Cleaner Production Audit Research Articles

Novel Evaluation Method for Cleaner Production Audit in Industrial Parks: Case of a Park in Central China

With respect to peak carbon and carbon neutrality, China’s economic structure is developing towards low carbonization, circulation, and cleanliness. There is an urgent need to expand the scope of cleaner production audits, improve cleaner production efficiency, and promote cleaner production through regional coordination. The 14th Five-Year National Cleaner Production Implementation Plan proposed selecting 100 parks or industrial clusters to conduct an overall cleaner production audit innovation pilot. To promote the coordinated development of cleaner production areas, this study constructed a set of cleaner production index systems for industrial parks, established an evaluation model based on the binary semantic evaluation method, and selected an industrial park in central China as an audit pilot. The binary group θ1=(2, −0.1084) of the rating results was determined to be a cleaner production park. Based on the evaluation results, the clean production potential of the park was analyzed, and suggestions for clean production were put forward. Sixteen representative enterprises in the park were selected to build twenty-one ecological chains, providing reasonable suggestions for constructing a systematic and circular enterprise symbiosis network.

To pick (or not to pick) the high-hanging fruits: Cleaner production audits and firm total factor energy efficiency

The “low-hanging fruits” measures that easily and quickly reduced pollution and energy intensity over the past decades are now giving rise to issues. Cleaner production may provide new opportunities to gain the “high-hanging fruits”—more challenging or costly actions that have greater environmental and energy benefits but require advanced technologies or management for implementation. This study provides empirical evidence on the effects of cleaner production audits (CPAs) on Chinese manufacturing firms' total factor energy efficiency (TFEE), whose enhancement synergizes climate mitigation and green productivity growth. The study analyzes the effects of CPAs by employing a staggered difference-in-difference strategy combined with propensity score matching to compare samples of treated and untreated industrial firms for the period of 2000–2014. The findings show that regulated firms experience a 10.4% increase in TFEE. The contributions of green pure technical efficiency and green technical progress are 7.9% and 2.7%, respectively. Additionally, non-heavy polluters, small firms, and private firms demonstrate the greatest improvements in TFEE. However, CPAs do not significantly impact the TFEE of firms with high dependence on fossil energy. Finally, the mechanism analyses demonstrate that inner resource allocation optimization may be the main solution for improving TFEE by enhancing green pure technical efficiency. Green technological innovations in energy alternatives are the most promising paths for increasing TFEE by promoting green technical progress. These findings illuminate how manufacturing firms pick the “high-hanging fruits” of energy efficiency in more cost-effective ways and suggest useful insights for cleaner production promotion.

Does a mandatory cleaner production audit have a synergistic effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions?

The mandatory cleaner production audit (MCPA) is an important initiative to promote energy conservation, emission reduction and green transformation and upgrading of enterprises. This paper matches 16,841 enterprises that implemented MCPA between 2003 and 2012 to the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database and the Chinese Enterprise Pollution Emission Database. And carrying out the MCPA as a quasi-natural experiment, a difference-in-differences model based on propensity score matching is used to identify the net effect of it on the reduction of enterprise sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The paper discovers that MCPA can significantly reduce the intensity of SO2 emissions, and this finding is robust to multiple scenarios. According to heterogeneity analysis, the MCPA is more conducive to reducing the intensity of SO2 emissions in domestic enterprises, enterprises with low financing constraints and heavily polluting industries. Mechanism tests show that MCPA can reduce SO2 emissions by optimising energy structure, increasing energy efficiency, and encouraging green process innovation. Further analysis reveals that the MCPA is an effective tool for achieving the synergistic effect of reducing SO2 and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in enterprises, and it serves the dual function of winning the pollution battle while also achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Cleaner production auditing for plastic recycling industry in Pakistan: A baseline study

Recycling plastics is a good alternative to manage the plastic waste generated in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the country lacks efficient system to manage or recycle the plastic waste it generates. Lack of government support, absence of standard operating procedures, negligence towards health and safety of workers, increasing costs of raw materials and poor quality of the recyclates are some of the issues currently faced by plastic recyclers in Pakistan. Considering the need of cleaner production audits in plastic recycling industries, this study was carried out to establish an initial reference benchmark. Production processes in 10 recycling industries were evaluated from cleaner production perspective. The study showed the average water consumption of a recycling industry as high as 3315 L/ton. All the consumed water is wasted in the nearby community sewer while, only 3 recyclers recycled between 70 and 75% of the treated wastewater. In addition, a recycling facility, on an average, consumed 172.5 kWh of power for processing 1 ton of plastic waste. The average temperature was observed to be 36.5 °C and noise levels exceeded the permissible limits. Moreover, the industry is male-dominated, workers are mostly underpaid and have no access to good healthcare facilities. Recyclers lack standardization and have no national guidelines to follow. Guidelines and standardization of recycling process, wastewater treatment, use of renewable energy, water reuse etc, are direly needed for uplifting this sector and reducing its impacts on the environment.

Effect of mandatory cleaner production audits on manufacturing firms’ environmental efficiency in China: Renovation or innovation?

Technological innovation is an important solution that can help improve environmental efficiency. However, the role of technological renovation in enhancing environmental efficiency has been ignored. This study provided initial evidence of the effects of cleaner production audits in China on manufacturing firms' environmental efficiency, which was measured by the emissions of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand per total output. Cleaner production audits were used as exogenous shocks. Their impact was estimated using the staggered difference-in-difference method combined with samples of ever-treated or never-treated firms using propensity score matching. The findings showed that firms that conducted cleaner production audits (vs. those that did not) experienced 4.7% and 11.9% reductions in the emission intensities of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand, respectively. Cleaner production audit implementation significantly improved firms' environmental efficiency. Additionally, a heterogeneous analysis showed that non-heavy polluters, small and medium-sized firms, and non-state-owned firms demonstrated the most improvement in environmental efficiency. Finally, the mechanism analysis results showed that firms' technological renovation in the production process is the main solution for improving environmental efficiency. This is a feasible and cost-effective way of reducing resource consumption and pollutant emissions. Accordingly, a cleaner production audit plan for different countries should be formulated with a focus on technological renovation in the production process. It should entail clean-cut incentives to stimulate firms to perform technological innovation, thereby continuously improving firms' environmental efficiency. This study sheds light on the environmental impact of cleaner production audits and regulated firms’ choices between technological renovation and innovation.

KAJIAN PELUANG PENERAPAN PRODUKSI BERSIH DI INDUSTRI TAHU

The production process in some tofu industries face some problems, both in the production process, industrial management, and environmental management. This research aimed to find out strategies to improve efficiency in tofu production through materials, water and energy saving and to improve environmental quality through minimization and utilization of waste with cleaner production options. The method used was a cleaner production audit by identify problems until analyzing the feasibility of several aspects. The research was conducted in three tofu factories with a daily production capacity of 80 kg/day (Factory A), 220 kg/day (Factory B), and 500 kg/day (Factory C). Based on the research results, some problems were identified on various aspects and some recommendation alternatives of cleaner production in the three factories are identified covering: washing soybeans gradually, re-filtering the remaining washing and soaking water, using a boiler for cooking with steam system (factory A only), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), utilization of solid and liquid waste. If cleaner production is implemented, the total energy consumption per kg of soybeans from the three factories could be decreased to 15.87; 20.69 and 8.63 MJ/kg of soybeans, respectively. The percentage reduction in waste water would range from 24.76-36.08%. Tofu production could be increased by 5.19%, the utilization of firewood could be reduced by 64.42% and the savings obtained would range from 2.2-16.9 million rupiah/month. Based on the results of the quantitative feasibility analysis, the five cleaner production options are feasible and should beapplied in practices.Keywords: alternative recommendation, cleaner production, tofu industry

Cleaner production indicator system of petroleum refining industry：From life cycle perspective

The Cleaner Production audit is a comprehensive method that aims to realize Cleaner Production throughout the life cycle industrial process of petroleum refining. The audit simultaneously measures the environmental impacts of the refinery, its upstream and downstream organizations and related auxiliary activities. At present, most research associated with the Cleaner Production indicator system of petroleum refining industry predominantly focuses on the production stage, while the environmental impacts of other stages, such as raw material supply, logistics and transportation, downstream sales, and product use, tend to be ignored. In addition, the imperfection of the indicator systems, the hysteresis quality of the evaluation standards, and the high subjectivity are the drawbacks of the Cleaner Production indicator systems of China's petroleum refining industry. This work analyzed the existing international pollutant emission standards and the Cleaner Production indicator systems of the petroleum refining industry from the microscopic life cycle thinking, and integrating a set of Cleaner Production indicator systems suitable for the current development of the petroleum refining industry of China. New ideas were proposed to improve the Cleaner Production indicator system by incorporating the Cleaner Production level of the partners into the Cleaner Production inspection of the refinery industry. In particular, the newly established indicator system places more emphasis on carbon emissions which are ignored in traditional ones. This review provides reflections on energy saving, pollution reduction, carbon neutral and sustainable development of the supply chain-wide, the addition of carbon emission indicators can promote the synergistic effect of Cleaner Production and carbon neutrality.

Does Environmental Regulation Induce Green Innovation? A Panel Study of Chinese Listed Firms

• Investigates how China's CPA program induces firms to develop green innovation using Chinese listed-firm panel data. • The regulation effect is more pronounced in encouraging radical green innovations than incremental green innovation. • For firms belonging to pollution intensive sectors, the impacts of regulation on green innovation, both incremental and radical, are much stronger. • State-owned enterprises (SOE) and non-SOE firms have no statistically significant differences in developing green innovation in response to China's CPA program. To promote cleaner production, China launched nation-wide Cleaner Production Audit (CPA) program in 2004. This study examines the “weak” version of the Porter hypothesis while focusing on Chinese listed firms from 1990 to 2010. In this study, we provided evidence on the influence of China's CPA program on innovation based on green patent data. Using a difference-in-difference (DID) method, we find that there is a positive regulation effect on green innovation, i.e. the “weak” Porter hypothesis has been realized in the CPA program in China. Moreover, our results suggest that the regulation effect is more pronounced in encouraging radical green innovations measured by environmental invention patents than incremental green innovation measured by environmental utility patents. Then, we find that the CPA program regulatory effect is also affected by moderation variables such as industrial pollution intensity, but not by firm ownership. Our findings shed light on the policy implications on how firms respond to environmental regulations.

Environmental Regulation and Firm Exports: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

This research studies the impact of a unique environmental regulatory policy called mandatory Cleaner Production Audit on firm exports from China using matched firm-level data. Employing the difference-in-differences approach to examine this effect shows that firms subject to the mandatory Cleaner Production Audit suffer a relative decline in exports, and this negative effect is stronger when the implementation of mandatory Cleaner Production Audit was substantially improved in the later stage. Heterogeneity analyses present that the stringent environmental regulations barely affect state-owned firms, whereas they are a strong influence on private firms located in the eastern region of China, and have a much larger negative effect on exports of small-size firms relative to large-size firms. Mechanism discussions show that there are both the compliance costs effect and the innovation offsets effect, but the benefits from the innovation offsets effect do not appear to be large enough to outweigh the compliance costs effect for the regulated firms.

Construction of cleaner production management system in China: mode innovation of cleaner production.

This study is based on the practice of cleaner production (CP) audits in more than 300 enterprises. After reviewing 1484 CP options, it is found that 82.5% of the options are directly and indirectly related to management. Moreover, there are common problems such as the poor sustainability of CP audit results. This shows that enterprise management plays a significant role in implementing CP options. Based on these, this study proposes a new concept of cleaner production management (CPM) system, and draws lessons from the modern environmental management theory and method to establish the framework of CPM system. This system combines the theory and method of CP with the management system of enterprises and presents the CPM requirements in the current enterprise management system, which mainly includes CPM responsibilities, CP objectives, CPM indexes, CP energy resources management, CP process control, CP product management, CPM inspections, and CP performance evaluation. The characteristic of the proposed system is to construct a modern information-based CPM system. With highly systematic, concise structure, and easy operability, this system not only simplifies and improves the CP work in enterprises and reduces several tedious tasks such as document preparation, but also enhance the enterprise management efficiency and motivate the willingness of employees to participate in CP. Innovated and developed for CP implementation, the system has been implemented and applied in Chinese enterprises, and the implementation and application have obvious effects on improving production level as well as environmental and economic benefits.

How to promote industrial park recycling transformation in China: An analytic framework based on critical material flow

As an important conduit of industrial development, industrial parks have contributed significantly to economic development, particularly through the construction of eco-industrial parks (EIPs). With the increase in the number and type of parks, industrial park recycling transformation (IPRT) has been pivotal in developing the circular economy concept at the regional level in China. Compared with EIPs, this study identifies the characteristics of IPRT as green, cyclic, efficient, shared, and sustainable. To effectively explore how to promote IPRT development, the concept of critical material flow with material flow analysis is introduced to trace materials that are critical to high consumption areas with significant environmental impacts. The paper also suggests that cleaner production audits of enterprises can provide a basis for critical material flow analysis. Analysis of critical material flow pathways can facilitate the establishment of reverse logistics, which is important for achieving closed-loop IPRT through imitation of natural ecosystem cycles. In addition, an information system and database management platform are required to support critical material flow analysis in IPRT. Using a case study of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, the findings reveal that IPRT can be promoted from enterprises at the micro-level to parks at the macro-level based on critical material flow analysis. These results provide a methodological and practical reference for improving the stability of the industrial symbiosis of EIPs and contribute to IPRT research. Moreover, an analytic framework is provided that demonstrates how to promote IPRT in practice.

Research on cleaner production potential of pipe pile industry based on material energy flow analysis

According to the characteristics of the PHC pipe pile production and taking the cleaner production audit of a PHC pipe pile company in Tianjin as an example, the cleaner production potential was analyzed in detail in the aspects of raw material and energy consumption, technical process and equipment, pollutant emission and so on. The material and energy balance analysis were carried out. This work provides reference for the development of cleaner production of PHC pipe pile industry.

Does Environmental Regulation Induce Green Innovation? Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

Using a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms during the 1990-2010 periods, this paper investigates whether environmental regulations induce firms to develop innovation in environmentally friendly technologies. Environmental regulation chosen in this paper is Cleaner Production Audit (CPA) programs implemented in China. Using a difference-in-difference (DID) method, our findings suggest that there is a positive regulation effect on green innovation. The innovation-induced effect is more pronounced in encouraging radical green innovations measured by environmental invention patents than incremental green innovation measured by environmental utility patents. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating effects of industrial pollution intensity and firm’s ownership. For firms belonging to pollution intensive sectors, the impacts of this regulation on green innovation, both incremental and radical, are much stronger. The moderating effect of firm ownership, however, is not supported, suggesting that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOE firms have no statistically significant differences in environmental innovation in response to the CPA programs.

Strategi Implementasi Produksi Bersih untuk Meningkatkan Kinerja Industri Gondorukem (Studi Kasus Nagreg Jawa Barat)

This study aimed to audit environmental performance in gondorukem (resina colophonium) industry, analyze the main problem of waste and formulate the direction of industry development by cleaner production method. Data collection was conducted by field observation, interview and expert surveys. The analysis method used in this research is cleaner production audit which consist quick scan on stages of production process and formulation the cleaner production option, continued prioritization with Analytic Hierarchy Process. This study was case study take place in nagreg west java. Results of the analysis showed that scheduling sap delivery to be a priority based alternative with the largest value analysis id 0,216 compared with other alternatives.

Carbon dioxide emission reduction through cleaner production strategies in a recycled plastic resins producing plant

In this work, a study was conducted to estimate carbon dioxide (CO2) emission of plastic resins produced from recycled plastic wastes in a medium-sized plant in Malaysia. The feasibility of using cleaner production (CP) strategies to reduce CO2 was evaluated. For this purpose, a CP audit was conducted to quantitatively identify major entities that contributed to CO2 inside the boundary of the plant. The result showed that the plant generated 0.84 kg CO2/kg resins produced, which contributing to 1.9 million tons of overall annual CO2 generated from Malaysian plastic industry. In detail, 73.8% of the emission generated in the studied plant was contributed by electricity consumption, followed by solid waste generation (23.3%) and diesel consumption (2.3%). The value is lower than a virgin plastic resins producing plant, which has a CO2 value of 2 kg CO2/kg resins produced. After the audit, a total of four potential CP options were generated focusing on reducing energy consumption. Implementation of these options was expected to reduce CO2 generated from energy consumption by 0.11 kg CO2/kg resins produced, a reduction of about 18%. The study proved that CP strategies could be implemented to reduce CO2 of recycled-plastic resins producing plant.

Application of cleaner production in a Chinese magnesia refractory material plant

The rapid development of the magnesia refractory industry has caused serious problems of resource and energy waste and environmental pollution. Cleaner Production and Cleaner Production Audit are considered effective tools for energy conservation and emission reduction in the industry. This study presents an application of cleaner production and cleaner production audit in a typical large-scale magnesia raw material production plant in Liaoning, China and the results of their implementation. Through the 7 steps of a cleaner production audit (planning and organization, pre-assessment, assessment, option generation and screening, feasibility analysis, implementation, and maintenance of cleaner production), the resource and energy consumption and environmental emissions of the enterprise are investigated, the key auditing procedures are identified, and the cleaner production opportunities are analyzed. 28 cleaner production options, including raw material and energy substitution, technology improvement, facility maintenance and updates, process optimization and control, waste reutilization, management, and staff training and motivation, have been developed and implemented in a feasible way. After complete implementation of these options, great environmental and economic benefits are expected to be achieved: increased utilization of magnesite tailing powder by 281,000 t per year; annual savings of 25,000 t of magnesite ore; savings of 384,000 kW h of electricity; a 21.7% reduction in magnesite consumption per ton of FM product; improvement of the wastewater utilization rate from 70% to 100%; the removal of dust, SO2 and NOx emissions produced by burning coal or producer gas; savings of 1.066 million USD per year. The results demonstrate that implementing cleaner production can not only bring huge environmental benefits, but also significant economic gains. Moreover, factory staff have recognized the benefits that cleaner production can bring to the plant, and plan to continue the process. Since there are few studies on the application of cleaner production in the magnesia refractory industry, this paper provides scientific guidelines for its implementation in other similar enterprises, and a theoretical and practical basis for promoting the sustainable development of the industry.

LCA as a decision support tool for evaluating cleaner production schemes in iron making industry

In China, the evaluation mechanism of cleaner production schemes is characterized with flaws and lacks quantitative evaluation methods, which are the key technical aspects in cleaner production audit. This paper is based on a combination of life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost analysis methods to evaluate cleaner production schemes in the iron making industry. Eight environmental impact categories, including Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential, Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity Pot, Global Warming Potential, Human Toxicity Potential, Marine Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential, Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, and Terrestric Ecotoxicity Potential, are chosen to analyze the environmental impact of the iron making industry. The results show that the greatest contribution factor to the iron making industry is the blast furnace process. The most significant environmental impact category is Global Warming Potential. According to the results, we proposed 14 cleaner production schemes. LCA is used to evaluate the environmental performances of 14 cleaner production schemes, which conclude that the scheme of “the use of recycled water” increases environmental impacts, while the other 13 cleaner production schemes result in environmental benefits. Meanwhile, the cost analysis based on payback period, net present value and internal rate of return indicates that the 13 schemes are economically feasible. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 195–203, 2016

An innovative system for promoting cleaner production: mandatory cleaner production audits in China

Many studies have shown that positive and negative incentives can greatly promote cooperation in public goods games. The best policy for turning a population of defectors into a population of cooperators is to provide the “carrot” first and the “stick” later. Cleaner production (CP) is a new preventive environmental strategy, and its promotion is also an example of a public goods game. Voluntary participation and other positive incentives have been widely used to encourage industries to implement CP worldwide. However, taking into consideration specific industry characteristics and new environmental management requirements in China, the Chinese Cleaner Production Promotion Law proposes use of mandatory cleaner production audits (as compared to voluntary cleaner production initiatives) as innovative measures for advancing CP. This paper provides a general overview of this innovative system, explaining how the mandatory audit system was established and promoted in various policies, regulations, and national plans, and analyzing the design of the system. The paper also summarizes implementation results of the mandatory cleaner production audit system, based on annual surveys conducted in all provinces of China between 2008 and 2011. The Chinese experience can be used as a reference case by other developing countries similar to China.

Cleaner production implementation in a fruit juice production plant

This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using Cleaner Production (CP) strategy in a fruit juice production plant. CP strategy is meant to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by taking into consideration the economic, health and safety aspects. CP audit was conducted in the plant to quantify the total resources consumption and wastes generation from the production processes and activities in the plant. At the same time, areas for improvement in terms of resources consumption and productivity were also identified. The audit showed that the main contributors of CO2 emission of the plant were electricity, water and fuel consumption together with solid waste and wastewater generation. The analysis showed that the total CO2 emission generated at this plant was 0.07 kg CO2 per litre of fruit juice, of which 88% was contributed by electricity consumption. Subsequently, six major CP options were generated and implementations of these options are expected to reduce the CO2 emission to 0.048 kg CO2 per litre of juice, a reduction of about 20% from its current emission. The estimated investment required for this reduction was 9455 USD with a payback period of 6 years. This study shows that CP strategy is potentially an economically feasible option to reduce CO2 emission of a fruit juice production plant.

Implementing a three-level approach in industrial symbiosis

Abstract Industrial symbiosis (IS) involves two or more companies interlinked through the exchange of materials, heat, water and by-products. In fact, the evolution of industrial symbiosis could be part of a dynamic process leading to the development of a regional industrial ecosystem. Based on a regional context, this paper investigates a three-level approach, i.e., individual firm level, inter-firm level, and regional level, which incorporates cleaner production (CP) and IS to seek potential opportunities for improvement in an operating industrial zone. It was applied in the symbiosis in the Hai Hua Group (HHG) of China. The information was collected through survey questionnaires, open-ended interviews and cleaner production reports from companies. Implementing the three-level approach mainly shows that: (1) all the companies that implemented a cleaner production audit achieved economic and environmental benefits, (2) an existing symbiotic network was discovered, and (3) some potential symbiotic links were identified both at the inter-firm level and the regional level. Integrating cleaner production with industrial symbiosis, the relationship between the industrial symbiosis and its surrounding region, and the role of the government of implementing the three-level approach are discussed. In addition, some barriers were identified and possible resolutions are suggested. It can be concluded that the three-level approach is helpful to integrate CP and IS within a region and provides a useful guidance for discovering industrial symbiosis and promoting its development.