) > AD (625 mL/d). This finding supports the use of biophotomagnetic systems (BPMs) in wastewater treatment for resource recovery and CO2 reduction (0.64 kg CO2/L) as an eco-friendly technology.

Centralized power generation with carbon capture on decommissioned offshore petroleum platforms

The existing cogeneration systems on offshore petroleum platforms face clashing targets intrinsic to offshore applications, namely, weight, area, cost and efficiency. Moreover, the prolonged offdesign operating conditions during their lifetime further increase the inefficiencies, leading to increased environmental impact. Thus, in this work, centralized power stations are designed for supplying the electricity required by various identical floating production, storage and offloading units (FPSOs) in the offshore oil and gas sector. This approach aims to increase the performance and alleviate the environmental burden that the conventional utility systems are responsible for by integrating carbon abatement technologies. Since these modifications bring about an increase in the initial investment cost and the financial feasibility of the system, a techno-economic assessment and optimization process is necessary in order to determine the optimal configuration of the power hubs. To this end, a combined thermodynamic, environmental and economic analysis, together with space and weight allowance quantification is performed. The use of adapted and decommissioned FPSOs for installing the power hub is a novel proposal that reduces the initial investment cost. As a result, the advanced utility systems provide higher overall power generation efficiencies (above 10 percentage points) compared to existing simple cycle gas turbine systems, even at fourfold lower emissions. The incremental economic analysis has found that, for moderate carbon taxations (> 40 USD/tCO2), the advanced power generation systems may economically outperform the conventional offshore power plants. Lastly, a delay in entry of operation between FPSOs of up to 4 years may reduce the investment cost by 50%, while maintains the same thermodynamic performance.

Optimal freshness and carbon abatement decisions in a two-echelon cold chain

Due to both carbon policy and consumer environmental awareness, the large amount of carbon emissions generated while keeping deteriorating products fresh has attracted attention. In particular, under international competition, both freshness and environmental friendliness have significant effects on the market demand for deteriorating products. Furthermore, considering harmonious economic and environmental development, many recent studies take social welfare as the optimization goal. However, due to the trade-offs between the freshness and environmental friendliness of deteriorating products, how should the government formulate a reasonable carbon policy to guide cold chain members to make optimal decisions on freshness-keeping efforts and carbon abatement to improve social welfare and reduce carbon emissions? Against this backdrop, in this study, considering cap-and-trade regulations and consumers’ preference for low-carbon fresh products, we develop tripartite game models consisting of the government, one emission-dependent supplier and one retailer in a two-echelon cold chain system. Two models are developed to compare the optimal decisions under two scenarios: when the supplier purchases carbon quotas and when the supplier adopts carbon abatement technology. Conducting theoretical analysis and numerical experiments, we obtain the following main insights: (1) The adoption of carbon abatement technologies does not always create greater social welfare, and there is a boundary between the two scenarios. (2) Production costs and freshness-keeping costs have the greatest influence on social welfare and unit carbon emissions. (3) The government should implement a looser carbon policy for deteriorating products with higher price elasticity. (4) The most effective way to simultaneously improve social welfare and reduce total carbon emissions is to increase consumer environmental awareness and reduce the abatement cost exponent.

Electricity supply chain coordination with carbon abatement technology investment under the benchmarking mechanism

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>The introduction of the benchmarking mechanism into the electricity industry has influenced whether utility firms choose to invest in carbon abatement technology. This study presents an electricity supply chain that includes a utility firm as the leader and a retailer as the follower to decide on the electricity price and carbon abatement technology investment. The study discusses the impact of the benchmarking mechanism on the decision-making of the electricity supply chain enterprises. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Investing in carbon abatement technology increased electricity demand, customer surplus, and profits of the electricity supply chain enterprises. (2) Carbon abatement technology investment and profits of the supply chain enterprises increased with the unit carbon quota. (3) A revenue-sharing and cost-sharing contract could be used to coordinate the electricity supply chain.</p>

Development of Biomass Gasification Technology with Fluidized-Bed Reactors for Enhancing Hydrogen Generation: Part I, Hydrodynamic Characterization of Dual Fluidized-Bed Gasifiers

Various means for enhancing hydrogen content in the syngas from gasification of solid biomass in fluidized-bed reactors were investigated in this study. Steam or oxygen-rich gas can be supplied as gasification medium, to improve the syngas characteristics. Alternatively, a so-called “indirect gasification technology” realizes the thermo-chemical conversion processes in dual reactors, respectively, for combustion and gasification, where gaseous streams in between are separated while solid materials are circulated through. Hence, with air as oxidant for combustion this system features the advantage of producing nearly nitrogen-free syngas. Baseline experiments were firstly carried out to identify performance features; then, parametric studies were conducted and positive trends for enhancing hydrogen generation via biomass gasification were revealed. Moreover, hydrodynamic characteristics in dual reactors were comprehensively envisaged in the cold-flow models to facilitate subsequent investigation into thermo-chemical processes. The experimental results indicated that the circulation mass of the bed material driven by the operating air exceeded the design value, which gave a comfortable safety factor of the engineering design. In addition, the average pressure distribution measured by the cyclic operation of the system was similar to that of the published literature. Based on the experimental results of the cold model, the suggestions of the operating tests in the hot model were addressed. Further efforts will be pursued to establish databases for clean energy and carbon abatement technologies.

Determinants of carbon emissions in ‘Belt and Road initiative’ countries: A production technology perspective

Little attention has been given to the carbon emissions issues of ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ countries although most countries have set explicit targets for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. Taking advantage of the production theory, distance function, and data envelopment analysis, we employed a production-theoretical decomposition analysis to decompose the total carbon dioxide emission changes of the “Belt and Road Initiatives” countries from 2000 to 2014 into the contribution of seven driving factors and focused particularly on a production technology perspective. The main findings are as follows: (1) the economic development as proxied by the gross domestic product and the potential carbon emissions related to energy consumption were the two most important factors affecting carbon emission growth. The driving factor values for these two factors were 1.989 and 1.37. The average CO2 emissions of the “Belt and Road Initiatives” countries in 2014 were 1.425 times larger than those in 2000. (2) The carbon abatement technology changes and potential energy intensity changes were the two main inhibiting factors return with factor values of 0.775 and 0.793. Moreover, we divided all countries into four groups, namely China and three other groups based on the income level. The results showed that the three groups had similar characteristics in terms of the carbon abatement technology effect and the carbon dioxide abatement technological efficiency, whereas China exhibited larger fluctuations. The promoting effect of economic development is significantly higher in China than in the other three groups. In addition, this promoting effect exhibited a decrease over time, indicating a decoupling between economic development and CO2 emissions.

Study on the enhancement of hydrogen generation via biomass gasification in fluidizedbed reactors

In this study, solid biomass is gasified in fluidized-bed reactors, to investigate the effect of various means on syngas composition, especially for enhancing hydrogen content in the production gas. Conventionally, air is supplied to the reactor as gasification medium, which inevitably results in a high nitrogen content in the syngas. Alternatively, steam or oxygen-rich gas can be supplied to improve the syngas characteristics. On the other hand, a so-called “indirect gasification technology” realizes the whole conversion processes in dual reactors, for combustion and gasification, respectively; moreover, solid materials are circulated through two reactors, while gaseous streams in between are separated from each other. Hence, this system features the advantage of producing near nitrogen-free syngas in the gasifier, with air as oxidant in the combustor. Baseline experiments with various operating parameters, including air equivalence ratio (ER) and temperature, were firstly performed in a 30 kWth bubbling fluidized-bed gasifier; then, trial tests were conducted with the aforementioned operational and constructional factors. The preliminary test data show positive trends for the enhancement of hydrogen generation via biomass gasification. Further efforts will be pursued to establish a data base, which would be beneficial to extensive researches on clean energy and carbon abatement technologies.

Environmental production and productivity growth: evidence from european paper and pulp manufacturing

The production and manufacturing sector is one of the primary factors that affects the environment, which has been a very important topic of recent studies. Many approaches are employed to reduce the impact of production on the environment. More recently, carbon-abatement technology and activities have been introduced into the production processes to reduce carbon emissions, such as the implementation of emission trading programs in many industrial sectors, including the paper and pulp sector. Nevertheless, the costs of abatement activities will result in a certain level of sacrifice in productivity growth, when the inputs are reallocated from good output production to abatement activities to maintain bad output under the regulatory limit. However, how and the extent to which such technology will affect productivity remain unclear. Therefore, it is worth investigating the opportunity cost of introducing such technology. In this paper, we offer new empirical evidence by studying panel data on 17 EU member states from 1995 to 2006. Productivity changes are calculated using a data envelopment directional distance function with and without adapting the carbon-abatement technology in the paper and pulp production. The results support our concern about the potential opportunity cost of introducing carbon-abatement technology, which leads to a decline in productivity growth. In addition, industrial production is not operating efficiently; on average it moves further away from the efficient production frontier over time.

Efficient Hydrogen-Dependent Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Escherichia coli

SummaryHydrogen-dependent reduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid offers a promising route to greenhouse gas sequestration, carbon abatement technologies, hydrogen transport and storage, and the sustainable generation of renewable chemical feedstocks [1]. The most common approach to performing direct hydrogenation of CO2 to formate is to use chemical catalysts in homogeneous or heterogeneous reactions [2]. An alternative approach is to use the ability of living organisms to perform this reaction biologically. However, although CO2 fixation pathways are widely distributed in nature, only a few enzymes have been described that have the ability to perform the direct hydrogenation of CO2 [3, 4, 5]. The formate hydrogenlyase (FHL) enzyme from Escherichia coli normally oxidizes formic acid to carbon dioxide and couples that reaction directly to the reduction of protons to molecular hydrogen [6]. In this work, the reverse reaction of FHL is unlocked. It is established that FHL can operate as a highly efficient hydrogen-dependent carbon dioxide reductase when gaseous CO2 and H2 are placed under pressure (up to 10 bar). Using intact whole cells, the pressurized system was observed to rapidly convert 100% of gaseous CO2 to formic acid, and >500 mM formate was observed to accumulate in solution. Harnessing the reverse reaction has the potential to allow the versatile E. coli system to be employed as an exciting new carbon capture technology or as a cell factory dedicated to formic acid production, which is a commodity in itself as well as a feedstock for the synthesis of other valued chemicals.

Capturing CO2 from cement plants: A priority for reducing CO2 emissions in China

CCS (carbon capture and storage) plays an indispensable role in the technology roadmap of CO2 emissions control for China as a coal-dependent country. China is the world's largest cement producer, and capturing CO2 from China's cement production should be a critical component of the overall strategy for reducing carbon emissions. In this study, we investigate the roles of the three carbon abatement technologies, i.e., energy efficiency, alternative energy, and CCS, in China's CO2 reduction strategy. We examine the potential contribution of implementing CCS in China's cement production facilities by establishing three emission scenarios, and assess the capture cost of three capture schemes. The results show that CCS could reduce 57% of emissions from this industry by 2030, and the cost of capturing CO2 from cement production is 5–20% lower relative to that of coal-fired power generation depending on the different capture technologies implemented. Here is still an urgent need to accelerate the implementation of an industrial pilot and demonstration in China. To facilitate the practical implementation application process and increase the impetus for investment, related climate regulations and market designs must be completed.

The effect of providing details to the model of a geological structure on the assessment of CO₂ storage capacity

Massive emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere are the most direct reason causing global warming and climate change, so more and more countries are starting to focus on carbon abatement technologies. In recent years, the method GCS (Geological Carbon Storage), injecting the CO2 in a supercritical state underground for storage, is considered the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Saline aquifers are given special attention because of its huge amount of storage and, therefore, a deep saline aquifer is the best choice for the storage of CO2. Exemplified by the well-explored Konary structure in the Polish Lowlands, results of assessments of CO2 storage capacity are compared for three cases: (1) a simplified formula based on averaged geological and reservoir parameters and (2) a model of the structure based on averaged geological and reservoir parameters (homogeneous model) and (3) a model of the structure with more detailed geological data (including those on clay interbeds in the sandstone series of the reservoir horizon – heterogeneous model). This allows the estimation of how providing of details of geological and reservoir data, introduced into the model, can affect the ability of CO2 migration within a reservoir horizon intended for CO2 storage, and, consequently, also obtain a more accurate assessment of the capacity that the structure is capable of attaining.

A Study on Cat with a Case Study

The climatic change that has caught everyone’s attention requires steps to mitigate it. One such effective method is Carbon Abatement Technology (CAT). In particular this report examines the approach of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) of CAT strategy to abate the carbon in form of carbon di-oxide. The seminar involves a detailed description of the process involved in the Carbon Abatement Technology and the methods. This method can be applied to the industries from where mass carbon is produced as CO2. A case study on application of CCS to the industries is done.

Competing uses for China's straw: the economic and carbon abatement potential of biochar

AbstractChina is under pressure to improve its agricultural productivity to keep up with the demands of a growing population with increasingly resource‐intensive diets. This productivity improvement must occur against a backdrop of carbon intensity reduction targets, and a highly fragmented, nutrient‐inefficient farming system. Moreover, the Chinese government increasingly recognizes the need to rationalize the management of the 800 million tonnes of agricultural crop straw that China produces each year, up to 40% of which is burned in‐field as a waste. Biochar produced from these residues and applied to land could contribute to China's agricultural productivity, resource use efficiency and carbon reduction goals. However competing uses for China's straw residues are rapidly emerging, particularly from bioenergy generation. Therefore it is important to understand the relative economic viability and carbon abatement potential of directing agricultural residues to biochar rather than bioenergy. Using cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) and life‐cycle analysis (LCA), this paper therefore compares the economic viability and carbon abatement potential of biochar production via pyrolysis, with that of bioenergy production via briquetting and gasification. Straw reincorporation and in‐field straw burning are used as baseline scenarios. We find that briquetting straw for heat energy is the most cost‐effective carbon abatement technology, requiring a subsidy of $7 MgCO2e−1 abated. However China's current bioelectricity subsidy scheme makes gasification (NPV $12.6 million) more financially attractive for investors than both briquetting (NPV $7.34 million), and pyrolysis ($−1.84 million). The direct carbon abatement potential of pyrolysis (1.06 MgCO2e per odt straw) is also lower than that of briquetting (1.35 MgCO2e per odt straw) and gasification (1.16 MgCO2e per odt straw). However indirect carbon abatement processes arising from biochar application could significantly improve the carbon abatement potential of the pyrolysis scenario. Likewise, increasing the agronomic value of biochar is essential for the pyrolysis scenario to compete as an economically viable, cost‐effective mitigation technology.

CCS technology development in China: Status, problems and countermeasures—Based on SWOT analysis

Abstract Currently, the energy structure with coal is given priority to in China. This situation would not change in a short time which results in massive CO2 emissions and increased pressure to natural environment. Carbon capture and storage technology (known as CCS) is a carbon abatement technology that separates CO2 from industrial production or energy conversion, transports to the storage site after compression, and injects to the deep underground to make long-term isolation from the atmosphere. This technology achieves zero emission during fossil energy extraction and conversion, so the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regarded it as one of the effective methods reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. First, based on the development status of CCS in China, in terms of policies, technology research and CCS projects are described. SWOT is an analysis method that analyses objects all-around from four main aspects of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. By SWOT, this paper focuses on analyzing the development environment currently in order to find the main stimulatives and obstacles and confirm the feasibility of CCS development in China. Finally, recommendations are proposed addressing the problems and obstacles. The results show that CCS is an effective way to reduce future emissions in China, as with the huge market, and the general support by Chinese government and green groups. However, relevant departments should strengthen economic and policy support at the same time.