Life cycle based emergy analysis on China's cement production

Chen, Wei; Liu, Wenjing; Geng, Yong; Ohnishi, Satoshi; Sun, Lu; Han, Wenyi; Tian, Xu; Zhong, Shengyi

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.036

Cited by 59 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…By calculating the renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, economic investment, labor and service, and environmental emission consideration by transforming different physical units, including energy (J), mess (kg), and finance ($), the sustainability of the sewage treatment plant system can be assessed and analyzed quantitatively [27].…”

Section: Emergy Analysis (Ema)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meanwhile, natural resource efficiency, environmental issue, and sustainable degree can be illustrated clearly through a series of emergy indicators to finally obtain an authoritative assessment result for the targeted system. Sustainability assessments are hot topics based on emergy analysis (EMA) and contain a large quantity of different types related to agricultural studies [21,22], city assessments [23,24], green building field [25,26], production systems [27,28], national research [29], pollutant treatment [30], and traffic range [31]. Until now, several studies have been investigated to use the emergy approach in the sewage treatment industry.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Environmental Sustainability Assessment of a New Sewage Treatment Plant in China Based on Infrastructure Construction and Operation Phases Emergy Analysis

Zhang

2020

Water

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Due to excessive resource consumption and pressing environmental issues of the sewage treatment industry, there is extensive attention in China. Given the unique craft production process in the sewage treatment system, a series of integral emergy indicators have been used to evaluate the environmental sustainability based on infrastructure construction and operation stage emergy analysis. Taking a new typical sewage treatment plant as an example, this paper performed a case study. The results illustrate that (1) the infrastructure construction process emergy (approximate 92.6%) is more critical than sewage treatment process emergy; (2) nonrenewable resource is the primary factor for the emergy analysis, followed by energy (23.5%) and purchased supply (7%); (3) cement, steel, and gravel have dominant impacts on the nonrenewable resource emergy; (4) the emergy sustainability index is 0.001101, which displays weak environmental sustainability; (5) the unit emergy value (UEV) of the new sewage treatment plant is 3.40 × 10 12 sej/m 3 ; (6) sensitivity analysis results of the hypothesis demonstrate that nonrenewable resources have significant fluctuations (6.903%) while, for the indicators, emergy sustainability index (ESI) (4.8072%) has the most significant impact; and (7) wastewater is a major contributor. In light of comprehensive discussions, two positive measures are proposed in order to ameliorate the environmental sustainability.Water 2020, 12, 484 2 of 23 between the environment in the sewage treatment industry using biological perspective analysis [5][6][7][8], lifecycle assessment (LCA) perspective [9], ecology models perspective [10], energy and economy performances [11], sewage treatment and water supply efficiency [12], chemical and physical angles [13,14], construction in the wastewater treatment plants [15], integrating wastewater treatment and incineration plants for energy-efficient study [16], sampling strategy for the sewage sludge survey [17], soil and the treatment of sewage treatment plant [18], and systematic assessment framework [19].However, these studies have the following drawbacks: (1) for the isolated angles analysis, only one or some perspectives are chosen to demonstrate the interaction between environmental issues and the sewage treatment industry, resulting in a few unilateral conclusions; (2) ignorance of natural resources assessment leads to a negative impact on sustainability in the sewage treatment industry; (3) undifferentiated contribution degrees from different resource types could cause deviation inaccuracy to some extent; (4) there is a lack of a unified platform to evaluate sustainability in the sewage treatment industry, for example, an integrated method assessment should comprise resources, energy, labor, and others; and (5) some studies are unable to consider multiple pollutant emissions simultaneously, such as exhaust gas, wastewater, and solid waste. It will have a harmful effect on sustainability in the sewage treatment industry. In summary, the above studies cannot disp...

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Section: Emergy Analysis (Ema)mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of a New Sewage Treatment Plant in China Based on Infrastructure Construction and Operation Phases Emergy Analysis

Zhang

2020

Water

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“…In spite of the high resource input and the high pollution emission of the cement industry, there is only a handful of research work done to compute the UEVs of cement manufacturing in China; they are: Wei et al (2016) [26], who studied the life cycle emergy assessment of China's cement industry and Xiao et al (2017) [27], who conducted a sustainable assessment of China's cement industry in 2010 based on emergy, and the results show that the proportion of fossil fuels is enormous, and such consumption cannot be sustained.…”

Section: Emergy Analysis Of Construction Of Buildings and Pavements In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As discussed previously, there are only a handful of studies that have focused on the UEVs of cement manufacturing in China [26,27]. Table 2 lists these three research works by source data, emergy baseline used, raw materials, and their respective UEVs.…”

Section: A Need For An Updated Uev For Cement Manufacturing In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 2 lists these three research works by source data, emergy baseline used, raw materials, and their respective UEVs. It is to be noted that while Wei et al (2016) used the 2015 data of one cement plant in China [26], Xiao et al (2017) used the 2010 data that relate to the entire cement manufacturing in China. It is to be noted that although Song and Chen's (2016) work does not explicitly calculate the UEV of cement manufacturing [28], their work is added to Table 2.…”

Section: A Need For An Updated Uev For Cement Manufacturing In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Systematic Approach to Calculate Unit Emergy Values of Cement Manufacturing in China Using Consumption Quota of Dry and Wet Raw Materials

2020

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The Chinese cement industry produced 2150 million metric tons of cement in 2014, accounting for 58.1% of the world’s total. This industry has a hugely destructive effect on the environment owing to its pollution. The environmental impact of cement manufacturing is a major concern for China. Although researchers have attempted to estimate impacts using life cycle assessment approaches, it lacks the ability to provide a holistic evaluation of the impacts on the environment. Emergy analysis, through ecological accounting, offers environmental decision making using elaborate book keeping. In spite of the high environmental impact of the cement industry, there has only been a handful of research work done to compute the unit emergy values (UEVs) of cement manufacturing in China. A thorough study of existing UEVs of cement manufacturing in China showed pitfalls that may lead to inaccurate estimations if used in emergy analysis. There is a strong need for a new, updated UEV for cement manufacturing in China, particularly reflecting both the dry and wet raw materials in the manufacturing process. This paper develops a methodology to calculate the nonrenewable resources used in cement manufacturing, particularly using mainstream cement production line. Our systematic approach-based UEV estimates of cement manufacturing in China using the quota method are 2.56 × 1012 sej/kg (wet material) and 2.46 × 1012 sej/kg (dry material). Emergy indicators such as environmental loading ratios which were calculated at 2390 (wet material) and 2300 (dry material); emergy yield ratios at 15.7 and 15.8; and emergy sustainability indices at 0.0066 and 0.0069 for dry and wet materials used in cement manufacturing, respectively; these show the immense impact on the environment in China.

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Urban ecological security dynamic analysis based on an innovative emergy ecological footprint method

Zhang

2021

Environ Dev Sustain

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Life cycle based emergy analysis on China's cement production

Cited by 59 publications

References 28 publications

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of a New Sewage Treatment Plant in China Based on Infrastructure Construction and Operation Phases Emergy Analysis

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of a New Sewage Treatment Plant in China Based on Infrastructure Construction and Operation Phases Emergy Analysis

A Systematic Approach to Calculate Unit Emergy Values of Cement Manufacturing in China Using Consumption Quota of Dry and Wet Raw Materials

Urban ecological security dynamic analysis based on an innovative emergy ecological footprint method

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