Green Degree Research Articles

工业废水处理方案的绿色度模糊综合评价模型及应用

工业废水处理方案的绿色度模糊综合评价模型及应用

낱장문서 메움용 접착제 활용 연구

A study on adhesives for document mending was conducted by blending pulgasari(funori) with wheat starch paste. Pulgasari is usually used for the ‘facing’ process in paper conservation. 7 types of samples, shinpul, gopul, pulgasari blended adhesives were prepared and were applied on Hanji and their effect was assessed and quantified with instrumental methods. Adding pulgasari was shown effective to lower the artifact’s acidity and to increase the document’s flexibility. Adhesive force and viscosity and the degree of greenness and yellowness tended to rise as the ratio of pulgasari blended became higher. In microscopic observation, it showed less void and thicker film as the pulgasari ratio became higher. In the document mending experiment, the higher the ratio of pulgasari, the less stain and less contraction were shown. Blending pulgasari with wheat starch paste can be used as an alternative method to overcome the drawbacks of gopul and shinpul in document mending.

Pesticide contamination and their botanical sources in pollen loads collected by honeybees in Kenya: A spatio-temporal context

Honeybees are generalists, and therefore, a wide range of flowering plants can easily be identified from their collected pollen loads. In this study, the levels of pesticide contamination on corbicular pollen were investigated using two approaches; (i) unsorted colony level collected and (ii) sorted pollen samples (according to botanical origin). Sorted samples were palynologically identified up to the family level to establish the types of pesticides used across landscapes and identify their botanical sources. This study was carried out between November 2019 and October 2020 in Murang’a county, Kenya, across three landscape types. The landscape was characterized according to the degree of greenness using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) into high, medium, and low classes. Pollen Hazard Quotient (PHQ) was used to estimate the risk to honeybees of each detected pesticide. In the unsorted samples, five different pesticides were detected with concentrations ranging between 0.12 and 37.97 µg kg-1. From the results, 11 pesticides were detected, nine insecticides and two fungicides. These pesticides were further traced to 11 plant families, from which Poaceae, Rubiceae, and Astereceae were contaminated with more than 70% of the 11 detected pesticides. Acetamiprid concentration in March was found to be extremely higher (1202.50 µg kg-1) the recommended EU limit (50 µg kg-1). Additionally, chlorpyriphos concentration was found to be higher than the EU set limit of 10 µg kg-1 in months of July, September, and October. Additionally, pollen from Rubiaceae and Poaceae plant families were the most collected during the period of this study. It was further noted that pesticides and plant families identified varied across sampling time, but not across landscapes.

A sustainable game strategic supply chain model with multi-factor dependent demand and mark-up under revenue sharing contract

In the current socio-economic situation, the daily demand for essential goods in the business sector is always changing owing to various unavoidable reasons. Choosing the right method for a profitable business has become quite tricky. The proposed study introduces different business strategies based on trade credit, revenue sharing contract, variable demand and production rate. As trade credit is one of the best policies to attract customers, there are two types of models based on it. In the first model, demand depends on average selling price, green degree, and products quality. An additional trade-credit factor is in the second model. However, considering coordination, non-coordination, and revenue sharing contracts, each model has three sub-cases. The main aim is to find the best strategy for the profit maximization of the supply chain members. Green investment, maintenance, and multi-factor dependent demand make the model more sustainable. The global optimization is established theoretically and different propositions are developed. Through numerical experiments, the global optimality is also verified. Some special cases, with a comparative graph, are provided for the validation of these results and to find the best strategy for profit maximization. Finally, some concluding remarks along with future extensions are discussed.

Equilibrium Decisions on Pricing and the Greenness Degree in Supply Chains under Single- and Cross-Distribution Channels of Green and Nongreen Products and Government Subsidies

Rapid economic growth and industrialization have brought us material abundance and greater convenience, while also causing socio-environmental problems such as the rapid depletion of resources, unexpected natural disasters, and environmental destruction. For these reasons, environmental issues have attracted public and governmental attention around the world over the past few decades. As a result, environmental sustainability has become a critical indicator for evaluating the success and efficiency of supply chain management schemes. For a sustainable supply chain, many governments are employing subsidy policies to encourage consumers to purchase environment-friendly (green) products. This article considers a supply chain composed of two competing manufacturers and two retailers. The first manufacturer produces a green product, while the second manufacturer produces a nongreen product. Each of the two retailers can sell only a green product, only a nongreen product, or both green and nongreen products. In the market, consumers purchasing the first manufacturer’s green products can receive certain subsidies from the government. The amounts of the government subsidies that a consumer receives depend on the greenness degree of the product. Using a three-stage Stackelberg game framework, this article discusses equilibrium decisions on pricing and greenness for four different distribution channel structures. Major findings of this study reveal that (i) the government subsidy has a positive impact on the greenness degree and the demand for green products; (ii) the government subsidy level depends on the manufacturers’ distribution channel strategy types; and (iii) the greater the environmentally negative impact of a green product, the lower the level of the government subsidy paid for purchasing green products. Based on these findings, this article suggests that policymakers focus on establishing the policies that encourage the purchase of green products for the sustainability of a society and a supply chain.

Green Investment Decision and Coordination in a Retailer-Dominated Supply Chain Considering Risk Aversion

With the sustainable development of the global economy, environmental problems and the green economy are increasingly becoming points of concern for the community. However, the large amount of capital invested in green technology and the high price of green products have become the key problems hindering the development of a risk-averse green supply chain. In order to promote the supply chain to increase green investment level, improve the green degree of products, and reduce the impact of risk aversion on green investment, this paper studies a two-echelon green supply chain composed of a risk-averse manufacturer and a risk-neutral retailer, in which the retailer is the leader and the manufacturer is the follower. We construct the wholesale price contract model, cost-sharing contract model, and two-part contract model, respectively, and use the Optimization Theory and Methods to discuss the impact of the three contracts on the green degree, expected utility of supply chain, retail price, consumer surplus, and social welfare. The results show that in the cost-sharing contract, compared with the wholesale price contract, the green degree of the product has been significantly improved, but the expected utility of the supply chain enterprises cannot achieve Pareto improvement, and the higher consumer environmental awareness will cause the manufacturer’s expected utility to decline. In the two-part tariff contract, compared with the wholesale price contract, the expected utility of supply chain enterprises achieves Pareto improvement, and the green degree of products is the highest in the three contracts; more importantly, in the two-part contract, the product green degree, the retail price, and the expected utility of the supply chain are not related to the manufacturer’s risk aversion; meanwhile, the retail price in the two-part tariff is the lowest among the three contracts, and the consumer surplus and social welfare are the highest. Our main contribution is that the two-part contract eliminates the influence of the manufacturer’s risk aversion on the above decision variable and realizes the unification of manufacturers, retailers, consumers, and social benefits. Finally, this paper uses numerical examples to verify the above conclusions and then analyzes the sensitivity of the supply chain system.

Environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation in China: Based on the PVAR model.

The unreasonable economic development model of human beings has caused the environmental pollution problem to become increasingly serious. In order to achieve a positive relationship and interaction between environmental regulation, research and development (R&D) investment, and green technology innovation, and effectively solve the “strange circle” problem between high-quality economic development and environmental pollution in China and even the world, this paper takes the panel data of industrial enterprises above designated size in Chinese mainland 31 provinces from 2009 to 2019 as a research sample. The comprehensive index of R&D investment and green technology innovation was established by the entropy method, and the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model was constructed from the dynamic endogenous perspective, and the dynamic interaction and regional heterogeneity between environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation were empirically analyzed by using impulse response function and variance decomposition. We obtain the following findings: (1) Environmental regulation has a two-way interaction relationship with R&D investment and green technology innovation, and R&D investment has a promotion effect on the “green degree” of technological innovation, but its role is still weak and has lagging characteristics. (2) There is significant regional heterogeneity in the dynamic responses of the eastern, central and western parts of China. (3) In the long run, environmental regulation has a “negative crowding out effect” on R&D investment in the central region, and the phenomenon of “central collapse” still exists but will gradually weaken. Environmental regulation has a “positive innovation compensation effect” on green technology innovation. Green technology innovation and R&D investment have an obvious “Pareto improvement” effect on environmental regulation, especially in the eastern region. The conclusions of this study help to clarify the dynamic interaction between environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation, further improve environmental regulatory policies and green technology innovation R&D decision-making, and provide an effective way to achieve green and sustainable development in China and other parts of the world.

A sustainable foamed material preparation via ettringite-targeted mineral transition of industrial solid wastes

Foamed material (FM) is widely considered efficient energy-saving building insulation material. Using solid waste as raw material and removing the autoclave process will further promote the green degree of FM. This study proposes a sustainable FM preparation via ettringite-targeted mineral transition of industrial solid wastes. A solid-waste-based sulfoaluminate clinker (SSC) was prepared for the first time entirely using industrial solid waste. Then, the synergistic effect and mechanism of SSC with high-content by-product gypsum were investigated. The most suitable matching scheme for preparing FMs based on SSC and by-product gypsum was finally determined. Results revealed that the different mineral compositions of the gypsum after calcination affected the hydration process of SSC in the mixture. The occurrence of unstable expansion is a threshold effect, mainly induced by the formation of ettringite exceeding the critical amount. When SSC was blended with by-product gypsum treated at 80 or 600°C, the mixed paste showed long-term volume stability. Under the similar initial rheological properties of paste and a fixed dosage of H2O2, the specific compressive strength, pore size distribution and water absorption of FM were significantly deteriorated with the increase of gypsum content. When by-product gypsum (treated at 80°C) utilization approached 65%, the FM still exhibited good properties: 534 kg/m3 density, 2.69 MPa 7-d compressive strength, 14.4% 24-h water absorption, and 0.143 W/m·K thermal conductivity. Moreover, the synergistic complementarity of ettringite with other components enhanced the performances of FM. This study expands a novel avenue for the large-scale and high-value utilization of industrial solid waste, especially by-product gypsum.

Sewage sludge derived FeCl3-activated biochars as efficient adsorbents for the treatment of toxic As(III) and Cr(VI) wastewater

Effective utilization and resourcelization of sewage sludge into value-added by-products and insights into its environmental impacts during the fabrication process are urgent tasks to be tackled. Here, we adopt FeCl3 to activate and functionalize sewage sludge to form FeCl3-activated biochars, which exhibited high adsorption capabilities for the treatment of toxic As(III) and Cr(VI) containing wastewaters. Kinetic studies suggested that the adsorption of As(III) and Cr(VI) species onto the biochar surface was attributed to physisorption and chemosorption, respectively. Equilibrium was reached after 3 h for the adsorption of Cr(VI), and slightly slower for that of As(III). Additionally, the structural stability of the adsorbent was maintained even in wastewater with high acidity (pH = 1), as corroborated by microscopic observations. Structural characterization of the adsorbents after adsorption showed that the excellent adsorption performance originated from adsorptive functionalities of the surface functional groups and the active Fe3O4 particles forming Fe-O-As(III)/Fe-O-Cr(VI) complexes with the As(III)/Cr(VI) adsorbates. Evaluation via the green degree method demonstrated that transforming sewage sludge into biochar exerts very low impacts on the environment. Hence, this work offers a green alternative to convert the hazardous sewage sludge into value-added biochar materials, which can be further exploited as supporting frameworks for multifunctional catalysts or expanded to be investigated in reducing carbon footprints and energy conversion areas.

Factors Affecting Green Purchase Intention: A Perspective of Ethical Decision Making.

Environmental protection issues are closely related to moral factors, but little research has explored the factors affecting green purchase intention from the aspect of morality. Based on a perspective of ethical decision making, this study investigates the impacts of perceived quality and perceived price on moral intensity and moral judgment, through the moderation of products’ green degree, as well as the impacts of moral intensity and moral judgment on green purchase intention. Research data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 368 consumers in China, and analyzed using a hierarchical linear model. The empirical results reveal that moral intensity and moral judgment significantly promoted green purchase intention. Perceived quality and perceived price both positively affected moral intensity and moral judgment. Products’ green degree positively moderated the relationship between perceived price and moral judgment as well as the relationship between perceived quality and moral judgment. This study provides a new insight into promoting green purchase intention, and the findings may also assist marketers in developing future tactics to increase consumers’ green purchase intention.

Evaluation and comparison in caffeine extraction under green conditions: Solvent selection and ultrasound‐assisted process

AbstractThis study compared the green solvents ethyl acetate and water for caffeine extraction from coffee pills against four traditional solvents (ethanol, methanol, acetone, and acetonitrile). Each solvent's green degree (GD) was calculated using seven environmental and technical performance parameters. The environmental parameters were obtained from the Glaxo Smith Kline guide. Fick's law of effective diffusion was used as the technical parameter. Water was selected as the preferred solvent (among the six evaluated in this study), and its ultrasound‐assisted extraction (UAE) conditions were optimized. The optimal conditions were estimated by ridge analysis. It was found that caffeine extraction was approximately 4.3 times higher in UAE than in conventional solid–liquid processes, and the extraction time was reduced by 96%. Moreover, this process improved caffeine extraction with water. Therefore, the use of UAE over conventional solid extraction and water as an inexpensive, easily accessible, manageable, and environmentally friendly solvent provides extraction alternatives for caffeine in different matrices. Additionally, a methodology is proposed to evaluate the GD for each solvent in the green chemistry framework to achieve sustainable development goals.

A potential relationship between soil disinfestation efficacy and leaf green reflectance.

Soil disinfestation with steam was evaluated as an alternative to fumigation. Following soil disinfestation, plant health has traditionally been measured using plant size and yield. Plant health can be measured in a timely manner more efficiently, more easily and non-destructively using image analysis. We hypothesized that plant health could be quantified and treatments can be differentiated using an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) image analysis program, particularly by observing the greenness of plant leaves. However, plant size or the proportion of green area could be unreliable due to plant loss and camera's position and angle. To this end, we decided to evaluate plant health by analyzing the RGB codes associated with the green color only, which detects the chlorophyll reflectance and nutrient status, noting that the degree of greenness within the green-leaf-area was not affected by the plant size. We identified five RGB codes that are commonly observed in the plant leaves and ordered them from dark green to light green. Among the five RGB codes, the relative percentage covered by the darkest green to the lightest green was significantly different between the steam and chloropicrin treatments and the control, and it was not significantly different between the steam and chloropicrin treatments. Furthermore, the result was correlated with the total yield, and the trend observed in the first year was replicated in the second year of this experiment. In this study, we demonstrate that the RGB image analysis can be used as an early marker of the treatment effect on the plant health and productivity.

Toward green manufacturing evaluation of light-emitting diodes (LED) production – A case study in China

Manufacturing of chips and their associated products is a complex and multi-step process where evaluation on the materials and environmental efficiencies is difficult, and a typical life cycle assessment cannot fulfil the role. In this research, a multiple evaluation scheme in view of green manufacturing is developed by combining critical evaluation, mass flow analysis and environmental impact assessment, in order to define the green degree for chips and lamps production of light-emitting diodes (LED). Mass and energy flow are identified with a subsequent critical evaluation for the whole process to determine the importance of 160 kinds of substances, energies, waters, pollutants, and procedures. In 96 kinds of substances, the organics and metal contained substances have higher criticality and accounting for 33.49% and 56.54%, respectively. To understand the effects of critical pollutants, a comprehensive environmental assessment factor (CEA) is then implemented, and waste water in chip preparation section has larger CEA value. As a result, ten green manufacturing level is defined through a grading decision function, and LED filament lamp reaches a higher manufacturing level than surface-mounted device (SMD) based LED lamp. By defining three scenarios, the manufacturing level of largest environmental effect scenarios is 7, reflecting the CEA of the pollutants is the most critical parameter. With this evaluation system, the green manufacturing level of one manufacturing section or different manufacturing processes can be evaluated, which can guide the identification and classification of LED lamps and other products.

Strategic investment for green product development and green marketing in a supply chain

Growing environmental awareness among consumers and corporate environmental responsibility prompt enterprises to pay more attention to green operations. Green practices, such as green product development (GPD) and green marketing strategies, affect the sustainability of a supply chain. This paper considers four scenarios to determine who is more suitable to implement GPD or green marketing in a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer regarding products with green attributes. Several findings are derived. First, there is a significant interaction between GPD and green marketing decisions. These two important decisions should be considered simultaneously in a supply chain. Second, when the green marketing cost factor is sufficiently high, the manufacturer, retailer, whole supply chain, environment, and consumers will benefit from the scenario where the manufacturer leads in both GPD and green marketing, which may explain the common practice of the manufacturer conducting both GPD and green marketing. From the retailer's perspective, adopting both GPD and green marketing is always a bad choice. The environmental impact and consumer surplus are also investigated. For improving the environment and enhancing consumer surplus, it is best to enhance consumers' awareness of a product's green degree and enable the consumers to derive more positive utility from green marketing.

Electromembrane Extraction and Dual-Channel Nanoelectrospray Ionization Coupled with a Miniature Mass Spectrometer: Incorporation of a Dicationic Ionic Liquid-Induced Charge Inversion Strategy.

Green analytical chemistry aims at developing analytical methods with minimum use and generation of hazardous substances for the protection of human health and the environment. To address this need, a green analytical protocol has been developed for the analysis of anionic compounds integrating electromembrane extraction (EME), dual-channel nanoelectrospray ionization (nanoESI), and a miniature mass spectrometer. Haloacetic acids (HAAs) have attracted considerable public concern due to their adverse effects on human health and were selected as model analytes for method development. A flat membrane EME device was developed and assembled in-house. Optimization of fundamental operational parameters was performed using single-factor test and response surface methodology. Both the EME acceptor phase and an imidazolium-based dicationic ionic liquid (DIL), 1,1-bis(3-methylimidazolium-1-yl) butylene difluoride (C4(MIM)2F2), were subjected to dual-channel nanoESI and miniature mass spectrometry analysis based on a charge inversion strategy, where positively charged complexes were formed. Enhancement in signal intensity by as much as 2 magnitudes was achieved in the positive-ion mode compared to the negative-ion mode in the absence of the dicationic ion-pairing agent. The developed protocol was validated, obtaining good recoveries ranging from 82.7 to 109.9% and satisfactory sensitivity with limits of detection (LODs) and quantitation (LOQs) in the ranges of 1-5 and 2-10 μg/L, respectively. The greenness of the analytical procedure was assessed with a calculated score of 0.71, indicating a high degree of greenness. The developed method was applied to the analysis of real environmental or municipal water samples (n = 16), exhibiting appealing potential for outside-the-laboratory applications.

Considering Consumers’ Green Preferences and Government Subsidies in the Decision Making of the Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Supply Chain: A Stackelberg Game Approach

Resource utilization of construction and demolition waste (CDW) is regarded to be an important means of achieving the sustainable development of the economy and the environment. However, previous research has not fully considered the green degree of products in the demand function of CDW remanufactured products. This study aimed to clarify how consumers’ green preferences and government subsidies affect decision making in the supply chain. First, a CDW resource utilization supply chain model composed of building materials manufacturers and retailers was constructed using consumer behavior theory. Second, the optimal decision making of members under conditions of decentralized and centralized decision making was analyzed using the Stackelberg game solution. Finally, the validity of the model and conclusions were verified by numerical simulation. The main conclusions are as follows. Government subsidies have a different impact on the pricing of new building materials products and CDW remanufactured products. Under decentralized decision making, the optimal profit of the CDW resource utilization supply chain with government subsidies is higher. However, under centralized decision making, the optimal profit is also related to consumers’ green preferences. According to consumers’ green preferences, choosing different decision-making models can not only improve the total profit of the CDW resource utilization supply chain, but also improve the reuse rate of CDW.

How Government Subsidy Impacts on the Supply Chain Decision for LNG-Fuelled Ships

LNG-fuelled ships help fight environmental pollution induced by fossil fuel. Chinese government has also considered encouraging the shipbuilder’s initiative of producing or introducing LNG-fuelled ships through subsidies. However, rare scholars have concerned the impact of government subsidy on the supply chain decision of LNG-fuelled ships in the existing studies. This study takes green degree and government subsidy into account in the LNG-fuelled ship supply chain of a manufacturer and an owner and studies the pricing, market demand, and supply chain benefits. Our main contributions are considering the correlation between the green degree of LNG ships and government subsidy factors and exploring the influence of government subsidy on supply chain decision-making under decentralized and centralized decision-making by ship manufacturers and owners. The results show that government subsidies are conducive to promoting the whole profit and the market demand in the ship supply chain. Centralized decision generates higher profits than decentralized decisions. In the centralized decision model, government subsidies and the green degree of LNG-fuelled ship are positively correlated with the market demand. In the decentralized decision model, the price of an LNG-fuelled ship charged by shipbuilder when providing subsidies for owners is greater than that when providing subsidies for shipbuilder. Manufacturers and owners should pay attention to the greenness of ships, and the government should adopt appropriate subsidy policies to encourage the production and application of LNG ships.

Green Incentive in Stock Market in China from the Perspective of Enterprise Green Information Disclosure

China's green financial system is developing towards the goal of green sustainability, which depends on the sustainable development of green enterprises. This paper identifies the green degree of enterprises from the perspective of enterprise green information disclosure, divides green enterprises and non green enterprises, and empirically tests whether there is green incentive in China's stock market, so as to judge whether China's stock market can allocate resources effectively. Firstly, based on the concept of green sustainable development, green factor and green efficiency factor are constructed, which are introduced into the three factor model of Chinese version respectively, and the four factor model of Chinese version is constructed. Secondly, take the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2009 to 2021 as the sample for empirical analysis to study the green incentive phenomenon and influencing factors in China's stock market. It is found that the Chinese version of the four factor model can better fit China's stock market than the existing factor pricing model. There is a green incentive effect in China's stock market, that is, the stock market produces higher excess return for green enterprises, and the higher the green efficiency of enterprises, the higher the excess return.

Supply chain informed principal model with quality uncertainty and information asymmetry in green supply chain

In the green supply chain, due to factors such as technical level and capital investment, quality uncertainty often occurs. At the same time, manufacturers often know more about the uncertainty than the retailers they serve. To address the concerns raised above, we apply the informed principal model and consider a two-echelon green supply chain consisting of one unreliable manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer, as the principal, has private information about the green degree, while the retailer only knows its prior probability. We first study the underlying model under symmetric information. Then, under the information asymmetry, we construct a low-information-density model and an interim-efficient model. Finally, the numerical comparison results show that our propositions are valid. The results show that the low-information-density model can eliminate the information asymmetry, but it imposes high signaling cost on the high-quality manufacturer. The interim-efficient model can indeed reduce the cost and the distortion of the wholesale quantity. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that there is a specific threshold for the retailer's prior probability. When the prior probability is greater than this threshold, the interim-efficient model is better than the low–information-density model; otherwise, they are equivalent. Simultaneously, the higher the prior probability, the higher the manufacturer’s revenue. If the manufacturer wants to obtain more benefits, he must increase the retailer's trust by operating with integrity and building a brand effect.

Pricing-decision analysis of green supply chain with two competitive manufacturers considering horizontal and vertical fairness concerns.

A pricing-decision analysis is a critical aspect of supply chain management since it directly affects manufacturers' and retailers' profits. The members of a supply chain all want to be treated properly during the pricing process, which means that they pay attention to the fairness of the profit distribution. Additionally, consumers are increasingly gravitating to green products as their awareness of green consumption grows. Thus, incorporating consumers' green preferences into a supply chain, this paper investigates pricing decisions with two competitive manufacturers under horizontal and vertical fairness concerns and seeks the optimal degrees of product greenness, prices, profits, and utilities. The game-theoretical models with and without bidirectional fairness concerns are constructed and analyzed to identify the implications on pricing, profits, and utilities of competing manufacturers' bidirectional fairness concerns and consumers' green preferences. Then, we determine the decisional differences between the two designs using comparative analysis and numerical simulation. Finally, propositions, corollaries, and policy implications are derived. The results indicate that consumers' green preferences and competition between manufacturers contribute to increasing the optimal pricing and retailer's profit while harming manufacturers' utilities and the supply chain's profits under some conditions. The findings also demonstrate that horizontal and vertical fairness concerns generate different impacts on the product's greenness degree and pricing. Still, they are detrimental to manufacturers' utilities and supply chain profit while possessing negligible effects on retailer's profit.