Comment on essd-2022-464

A comprehensive emission inventory of multiple air pollutants from iron and steel industry in China: Temporal trends and spatial variation characteristics

The agricultural sector is the largest source for air pollutants of ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). Establishing a unified and homologous emission inventory of air pollutants and GHGs is essential for synergistic abatement pathway studies of air pollution and climate change. However, current agriculture emission inventories of air pollutants and GHGs are unclear due to the separated source classification and inconsistent calculating methodologies. This study adopted a synergistic approach to develop a unified emission inventory for NH3, N2O, and CH4 from the agricultural sector in China for 2021, based on crop and livestock types as the activity level data, and considered regional-specific species in emission factors. The results showed that China’s agricultural emissions in 2021 amounted to 7566.17 Gg of NH3, 486.14 Gg of N2O, and 14,979.71 Gg of CH4. Rice, cattle, and pigs were the primary contributors of NH3, N2O, and CH4. Hotspots of NH3 and N2O emissions were concentrated in the North China Plain and Sichuan Basin, whereas CH4 emissions were predominantly located in southern China. This study provides a crop- and livestock-specific data foundation for making region-specific and priority-based integrated strategies to improve air quality, mitigate climate change, and promote sustainable agricultural development in China.

High-precision spatio-temporal variations and future perspectives of multiple air pollutant emissions from Chinese biomass-fired industrial boilers

This paper discusses energy conservation and emissions reduction (ECER) in China’s power sector. To better understand China’s successes and failures on energy conservation in the electricity industry, first it is important to know the status of China’s power sector, and the key energy conservation actions, as well as the achievements in the past years. Second, two ECER scenarios are constructed to probe the 2020 energy conservation potential. Results show that the potential is estimated to be more than 240 million tons of coal equivalent (Mtce). Third, the improvement of coal power operations, structures and technologies, and ambitious deployment of energy conservation measures are proposed to fully explore the potential of China’s power industry. Fourth, great challenges for China’s ECER and some suggested policies are summed up. The lessons learnt from China will provide a valuable reference and useful inputs for other emerging economies.

For climate protection and energy security reasons, biofuels are proposed to replace a significant fraction of fossil transportation fuel. Recognition of differences in production pathways between biofuels and fossil fuels has motivated an emerging literature that considers air quality and human health impacts of potential changes to the magnitude, location, timing, and type of air pollutants emitted. To inform research and development of advanced biofuel production systems as well as air quality management decisions, we have developed a highly resolved inventory of air pollutant emissions for a baseline scenario of current and future US biofuel feedstock production systems using data from recent research. We find that in most US counties, production of cellulosic biofuel feedstocks using advanced practices exhibits lower air pollutant emissions than current corn grain production. An analysis of the contributing sources to each of the seven evaluated air pollutants helps identify emission reduction opportunities. Compared to the 2008 National Emissions Inventory, production of cellulosic biofuel feedstocks to meet regulatory requirements in 2022 typically represents small increments of air emissions, though for certain pollutants and counties, a threshold may be reached whereby further examination may be warranted to ensure air quality standards can be achieved. Given that the advanced biofuel supply chain system is in its infancy, considerable opportunities exist to minimize adverse impacts while maximizing the benefits of advanced biofuels. This analysis enables more informed technology development decisions and identification of mitigation opportunities in the biofuel feedstock production stage. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Scenario analysis of hydrofluorocarbons consumption and emission reduction in China's mobile air-conditioning sector

A comprehensive emission inventory of air pollutants from municipal solid waste incineration in China's megacity, Beijing based on the field measurements

Managing future air quality in megacities: Co-benefit assessment for Delhi

The energy conservation and emission reduction potentials in China's iron and steel industry: Considering the uncertainty factor

The port of Shanghai, as the world’s largest container port, has been experiencing rapid development in recent years, with increasing cargo throughput capacity. The combustion of diesel fuels used by internal and external port-related container trucks and in-port machineries can release various pollutants, causing air pollution. The terminals are close to the residential area, and the emissions are concentrated, which is worth paying attention to. This study aims to synthetically assess the port-related emissions and their environmental impacts. We firstly constructed an emission inventory of air pollutants in the port of Shanghai and then used the WRF-CMAQ model to estimate the influence of port-related source emissions on air quality. The results show that the annual emissions of SO2, NOX, CO, VOCS, PM, PM10, PM2.5, CO2, BC and OC caused by cargo-handling equipment were 21.88 t, 1811.22 t, 1741.72 t, 222.76 t, 61.52 t, 61.42 t, 58.41 t, 141,805.40 t, 26.80 t and 10.07 t in 2015. The emissions of NOX, CO, VOCS, PM10 and PM2.5 caused by external port-related container trucks were 18,002.92 t, 5308.0 t, 1134.57 t, 711.12 t and 640.58 t. The exhaust of external port-related container trucks was much larger than that of cargo-handling equipment, so the impact on air quality was also higher than that of the machinery. The peak annual average concentrations of PM2.5 and NOX contributed by the port-related sources were 1.75 μg/m3 and 49.21 μg/m3, respectively, which accounted for 3.08% and 36.7%, respectively, of the simulated ambient concentrations by all the anthropogenic emissions in Shanghai. Our results imply that the emission control policy to reduce the combined port-related emissions, especially for the cargo-delivery transportation phase from port to city, is key for large coastal port cities such as Shanghai.

Multi-objective optimization of energy conservation and emission reduction in China's iron and steel industry based on dimensionality reduction

Spatiotemporal simulation and comprehensive evaluation of atmospheric coal-related PAHs emission reduction in China

Evaluation of CO2 and SO2 synergistic emission reduction: The case of China

China is a large economy being troubled by excessive energy consumption, serious environmental pollution and carbon emission problems. To reduce energy consumption, pollutant and carbon emission, understanding their trend and their relationships with the socioeconomic development is essential. Among various sectors, transportation sector is energy-intensive and emits a large amount of air toxics and CO2, and therefore deserves primary attention. This study took carbon emission as a proxy of environmental degradation and employed an analytical framework composed of input-output analysis, ecological network analysis and structural decomposition analysis to scrutinize production- and consumption-based energy consumption and carbon emission (ECCE), to analyze effects of final demand elasticity on them, mutualism relationships between transportation sector and other sectors, and pulling/ driving force of trans- portation sector on the ECCE of the whole economy, and to explore the drivers affecting ECCE of transportation sector. Results comprise the increase trend of ECCE of transportation sector, the noticeable relevance of transportation sector to ECCE, the domination of control relationship and the increase of competition relationship between transportation sector and other sectors, the significant effects of final demand structure, per capita final demand, production structure and sectoral carbon emission density on ECCE. According to these results, as for transportation sector, adjusting the energy structure, improving the transportation efficiency and coordinating the relations between the transportation and its relevant sectors are suggested. The analytical framework facilitates ECCE policy devising in transportation sector for China's target of energy conservation and emission reduction and are instructive for other countries' ECCE actions.

Vehicular air pollutant emissions in a developing economy with the widespread use of biofuels