Cleaner Production Development Research Articles

What is the applicability of clean production technologies for maize as a countermeasure to reduce on-farm CO2 emissions and increase crop productivity?

Agricultural production activities are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and one of the most significant sources of carbon emissions. The development of cleaner production in agriculture has become inevitable, focusing on the conservation of the ecological environment quality of the agroecological regions while maintaining sustained, stable, high productivity. Most previous studies failed to examine the quantitative effects of cleaner production methods on agricultural yields and CO2 emissions, focusing instead on the development of standardized technical frameworks and systems for cleaner production. Herein, a meta-analysis was used to evaluate the effects of fertilizer reduction and replacement, integrated straw usage, and water-saving irrigation methods on CO2 emissions and productivity of maize fields. We studied the practical applicability of cleaner production technologies in various regions of China to examine new models of cleaner production for maize cultivation. Our results show that the relationship between the adoption of maize cleaner production technologies and carbon reduction and yield increase is non-linear and influenced by many factors. Fertilizer reduction and substitution technology had the greatest effect on suppressing CO2 emissions from maize fields (−356%), while integrated straw usage technology brought about higher CO2 emissions from fields (434%) due to the return method and soil temperature. The adoption of both integrated straw usage technology (132%) and water-saving irrigation technology significantly increased maize productivity, with water-saving irrigation technology differentiating between the specific environment in which the technology was applied (90% for traditional irrigation and 229% for rainfed planting), and fertilizer reduction and substitution technology having no significant effect on changes in maize productivity. Combined with the practical applicability of cleaner production sub-technologies in maize cultivation, we identified the optimal maize cleaner production model as organic fertilizer substitution technology (proportion <50%) + straw charcoal return technology + sub-film drip irrigation technology (rainfed)/subsurface drip irrigation technology (traditional irrigation).

An approach to stimulate the sustainability of an eco-industrial park using coupled emergy and system dynamics

Using an emergy and system dynamics model, this paper proposes a dynamic evaluation method for the sustainable development of eco-industrial parks and conducts an empirical analysis of the Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone (SETDZ). Four SETDZ’s development scenarios were designed, including inertia, economic, environmental protection, and science and technology scenarios, and the sustainable development status of each scenario was simulated and dynamically evaluated. In this paper, emergy analysis and SD method are used to simulate the changes of system functional elements and emergy evaluation indexes of SETDZ. The results show that under the coordinated development of the economy and environment, the science and technology scenario based on high-tech investment is the best development strategy for SETDZ. The sustainability of the SETDZ greatly improved on the implementation of the circular economic model, and the sustainable development indicator of the science and technology scenario increased from 3.59E-02 (2014) to 8.16E-02 (2024). Furthermore, SETDZ could achieve the coordinated development of the economy and environment owing to the reasonable layout of industrial enterprises, integration of public resources, effective utilization and disposal of waste, establishment of an enterprise symbiosis system, development of cleaner production, and other measures.

Reevaluation of the carbon emissions embodied in global value chains based on an inter-country input-output model with multinational enterprises

Multinational enterprises actively participate in global production networks. However, the current global value chain accounting framework fails to consider the emissions originating from the production activities of multinational enterprises in the host country and may underestimate the carbon emissions embodied in global value chain activities. This paper proposed an Inter-Country Input-Output decomposition framework that can distinguish domestic firms and multinational enterprises and recalculated global value chain emissions including emissions embodied in international trade (trade-related GVC emissions), foreign direct investment (FDI-related GVC emissions), and both (trade and FDI related GVC emissions). We found that 1) the carbon emissions originating from global value chain activities were underestimated by about 13.8 percentage points under the original framework in 2016, and a large part was classified as emissions stemming from pure domestic production activities; 2) the FDI-related GVC emissions were notable in high-income economies and high-tech manufacturing sectors; 3) foreign direct investment mainly drove the emissions of upstream domestic firms through the joint domestic production linkage between domestic firms and multinational enterprises, especially in upper-middle-income countries; 4) from 2005 to 2016, the FDI-related GVC emissions increased by approximately 704.6 million tons, which was mainly attributed to the scale effect, whereas the carbon intensity effect caused a reduction. The results of this study exhibit a potential significance for the correct identification of the environmental impacts of global production fragmentation, and support policy decisions on national emission responsibilities and quotas determination, differentiated foreign investment decisions, and cleaner production development.

Towards a green industry through cleaner production development.

The growth in global production and consumption rates has resulted in increased pollution generation by industrial companies. To this end, cleaner production is one of the most widely used strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of industry and gain competitive advantage. However, it is still adopted slowly in many places. Therefore, the objective of this study is to propose a framework composed of governmental, scientific, and industrial strategies, policies, initiatives, and research opportunities for the development of cleaner production. The best practices of the top countries in the cleaner production technical-scientific scenario and the main implementation challenges and opportunities for its scientific development were identified and were the reference for the framework proposals. In the government sector, the framework suggests actions to encourage the adoption of cleaner production practices through national policies, legislation, tax incentives, and educational campaigns. In the scientific sector, it suggested the development of studies about the factors that motivate its adoption, studies about clean technologies, and studies about the cleaner production implementation difficulties. In the industrial sector, it highlighted the importance of the engagement of upper management to focus on efforts to increase the efficiency of manufacturing processes with the adoption of clean technologies, management systems, strengthening of the research and development areas, and replacement of hazardous raw materials. Thus, this study contributes with initiatives that will help the implementation of cleaner production practices, reducing the generation of pollution in industry, increasing the efficiency of its processes, and aligning countries and societies to sustainable development.

Impact and threshold effect of Internet technology upgrade on forestry green total factor productivity: Evidence from China

China’s forestry industry has a weak Internet foundation and cleaner production in the process of forest product production lacks supervisory mechanisms. To propose ways to overcome these issues, this paper studies the influence of the Internet on the forestry industry and how different Internet technologies can help to optimize and coordinate the process of cleaner production. First, based on the development status of “Internet plus forestry” in China, that is to use Internet technology to drive the development of forestry, a judgment about the current stage of the technology is made. It was considered to be in the process of technology upgrade from the stage of technological Internet based on infrastructure to the stage of platform Internet based on network platform. Second, this paper calculates the green forestry total factor productivity and green technical changes as a reflection of the effect of regional forestry cleaner production. From the static and dynamic perspectives, the function paths of the technological Internet and platform Internet for green total factor productivity and its decomposition were discussed. The results are as follows: (i). The cleaner production effect of the eastern Chinese provinces with a more developed economy showed weak growth, and their increment range of return to scale was small. However, several central and western regions showed a strong growth trend, and the return to scale increased significantly. (ii). Both technological Internet and platform Internet exerted a positive impact on forestry cleaner production in the short term, and the promoting effect of the technological Internet was stronger. However, in the long run, the technological Internet has obstructed the change of green technical efficiency and green technical progress, while platform Internet still exerted positive effects on both. (iii).The threshold model is introduced to verify that the influence of platform Internet on forestry green total factor productivity is nonlinear. Finally, this paper provides a basis and policy instruction for the improvement of the operation mechanism of cleaner production under the Internet environment. Furthermore, this paper explains how to coordinate different Internet technologies toward the development of cleaner production.

A Feasible Method Applied to One-Bath Process of Wool/Acrylic Blended Fabrics with Novel Heterocyclic Reactive Dyes and Application Properties of Dyed Textiles.

Reactive dyes containing cationic groups have great potentiality as novel dyes, which can be applicable to one-bath dyeing of wool/acrylic blended fabrics. In this work, four novel heterocyclic reactive dyes containing cationic groups were designed by using m-aminophenyltrimethylammonium salt or N-(2-aminoethyl) pyridinium chloride salt as cationic groups, N, N-diethyl-1,3-benzenediamine as a coupling component, 2-amino-6-methoxybenzothiazole, 2-aminobenzothiazole or 3-amino-5-nitrobenzoisothiazole as diazo components. These dyes based on benzothiazole derivative chromophores not only showed beautiful color, including blue-green and fuchsia, but also had larger tinctorial strength with a high molar extinction coefficient, further reducing the dosage of dyes to achieve same color depth. Factors affecting the dyeability on fabrics, such as pH value, dyeing temperature and dye concentration were discussed. Excellent dyeing behavior, levelling properties and good fastness on wool/acrylic blended fabric were obtained. What’ more, excellent anti-ultraviolet and antibacterial properties were obtained for textiles with these dyes. The application of these dyes with large molar extinction coefficients presents a wide range of possibilities for the further development of cleaner production and eco-friendly dyeing, even functional textiles.

Implementation of green chemistry principles in circular economy system towards sustainable development goals: Challenges and perspectives.

Green chemistry principles (GCP) are comprehensively deployed in industrial management, governmental policy, educational practice, and technology development around the world. Circular economy always aims to balance the economic growth, resource sustainability, and environmental protection. This article offers a highlight on issues of significance within GCP and circular economy, and proposes the integrated strategies for GCP implementation from the aspects of governance, industry and education. At first, we developed a new categorizing system for GCP dividing to (i) pollution and accident prevention, (ii) safety and resource sustainability, and (iii) energy and resource sustainability. To assess the GCP practice towards the circular economy, the implementation of international movement of GCP in worldwide policy, especially those of Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, United States and United Kingdom were reviewed. The policy implementation of GCP practices among governance, industries and education was analyzed. To integrate GCP into the circular economy concept, we also proposed five strategies of priority governance direction as follows: (i) establishment of cross-departmental collaboration, (ii) development of cleaner production and green product, (iii) provision of integrated chemical management system, (iv) implementation of green chemistry education program, and (v) construction of a business model. Finally, we discussed the prospects of disciplinary elements including the establishment of redesign-reduction-recovery-recycle-reuse (5R) practices for wastes reclamation, deployment of water-energy-food nexus with GCP to improve the food security and resource sustainability, and implementation of GCP in the green smart industrial park.

Comparison of BP, PSO-BP and statistical models for predicting daily global solar radiation in arid Northwest China

Accurate prediction of global solar radiation (Rs) is important for understanding meteorological and hydrological processes, as well as the utilization of solar energy and development of clean production. In order to improve the accuracy and universality of daily Rs prediction in arid Northwest China, back-propagation neural network (BP) and BP optimized by the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO-BP) along with six statistical models (Ångström-Prescott, Bristow-Campbell, Swartman-Ogunlade, Sebaii, Chen and Abdalla) were adopted and compared with measured Rs data from eight representative meteorological stations across four sub-climatic zones, including the temperate continental arid zone, temperate continental high temperature-arid zone, plateau continental semi-arid zone and temperate monsoon semi-arid zone. The results showed that PSO-BP models (coefficient of determination, R2, 0.7649–0.9678) were more accurate than BP models (R2, 0.7215–0.9632) and statistical models (R2, 0.5630–0.9445) for the daily Rs prediction in the four sub-zones of arid Northwest China. The PSO-BP1 and BP1 models (with sunshine duration, maximum and minimum temperature, relative humidity and extraterrestrial radiation as inputs), PSO-BP2 and BP2 (with sunshine duration, maximum and minimum temperature and extraterrestrial radiation as inputs) performed better than the other models, with R2, mean absolute error, root mean square error, relative root mean square error and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient ranging 0.9228–0.9678, 1.5546–1.6309 MJ·m−2·d−1, 2.0054–1.7579 MJ·m−2·d−1, 0.1517–0.1329 and 0.9017–0.9604, respectively, among which the PSO-BP1 model provided the most accurate results. Sunshine-based models (R2, 0.7533–0.9678) were generally superior to temperature-based models (R2, 0.5630–0.8492), which indicated that sunshine duration was more influential for daily Rs prediction than temperature in this area. Overall, the PSO-BP model exhibits the best generalization capability and is recommended for more accurate daily Rs prediction in arid Northwest China.

ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ МОДЕРНІЗАЦІЇ ЕКОНОМІЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ

A definition of ecological modernization is given and analysis of its existing definitions is carried out. The tasks of ecological modernization, which envisage transformation of society, superindustrialization, reorientation of technologies for the restoration of ecological balance, restructuring of the economy and formation of a technological society, are outlined. The key elements of ecological modernization and its ecological imperatives are singled out. It is shown that mainly anthropocentric approaches and invariability of the priority of economic interests are traced in theoretical development of models of ecological modernization. It is highlighted that to prevent further degradation of ecosystems, a new ecocentric worldview and a high level of ecological consciousness are necessary. It is determined that the main forms of ecological modernization aimed at solving the environmental problems under conditions of limited and depleted natural resources are: environmentally directed development of industry; technological platforms of ecological development; ecologization of economic development; inplementation and development of clean production and environmental technologies. It is disclosed that in Ukraine over the past years the level of ecological modernization of the economy has increased, as evidenced by the share of capital investments in integrated technologies of the volume of capital investments for the protection and rational use of natural resources and development of the production of innovative products, including new types of machines, equipment, devices, devices. The vast majority of the integrated technology activities are not in line with the V and VI waves of innovation, not mentioning the VII, which began in highly developed countries. It is substantiated that new model of modernization of social development should include not only the change and introduction of new technologies, but also deep institutional, social and cultural transformations. It is determined that in addition to three prospects for the development of ecological modernization – eco-saving business and consumption, effective protection of the natural environment, the ecologization of society – the fourth is also possible: emancipation of nature, that is, socialization and personalization of nature. The strategic directions of ecological modernization of socio-economic development of Ukraine are proposed and its key tasks regarding the formation of a modernizing type of ecologically oriented activity of society are determined.

Evaluation of the Implementation of Cleaner Production among Enterprises in Qingdao, China

As an effective tool for achieving sustainable development, cleaner production is playing an increasingly prominent role in China’s industrial and environmental protection policies. In this paper, the authors evaluate the implementation of cleaner production among 51 enterprises in Qingdao by cleaner production audit report. Results show that, significant economic and environmental benefits are achieved by implementing cleaner production. To promote the development of cleaner production, increasing financial and political support as well as publicity and training are urgent tasks for Qingdao.

Comprehensive Information Management System for Cleaner Production

It is important measurement to design comprehensive information management system for cleaner production that can afford cleaner production techniques sever system for social. The comprehensive system will be designed and developed from cleaner production information systems and cleaner production management system. The content of this system was introduced which include systems management, information management and evaluation management. The composition of this system was described which include information input and output modules, information database module and information network module. The operation and development environmental conditions of this system were put forward from hardware and software configurations. The system will play an important roll to rapidly promote cleaner production development

Carbon accounting for supply chain management in the automobile industry

Improving the management of carbon emissions and the development of cleaner production can be a demanding challenge for business and industry. Within this, accounting for carbon management requires quantification of a firm’s direct and indirect emissions. Unfortunately, however, there is a lack of concepts and tools suitable for use in the measurement of carbon performance both in the production process as well as in the supply chain as a whole. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to explore the role of environmental management accounting and, in particular, the eco-control approach for carbon management as part of the management of a firm’s supply chain. Employing a case study of Korean automobile manufacturers, we explore the roles and usefulness of eco-control as a means of identifying and measuring carbon performance in a production plant. This study finds that eco-control can foster alignment between a firm’s carbon management strategy and carbon performance measurement, and provides useful quantified information for corporate decision makers. In addition, viable mapping of carbon flow in production provides important opportunities to improve carbon performance within the supply chain.

A Scientific Strategy Research of the Coordinated Development between Intrinsic Safety and Clean Production Technologies under the Green Chemistry Framework

It has been over ten years for the green chemistry and clean production became a popular research subject in China. The researchers have made astounding achievements in several sectors such as controlling pollution from the source, alleviating the influence of the chemical processes to the environment, contributing an important part to the development of modern chemical industry in China. The general scientific strategy research on intrinsic safety and clean production under the green chemistry framework is a must for China to develop a healthy chemical industry and to protect its environment. Through this research, we aim at establishing an effective and feasible scientific strategy for the coordinated development of clean production and intrinsic safety technology, extending beyond single research subject to get ideas and technology support from multiple academic sectors. Regarding the national science development strategy, we have put forward the coordinated development of intrinsic safety and clean production in combination with their common characteristics.

Foreign Trade in Environmental Products; The WTO Regulations and Environmental Programs

The aim of this paper is to present some aspects related to the Multilateral Trade Regulations and transnational and national environmental programs, from the point of view of their implications for foreign trade in environmental products. It should be noted that the elimination of trade barriers increases the efficiency of the world economic system by enabling countries to specialize in those sectors in which they possess economic advantages, which includes those sectors in which they possess favorable natural environmental conditions. In the latter half of the 1990’s one could observe a rapid and dynamic increase in the environmental protection industry’s share in the world economy. The overall global value of production in the environmental protection industry was estimated at 550 billion USD in the year 2001. In relative terms, this environmental market is not as large as the steel or agriculture markets, but roughly the same size as the pharmaceuticals and information technology markets. The environmental policy in the “old” and also “new” EU countries contributes to the achievement of the main goals of the global sustainable development strategy via the development of cleaner production and by the support for foreign trade in environmental friendly goods. The results of the empirical foreign trade analysis of trade in environmental products which are presented in the paper cover 11 countries of the OECD, including the USA, seven “old” EU member states, and one “new” member state - Poland . It is based on an international comparable database for environmental friendly goods, calculated by the author according to the OECD requirements (OECD-EUROSTAT, WTO, 1999). The analysis enables the author to present some important trends in foreign trade affecting the main exporters and importers of environmental goods in the USA and the EU. The analysis is also related to some regulations issued by the Committee for Trade and Environment of the WTO, with special reference to the conclusions of the Fourth and Fifth Ministerial Conferences in Doha and Cancun. The paper will also examine the effects of environmental measures on market access within the multilateral liberalization process.