Polluting Sectors Research Articles

Planning and optimisation framework for lubricant supply chain with a focus on spent oil - A circular economy approach

ABSTRACT Circular Economy (CE) approach is gaining increased attention in recent times. Its high time for developing nations and organizations to adopt the CE approaches in a different sector. The drastically growing oil & gas sector is one of the polluting sectors and needs to adopt CE approaches. Specifically, the spent oil generated by the oil & gas sector is classified as hazardous and needs proper management. The work presents CE approach for spent oil in oil and gas sector via the tactical planning and modeling approach. The study focuses on multi-echelon, multi-product, multi-period mathematical model for tactical planning in a closed-loop lubricant oil supply chain. Questionnaires were designed and distributed among 30 executives working in the oil and gas sector, and their responses were reported. The proposed mathematical model suggests economic feasibility and profitability of re-refine spent oil, given the assumption that end products from regular crude oil and base oil are of the same quality. The survey results also show that waste and by-products are the commonly used items that undergo recycling, followed by packaging material. The approach will aid in the decision-making during transportation, production planning, and inventory control for raw materials and end products.

Treatment of tannery industry effluent by electrochemical methods: A review

The leather industry is one of the most polluting sectors in terms of the volume and difficulty of waste disposal. In recent years special attention focused on the treatment of industrial wastewater using advanced treatment technologies, among all approaches, electrochemical technology appears to be one of the most promising methods for handling organic pollutant-containing wastewater. The benefits of electrochemical technology include durability, energy efficiency, automation, and environmental compatibility. The review found the feasibility of the electrochemical method for the treatment of effluent from the leather industry and also found that the rate of pollutant removal was significantly influenced by the type of anode material and electrochemical parameters.

Does Gender Diversity Affect the Environmental Performance of Banks?

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. Therefore, all segments of society must act together to stop the deterioration of the planet and the depletion of its resources. The business sector must play an active role in acting responsibly toward the environment. Given the importance of this issue, major efforts have been made to analyze the environmental performance of the most polluting sectors. In contrast, other sectors that are also of great interest due to their contribution to sustainable development, such as the banking sector, have been overlooked. Notable factors conditioning performance include aspects of corporate governance such as gender diversity. However, the empirical evidence reveals a lack of consensus regarding the influence of women directors on corporate environmental performance. This background motivates the study of the commitment of the banking sector to reducing their environmental impact and the analysis the influence of board gender diversity on environmental performance. Data for the period 2009 to 2018 on 52 banks from the most polluting Western regions were studied using descriptive statistics and fixed effects econometric estimation to test the relationship between a selection of relevant variables. The key conclusions are that banks are committed to protecting the environment and that there are no significant differences between banks’ commitment to the planet on the basis of board gender diversity.

Development of the CREATE Inventory in Support of Integrated Climate and Air Quality Modeling for Asia

A bottom-up emissions inventory is one of the most important data sets needed to understand air quality (AQ) and climate change (CC). Several emission inventories have been developed for Asia, including Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P), Regional Emission Inventory in Asia (REAS), and Inter-Continental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX) and, while these have been used successfully for many international studies, they have limitations including restricted amounts of information on pollutant types and low levels of transparency with respect to the polluting sectors or fuel types involved. To address these shortcomings, we developed: (1) a base-year, bottom-up anthropogenic emissions inventory for Asia, using the most current parameters and international frameworks (i.e., the Greenhouse gas—Air pollution INteractions and Synergies (GAINS) model); and (2) a base-year, natural emissions inventory for biogenic and biomass burning. For (1), we focused mainly on China, South Korea, and Japan; however, we also covered emission inventories for other regions in Asia using data covering recent energy/industry statistics, emission factors, and control technology penetration. The emissions inventory (Comprehensive Regional Emissions inventory for Atmospheric Transport Experiment (CREATE)) covers 54 fuel classes, 201 subsectors, and 13 pollutants, namely SO2, NOx, CO, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), NH3, OC, BC, PM10, PM2.5, CO2, CH4, N2O, and Hg. For the base-year natural emissions inventory, the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) and BlueSky-Asia frameworks were used to estimate biogenic and biomass burning emissions, respectively. Since the CREATE emission inventory was designed/developed using international climate change/air quality (CC/AQ) assessment frameworks, such as GAINS, and has been fully connected with the most comprehensive emissions modeling systems—such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chemical Manufacturing Area Source (CMAS) system—it can be used to support various climate and AQ integrated modeling studies, both now and in the future.

Optimization, Production, Purification of Laccase Enzyme from Bacillus sp

Laccase enzyme production is important and more beneficial for environment, because it has many roles like, involved in bioremediation, biodegradation, decolorization of environmental polluted dyes and pharmaceutical sector also. Production of laacse enzyme from bacillus sp as using of Agro waste (rice bran) as a substrate. The Agricultural soil sample was collected, after the sample were processed for the preliminary and biochemical tests to identification of Bacillus organism. The Guiacol inducer were used for microbial screening of laccase enzyme production. After that microbial screening, various optimization parameters (pH, Temperature, Inducers, carbon and nitrogen sources) are checked for that production of laccase enzyme in mass level. Based on that optimization the bulk fermentation (large scale) (solid state fermentation) were done as a rice bran substrate. The fermentation product was subjected to analyzed the physiochemical properties and purification based on that techniques of Gel filtration chromatography, Dialysis, Ammonium sulfate preciptation. The protein estimation of that product to analysed by lowry’s method.

A comprehensive assessment of ambient air quality in Çanakkale city: Emission inventory, air quality monitoring, source apportionment, and respiratory health indicators

This comprehensive study aims to examine the relationships between ambient air quality (AAQ) and respiratory health of the participants residing in three different towns of Çanakkale city, Turkey between August 2013 and 2014. AAQ measurements for bioaerosols, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total particulate matter (PM) count, carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) were performed and monthly pulmonary function test (PFT) was applied to volunteer participants residing in the study sites (n = 121) for one year. Additionally, concentrations of air pollutants for PM2.5/PM10, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides, and ozone were gathered from AAQ monitoring stations. To estimate the contributions of the emission sources and their effects on human health in the region, an emission inventory was also prepared in the region and AERMOD modelling system was applied for the year of 2013. Accordingly, the industry was the most polluting sector for NOx and SO2, while road traffic and residential heating were the most polluting sectors for CO and PM10. Factor analysis revealed that organics, combustion, bioaerosol propagation, and ozone accumulation contributed to AAQ, in agreement with AQ modelling results. Çan had the worst air quality (industrialized site), which affected the respiratory health indicators of the participants. Generalized linear model estimated that PF of the participants varied according to the residing district, gender, suffering from asthma, and lifelong smoking or environmental tobacco smoke exposure (p < 0.05). Also, PF of the participants were linked with VOCs levels in the Central town, total PM count in Lapseki, and ozone levels in Çan (p < 0.05).

Willingness to pay for environmental protection and the importance of pollutant industries in the regional economy. Evidence from Italy

This work analyses whether the incidence and production of polluting industries influences the individual willingness to pay (WTP) for the environment. Cross-country studies on the determinants of environmental WTP do not capture the fact that individual perceptions of environmental protection may be due to specific regional conditions. Therefore, this paper adopts a conceptual framework where both pollution and environmental protection are costly, and individuals face a choice between pollution or environmental protection. It is argued that the individual perception of such costs depends on regional settings, making individuals that live in less polluted areas prefer environmental protection. This hypothesis is empirically tested by performing an empirical analysis on the individual WTP for environmental protection in the Italian regions (NUTS-2 level) from the European Values Study. The results show that increases of production in polluting industries exert an effect on WTP for environmental protection and that this effect is mediated by the regional incidence of polluting industries: in “healthy” regions, an increase of production in the polluting sector increases the environmental WTP, while it has an opposite effect in regions where the incidence of the polluting sector is already high.

Selection of Karanja Biodiesel Blend for Engine Performance by using TOPSIS and VIKOR Method

Demand for energy is increasing due to the development of industries, expanding urbanization, and population growth which further increases the use of fossil fuel in large amount. This also affects an environmental pollution and engine sector too. In internal combustion (IC) engines, alternative fuel blends has one of the most important decision for balancing a number of opinions and criteria for making different strategic decision by an engine expert. Choice of alternative sources of suitable blending of biodiesel and biodiesel plays an important role in engine sector. In this paper, discuss the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques is used for selecting the best alternative blend of Karanja methyl ester biodiesel to fulfil the demand in IC engine sector. Optimization was done by using of VIKOR (Visekriterijimsko Kompromisno Rangiranje) and TOPSIS (technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) techniques. The parameter considered for optimization includes brake thermal energy, brake specific fuel consumption at different load at different compression ratio as input. Emission parameters as carbon mono oxide un burnt hydrocarbon, carbon di-oxide, oxygen and oxides of nitrogen was also determined. A productive examination of the procedure and positioning of choices can be accomplished for enhancement blends choice through TOPSIS and VIKOR techniques. Starting with normalized and weighted normalized decision matrix, positive and negative ideal solution, the distance of alternative from positive and negative ideal solution was calculated and closeness coefficient of alternative in the form of ranking of alternative was done. It was found that a mix B75 was the most appropriate blend for Karanja biodiesel for best use in CI engine without influencing the emission and performance parameters.

Sustainable Coal Mining and Electricity Generation: With Special Reference to Dahanu Thermal Power Station

Mining Industry is often tagged as a polluting sector since it involves since it involves extensive resource exploitation by unsustainable methods. The techniques involved in mining cause tremendous destruction to the environment and health of people living in nearby areas. There is a growing consensus on sustainable and efficient mineral development which will avoid the clash between economic and environmental interests. Deployment of advanced and sustainable technological solutions in the entire mining process, fixing the gaps in its regulatory mechanisms and learning from the successes of specific domestic and international mining operations are certain solutions that have the capacity this sector more productive. The paper provides insights into the problems of mining sector and possible solutions to overcome these problems. It also provides examples of certain best practices adopted by mining corporations for sustainable coal mining. The paper also explores various methods and technologies which can be adopted by Thermal Power Plants to reduce their emissions and simultaneously conserve environment. An empirical study of Dahanu Thermal Power Station located in state of Maharashtra of India has been undertaken for this purpose to study the modern technologies adopted by them to lower their emission levels.

Carbon emissions and the cost of debt in the eurozone: The role of public policies, climate‐related disclosure and corporate governance

AbstractOver time, investors have become increasingly aware of the risks associated with a transition to a low‐carbon economy. This study investigates the association between carbon emissions and the cost of debt financing for a sample of firms from the eurozone in the period 2010–2018. The results provide evidence that the risk premium required by lenders increases with carbon emissions. However, although the most polluting sectors were already charged before the Paris Agreement, and not further penalised in the subsequent period, our results indicate that the less polluting sectors started being charged a higher spread for their emissions only in the period after the Agreement. The Paris Agreement appears to be a turning point around which lenders have become aware of the strong commitment taken by policymakers in fighting climate change. Our findings also suggest that increased levels of disclosure on climate‐related issues can mitigate corporate carbon risk. On the other hand, the results are not compelling when we consider the effect of control mechanisms, such as external verification for emissions, board oversight of carbon risk and the presence of emission reduction targets, on the cost of debt. Taken as a whole, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of public policies in driving lenders' allocation decisions as well as the role of climate‐related disclosure in mitigating the corporate cost of capital. As such, our findings have important implications for both policymaking in environmental regulation and managerial strategies.

Environmental information disclosure in capital raising

AbstractIn 2010, the Chinese Government issued a policy to require enterprises to disclose environmental information. Using the environmental disclosure information of 204 Chinese listed companies in 20 polluting sectors over the period of 2011–2015, we find that managers tend to withhold environmental information and selectively disguise sensitive environmental information in the face of financial pressure, and where the disclosure of sensitive environmental information would significantly increase the cost of debt financing. Furthermore, agency conflicts and information asymmetry between managers and outside investors promote the managers' tendencies to withhold environmental information when facing financial pressure.

Quantifying the Economic Cost of Reducing GHG Emissions through Changes in Household Demand: A Linear Multi-Sectoral Approach for European Countries

The mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions can be approached in various ways: from the supply side, by using improvements in technologies and input uses; and from the changes in the demand for products, by influencing consumer behavior to achieve a more sustainable consumption pattern. Either way it can be approached using multi-sectoral data based on an input–output or on a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework, although a suitable database and the proposal of appropriate indicators are needed. A suitable database is developed through the estimation of new SAMs for the latest possible period, that of year 2015. This paper focuses on the demand approach: that of changes in the demand for products. It analyzes the different impacts among activities and commodities of a change in domestic household consumption patterns, compares the potential reductions in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions obtained through the reduction of specific demands, and considers the consequent reduction in output and employment. For this purpose, a linear multi-sectoral analysis is employed that focuses on the main EU member states. Despite major differences between countries, the results show that a decrease in emissions through demand-reduction policies exerts greater negative effects on those less polluting sectors with a higher intensity in the labor force, and offers a more suitable option for those highly polluting sectors with a lower concentration of the work factor. Richer countries that are based on service sectors therefore suffer a sharper drop in employment using this kind of policy.

Black soldier fly liquid biofertilizer in bunga mayang sugarcane plantation: From experiment to policy implications

Sugarcane is one of the most important cultivated plants for more than a millennial. In Indonesia, especially in Java, sugarcane is also a part of symbolic local culture. In fact, during the Dutch colonialism sugarcane had given substantial wealth to the Dutch and in the early 1930s the export revenue of sugar from Indonesia was the second largest in the world. The status of sugarcane now is still important for Indonesia even though Indonesian status now is one of the largest sugar importing countries in the world. One of major problems for such contradicting path of history is that the continuously lowering Indonesian productivity of sugarcane since the last 45 years. The main conventional choice for sugarcane productivity improvement is, among others, maintaining high dosage of chemical fertilizer. The choice of using high dosage chemical fertilizer such as urea, for example, is not only costly in term of monetary spending but also is costly in term of environmental costs such as water, air, and soil pollutions. In fact agriculture is classified as one of the most polluted sector. This article shares the results of the case study that has been conducted one year (2017-2018) in sugarcane plantation in Bunga Mayang, Lampung Province, Indonesia. The experiment took full recommended dosage application of inorganic N, P, K, fertilizer as experimental control. The results showed that there were no significantly difference in the productivity of sugarcane between the application of full dosage of inorganic N, P, K fertilizer and the half-dosage of inorganic N, P, K fertilizer in combination with 60 l per ha of Black Soldier Fly (BSF)’s liquid biofertilizer. The results implied very important implications for future research, new agricultural practices and new development policy agenda. One of the most important policy implications is how to build a circular economic structure between rural-urban regions where now food and other agricultural products flow from rural to urban regions and create food and other organic wastes in cities. In the next system the circular structure will create no-organic waste that will pollute cities and other areas but cities will become agriculture regional source of biofertilizer produced by BSF’s biofertilizer industry which will fertilize the country sides environments.

Sustainable Development in the Service Industry: Managerial Learning and Management Improvement of Chinese Retailers

Research in sustainability has focused on the productive industry and other polluting sectors, leaving aside the sustainable development of the service industry such as retail. Increasingly, retail companies are facing substantial sustainability problems such as pressure from resource limitations, fierce competition, the variability of customer needs, and the development of technology. Adopting best practices through managerial learning is the key to achieving sustainable development for retailers. However, there is a lack of discussion of the micro mechanism of sustainable development in the existing sustainable research field. From the perspective of internal sustainable development, taking Chinese retailers as the sample, this study explores the effect of the managerial learning mechanism on sustainable development on the basis of empirical research. First, this study measures the management efficiency of Chinese retailers, which is the micro basis of sustainable development. Second, the effects of two types of managerial learning mechanisms (government-driven and professional organization driven) on management efficiency are tested. The results show that management efficiency contributes to the growth of the total factor productivity in Chinese retailers, and firms should attach importance to the improvement of management efficiency. Specifically, retailers can strengthen management efficiency by establishing managerial learning platforms with professional institutions, and thus prevent the substitution role of absorptive capacity.

The Real Effect of Green M&amp;amp;As on Acquirers’ Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Heavy Polluting Sectors

The Real Effect of Green M&amp;amp;As on Acquirers’ Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Heavy Polluting Sectors

Research progress on wastewater treatment methods and technologies in paper industry

The pulp and paper industry has polluted a large amount of water, and it has the traits of high concentration and wide coverage, which can be said to be one of the most serious polluting sectors in China. With the rapid development of the paper industry, the treatment of its wastewater has also attracted the attention of many departments. The treatment of industrial wastes from the paper industry has always been concerned by researchers, and it has many treatment methods which has its own advantages and disadvantages. This paper discusses different common methods and combination techniques and their application in treatment of industrial wastes from the paper industry.

Cost function approach to water protection in forestry

Abstract The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) strongly emphasizes that all water polluting sectors must enhance the protection of water bodies in a cost-effective way. River Basin Management Plans need to be made to achieve a good environmental status for all water bodies by 2027 at the latest. This article examines three principal water protection measures used in forestry: buffer zones, overland flow fields and sedimentation ponds. We analytically develop marginal abatement cost functions for each of these measures and apply them numerically for the Finnish forestry. We find that the marginal abatement costs of nutrients using buffer zones in clear-cut mineral soil forests are very high, as they entail leaving financially mature and uncut trees. In contrast, the marginal costs of using overland flow fields in conjunction with ditch cleaning and clear-cutting in peatlands are very low. Furthermore, for sediments using overland flow fields as a water protection measure entails significantly lower abatement costs than does using sedimentation ponds in conjunction with ditch cleaning in peatland forests. A cost-effective solution in a river basin entails that the highest nutrient reductions are made in agriculture but that forestry also does its share. A cost-effective allocation of abatement measures entails that the proportions of the overall nutrient reduction are 3% (1%) in forestry and 97% (99%) in agriculture when the reduction target is set as 10% (30%).

Spatial-temporal analysis of selected industrial aquatic heavy metal pollution in China

Abstract Heavy metal pollution has become a global environmental issue. The control of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions is especially crucial in China. This study constructed a high-resolution grid dataset (at 1 km × 1 km scale) of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions (Hg, Cd, Cr(VI), Pb, and As) in China during 1998–2010, using a bottom-up approach. The environmental impacts of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions, including human health impacts and ecosystem quality impacts, were estimated based on ReCiPe2016. Subsequently, the spatial-temporal characteristics of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions and their environmental impacts were revealed at the grid scale. The results show that the top 10% of grids with the largest environmental impacts contributed over 85% of the total environmental impacts, but only 40%–45% of the total industrial outputs during 2000–2010. The areas with large environmental impacts were mainly located in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and Hunan Province in 2010. A reduction in the impact intensities of the five major polluting sectors in the top 10% of the grids to the average sectoral level could decrease the human health impacts by 44% and the ecosystem quality impacts by 41%. The grid dataset can provide detailed information on the spatial distribution of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions that can be used to refine aquatic heavy metal pollution control in China. It can also be used to analyze the environmental impacts and socioeconomic drivers of industrial aquatic heavy metal emissions.

Modeling the Physical Nexus across Water Supply, Wastewater Management and Hydropower Generation Sectors in River–Reservoir Systems

Most water supply and hydropower generation is obtained from the river–reservoir system, and wastewater pollutants are also dumped into the system. Increasing water demand and consumption have caused the water supply, wastewater pollutant management and hydropower generation sectors to be interlinked and to reinforce each other in the system. A physical nexus across water supply, wastewater management and hydropower generation sectors for a river–reservoir system was developed based on the analytical water quality and hydropower generation equations. Considering the Jinghong hydropower reservoir, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Lancangjiang River Basin, as a case study, both the wastewater pollutant management target and water inflow from the upstream as the external and boundary conditions, were employed to establish the effects of the external and boundary conditions on the nexus. It was demonstrated that the nexus of water supply and hydropower generation sectors does not vary with the water quality indicators and its protection target, without the separation of environmental flow in hydropower generation flow. In addition, the amount of hydropower generation decreases with increasing water supply. However, the lapse rates of allowable wastewater pollutants–water supply differ based on the water inflow and the wastewater pollutant management sectors, while the efficiency of hydropower generation and the sensitivity of allowable wastewater pollutants per amount of water supply are considered to be unrelated to the water inflow and wastewater pollutant management target conditions. The quantitative nexus developed through the proposed equation not only contributes to a more complete understanding of the mechanism of cross-connections, but also in creation of specific water protection and utilization measures, which is also the focus of the water–energy nexus.

Credit Allocation, Pollution, and Sustainable Growth: Theory and Evidence from China

ABSTRACT This article studies how credit decisions made by banks affect environmental pollution and the sustainable growth path. Our model suggests that with credit discrimination, the economy may experience a high output and heavy pollution steady state, but there will be welfare losses. Based on the model, we perform an empirical study using panel data from 30 provinces in China. The study results show that credit preference toward highly polluting sectors has an adverse impact on the environment. Arguably, encouraging sustainable banking may help developing countries like China to address environmental challenges.