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Idhirij S, Ward FA. Policy analysis for informing climate adaptation, environmental resilience, and irrigation demands in the Rio Grande Basin. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 365:121528. [PMID: 38909571 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2024] [Revised: 05/27/2024] [Accepted: 06/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/25/2024]
Abstract
Water policymakers internationally face the challenge of adapting to climate, supporting environmental resource needs, and meeting irrigation demands for food security in the world's arid and semi-arid regions. Much recent work has assessed the economic performance of environmental river flows to support endangered species habitat protection. However, little published work to date has systematically formulated and applied methods to identify the economic performance of various policy measures that adapt to climate, support endangered species, and meet irrigation demands for water. This work's original contribution with international relevance is to address those gaps by identifying the economic performance of various water shortage sharing methods for handling climate water stress while supporting protection of critical habitat to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) along with Willow tree (Salix bonplandiana) habitat in the middle part of the Rio Grande Basin in North America, a region facing a number of conflicts between commercial uses of water and protection of key ecological assets. It develops a hydroeconomic optimization model containing information on crop water use and endangered species requirements in that region to identify the economic performance of three climate adaptation policy scenarios for handling water shortages while respecting endangered species habitat protection requirements. Results show how water shortages as well as policy responses for handing those shortages affect the economic value of water in agriculture for food security both with and without critical habitat to support the endangered flycatcher. This work's international relevance comes from its capacity to inform policy debates on the costs of protecting endangered species habitat under various climate scenarios and climate policy adaptation measures. Findings provide a general framework to address existing gaps in understanding and measuring the economic performance of measures to promote environmental resilience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saleh Idhirij
- Water Science and Management Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
| | - Frank A Ward
- Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, Water Science and Management, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
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Huang D, Wu Y, Zhang L, Tang Y, Liu C, Zhang R, Wang Y, Gao Y. Life cycle assessment of sewage sludge treatment and disposal technologies based on carbon emissions and environmental impacts. ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 2024:1-17. [PMID: 38820568 DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2024.2360232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2024] [Accepted: 05/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/02/2024]
Abstract
This study aimed to create a comprehensive evaluation method for sewage sludge (SS) treatment and disposal technologies, considering carbon emission and environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) were conducted on six SS treatment and disposal technologies in China. The assessments used the IPCC emission factor approach to calculate carbon emissions and the CML2001 method to determine environmental impact factors. Additionally, a colour-coded method was implemented to quantify the evaluation results. The study found that S1 (anaerobic digestion + land application) had the lowest carbon emissions and environmental impact, making it the optimal technology. The S1 scenario had carbon emissions of 669 kg CO2(t DS)-1 and environmental impacts of 5.20E-10. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to show the impacts of each unit in the six technologies on total carbon emissions and environmental impacts. The results showed that landfilling has a high sensitivity to carbon emissions and environmental impacts. Therefore, controlling greenhouse gases and toxic substances in sludge landfills is crucial for reducing carbon emissions and environmental pollution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diannan Huang
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuhan Wu
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Li Zhang
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Yulan Tang
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Chuang Liu
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Rongxin Zhang
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Yongyong Wang
- School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, People's Republic of China
| | - Yunan Gao
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, People's Republic of China
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Li J, Peng L, Yan Y, Wang Y, Zhang J, Li M, Xie K. Technological progress and coupling renewables enable substantial environmental and economic benefits from coal-to-olefins. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 353:120225. [PMID: 38330837 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Revised: 01/20/2024] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
China's growing demand for bulk chemicals and concerns regarding energy security are scaling up coal-to-olefins (CTO) production. Three generations of independent dimethyl ether/methanol-to-olefins technologies have been successively launched with greatly improved production efficiencies. However, to date, widespread concerns regarding the intensive environmental impacts and potential economic risks have not been addressed in the context of this industrialization. Here we show that, through the technological progress from the first to the third generation, life cycle energy consumption, water consumption, and carbon emissions can be reduced to 119.5 GJ/t, 27.6 t/t, and 9.1 t CO2-eq/t, respectively, and human health damage, ecosystem quality damage, and resource scarcity impacts can be decreased by 40.5 %, 50.1 %, and 16.4 %, respectively. This is accompanied by an excellent performance in terms of production cost, net present value, and internal return rate at 792.5 USD/t, 173.4 USD/t, and 19.4 %, respectively. Substantial environmental and economic benefits can be gained by coupling renewables in the form of using green hydrogen from solar and wind power to synthesize methanol. Particularly, life cycle carbon emissions and resource scarcity impacts are reduced by 23.4 % and 22.4 %, respectively, exceeding the reduction in technological progress. However, coupling renewables increases the life cycle energy consumption to 154.5 GJ/t, counteracting the benefits of technological progress. Our results highlight the importance of technological progress and coupled renewables for enhancing the sustainability of the CTO industry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junjie Li
- Engineering Research Center of Clean and Low-carbon Technology for Intelligent Transportation, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China; School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Lin Peng
- Engineering Research Center of Clean and Low-carbon Technology for Intelligent Transportation, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China.
| | - Yulong Yan
- Engineering Research Center of Clean and Low-carbon Technology for Intelligent Transportation, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China.
| | - Yirong Wang
- Engineering Research Center of Clean and Low-carbon Technology for Intelligent Transportation, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Engineering Research Center of Clean and Low-carbon Technology for Intelligent Transportation, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Menggang Li
- National Academy of Economic Security, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China; Beijing Laboratory of National Economic Security Early-warning Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Kechang Xie
- State Key Laboratory of Clean and Efficient Coal Utilization, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China
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