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Water pollution and freshwater scarcity are growing problems not only in Europe but all over the world. Water reuse contributes significantly to water sustainability and brings many environmental, economic, and social benefits. The European Union (EU) has recently been addressing water-related problems with great commitment. Unfortunately, the total production of wastewater in the European Union is unknown. The situation in the EU is not satisfactory, as only 2.5% of treated wastewater is reused. The first contribution of this study is the estimation of the total amount of wastewater produced annually in the EU. It is estimated that half of this amount comes from industry, namely over 25,500 million m3. Therefore, this study aims to review and analyze the current state of the industrial wastewater (IWW) issue in the EU and to put it in the context of current EU legislation, targets, and water reuse policy. Moreover, since water reuse technologies are energy intensive, the focus is given to the techno-economic impact of IWW reuse. The energy consumption and investment costs in relation to the amount of water treated have been determined for filtration only, minimum liquid discharge (MLD), and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems. Reclaiming 80% of IWW would increase industrial energy consumption by only 4.1%, and investment costs would amount to only 1.5% of the EU GDP. Further, the assessment was focused on the paper & pulp industry, which is among the largest wastewater producers. Implementing efficient water reuse technology in this industry could mean up to 3,449 Mm3/year of reclaimed water. [Display omitted] • Overview of EU legislation with recommendations for future EU policy is presented. • Total amount of wastewater from industry was determined as over 25,500 million m3. • Significant water savings in the industry are possible (80%) using MLD. • Water savings in the paper and pulp industry can be up to 3449 Mm3/year. • 80% of IWW reuse would cost only 1.5% of EU GDP and increase ECI only by 4.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysed and summarised the significant research outputs published on the environmental impact assessment of mining and mineral processing industries through life cycle assessment. The paper presents valuable insights in identifying the gaps, where should the focus be in the mining and mineral processing industries for a sustainable future. Mining and mineral processing industries have been the key focus of research in many countries due to its increasing sustainability concerns that affect global warming and climate change. Use of heavy equipment that consumes electrical energy, mechanical energy, and an enormous amount of process heat is a key contributor to the overall impacts in the industry. Due to the use of heavy equipment and associated energy consumption, these industrial sectors contribute notably to global warming, human health, ecosystems, and resources. Among the various environmental impact assessment tools which are widely used to identify sustainability indicators, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-justified approach among the practitioners and researchers. Though state of the art technological tools and resources are being used now a days, there is still a research gap in identifying the key mining processes which need to be the focus of attention. Renewable energy integration in the mineral processing sector and process heating from green energy sources is becoming the emergent field of research. The review results reveal, the assessment indicators in human health and ecosystems are key factors that are mostly missing in the previous studies which are crucial for people or community living nearby mining area. This review paper identifies the research gaps to the existing literature that can form the base for future research direction in the field of LCA and sustainable energy integration in mining and mineral processing industries. • A review based on life cycle assessment studies in mining and mineral processing. • 16 metal mining industries are reviewed. • Summarised key factors of environmental effects using LCA. • Future research directions are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the energy and environmental crisis is increasingly prominent, and how to solve the global energy and environmental problems is one of the challenges facing the world today. China is a major producer and consumer of organosilicon, so it is necessary to explore the stage of high energy consumption and high pollution in the organosilicon industrial chain. In 2022, the proportion of submerged arc furnaces of 25000 kVA and higher in China reached 40%. Further expansion of these furnaces in the future is inevitable. However, research on the life cycle assessment of organosilicon manufactured using large-capacity submerged arc furnaces is still blank.Therefore,in this paper, the life cycle assessment method is used to evaluate the synthesis process of chemical grade silicon-organosilicon monomer prepared by large capacity (33000 kVA) submerged arc furnace, and the dominant process in various environmental impacts is defined.At the same time, the measures to improve the production process of organosilicon monomer were put forward. In the production process of 1000 kg organosilicon monomer, global warming potential (GWP) contributed the most (73.43%) to the comprehensive environmental impact, followed by chronic public health impact (HTI, 10.55%). Energy consumption (EN) accounted for 8.50%, while resource consumption (RU) accounted for 7.43%. The contributions of other environmental factors were relatively small (0.09%).The energy consumption and environmental pollution in the production of organosilicon monomer can be reduced by strictly controlling the quality of raw materials into the furnace, using heat pump technology in the distillation unit, and comprehensively utilizing the heat of reaction by-products and steam condensate. [Display omitted] • This study is the first one in China to conduct LCA for the preparation of chemical grade silicon-organosilicon monomer synthesis process in 33000 kVA submerged arc furnace. It provides the best improvement suggestions for reducing the environmental load of the product life cycle process and achieving cleaner production. • In response to the national development policy of large-scale submerged arc furnace, the dominant process of preparing organosilicon monomer based on 33000 kva submerged arc furnace in various environmental impacts was clarified. • The main technical improvement directions are: Strictly control the quality of raw materials for submerged arc furnace; Strictly control the sulfur content and nitrogen content of carbonaceous reductant, and adopt the most suitable flue gas treatment technology route; Smelt with large submerged arc furnace; Use heat pump technology for distillation unit; Optimize the monomer synthesis device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the path of industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) needs to be re-examined from a multi-dimensional perspective, this research opens the internal "black box" of China's industrial eco-economic system driven by sustainable development goals (SDGs) and decomposes IEE into industrial production and sustainable development stages. It further divides the industrial production stage into two parallel subsystems of water use efficiency (WUE) and energy efficiency (EE) and derives SDG6 efficiency (SDG 6 E) and SDG7 efficiency (SDG 7 E) in the sustainable development stage respectively. The paper proposes a meta two-stage parallel entropy dynamic DDF-DEA model to re-measure IEE of 30 provinces in China from 2015 to 2021, discusses the relationship between overall efficiency and stage efficiency, and by using the Tobit model explores various types of influencing factors by subregion. The results show that the modified DDF-DEA model can explore China's IEE more accurately under SDGs. China's IEE is more stable from 2015 to 2021, with the efficiency value always fluctuating between 0.59 and 0.64, the overall level is low, and there is more room for improvement. There are significant inter-provincial differences in IEE and efficiency inertia. In more than 75% of the provinces SDG 7 E constrains IEE improvement, while the dynamic evolution of IEE and its subsystem efficiency varies across regions. Environmental regulation is a common factor affecting IEE across the country and in the east, central, and west regions, whereas the level of economic development, openness to the outside world, and urbanization rate are differential factors affecting IEE across the country and in the three major regions. This study offers new perspectives for exploring the path of IEE enhancement and providing empirical references for the collaborative construction of industrial ecological civilization. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels continue to be a significant barrier in the fight against global climate change. Carbon taxes are an energy policy tool for substantially carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions reduction. This paper proposes a new strategy to promote the use of renewable energy by enterprises in industrial parks against the backdrop of a carbon tax. Using an evolutionary game model based on life cycle assessment (LCA), this study investigates the impact of dynamic carbon tax mechanisms, fines, and subsidies on the energy choices of industrial park enterprises. This paper's primary contribution is the incorporation of LCA into the evolutionary game model, which facilitates accurate calculation of the carbon tax parameter value. According to the study's findings, the carbon tax rate increases the propensity of enterprises to acquire a high percentage of renewable energy. While there is a negative relationship between fines and the propensity of enterprises to adopt a low proportion of renewable energy, an increase in subsidies decreases the proportion of enterprises that purchase a high proportion of renewable energy. This paper concludes by providing a theoretical foundation for policymakers to construct precise carbon tax schemes and promote renewable energy consumption among industrial park enterprises while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions. [Display omitted] • Carbon tax & energy decisions: life cycle assessment & evolutionary game theory. • Life cycle assessment for enterprise carbon taxes under multiple energy options. • Carbon tax mechanisms, fines, and subsidies influence enterprises energy decisions. • Excessive subsidies discourage renewable energy use, but fines can. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals are proposed by the Chinese government, which aims to reach the highest level of CO 2 emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. It is of great significance to accelerate green production and lead high-quality development. Energy carbon emissions account for 88% of total CO 2 emissions, while forest carbon sequestration account for 80% of China's terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper, we analyzed the spatial and temporal evolutions of industrial energy consumption carbon emissions and forest carbon sequestration of Hubei Province, then demonstrated the offsetting effect of forest carbon sequestration on the industrial CO 2 emissions. Our results documented energy carbon emissions and forest carbon sequestration in Hubei Province both increased from 2000 to 2020, with the growth rates of 4.9423 Mt/yr and 0.28015 Mt/yr. Forest carbon sequestration could offset energy carbon emissions before 2005, while the offsetting effect was weak due to the continuous increase in industrial energy consumption after 2005. Significant spatial heterogeneity was observed in both energy carbon emissions and forest carbon sequestration. Wuhan had the biggest carbon emission with annual average carbon emission of about 20.046 Mt, while Enshi had the biggest carbon sequestration with annual average forest carbon sequestration of about 14.411 Mt. Spatial autocorrelation between energy carbon emissions and forest carbon sequestration was significant in Hubei Province in the past two decades. Our findings provided evidence that local-scale forest carbon sequestration could offset carbon emissions caused by industrial energy consumption at a certain extent, helping to draw up the scientific energy-saving and emissions-reducing measures. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved energy efficiency among industrial companies is recognized as a key effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In this context, benchmarking industrial energy efficiency plays an important part in increasing industrial companies' awareness of their energy efficiency potential. A method for calculating an energy efficiency index is proposed in this paper. The energy efficiency index is used to benchmark the energy performance of industrial small and medium-sized companies' support and production processes. This enables the possibility to compare the energy performance of single energy end-use processes. This paper's proposed energy efficiency index is applied to energy data from 11 sawmills that participated in the Swedish national energy audit program. The index values were compared with each sawmill's energy saving potential, as stated in the energy audits. One conclusion is that the energy efficiency index is suitable as an energy strategy tool in industrial energy management and could be used both by industrial SMEs and by governmental agencies with an auditing role. However, it does require a harmonized categorization of energy end-use processes as well as quality assured energy data. Given this, a national energy end-use database could be created to facilitate the calculation of an energy efficiency index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico is an important iron and steel manufacturer; it is the 13th largest steel producer in the world. The Mexican iron and steel industry is first in energy consumption for industrial energy use, representing 14.3% of the total industrial final energy consumption and a similar share of related carbon dioxide emissions. The aim and novelty of this paper is to estimate both the energy intensity and CO 2 intensity of the Mexican iron and steel industry in 2010 based on defined system boundaries and an international comparison methodology and to compare the energy intensity of Mexican with those the US and China based on a literature review. The boundaries consider energy consumption for all coke making, pelletizing, sintering, iron making, steel making, steel casting, hot rolling, cold rolling, and processing, such as galvanizing or coating. They also include energy use for net imported pig iron, direct-reduced iron, pellets, lime, oxygen, ingots, blooms, billets, and slabs. Under these boundary conditions, the Mexican iron and steel industry was shown to be more energy efficient and less carbon intense than those the U.S. and China. The reasons for this efficiency are mainly the large shares of the electric arc furnace route (69.4%) and continuous casting (100%) in production and the large share of natural gas in the fuel mix. This paper highlights the importance of the definition of boundaries and clear methodologies to analyse the iron and steel energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of high emissions and high energy consumption in metallurgical industry have brought great challenges to the green and low carbon transition in China. As a low-carbon economic instrument, carbon tax is generally considered to be an effective way to reduce CO 2 emissions through raising energy cost, but whether it will promote the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of China's metallurgical industry is still unanswered. Under this background, this paper uses provincial panel data over years 2000–2015 to investigate the impact of carbon taxation on GTFP of metallurgical industry from the perspective of inter-fuel and inter-factor substitution. The lock-in mechanism is also incorporated in the three-stage estimation model to better reflect the asymmetric price response of factors and fuels. The results reveal that the slow marketization process of energy price and the rigid demand for energy in China's metallurgical industry hinder the substitution effect of energy. The implementation of carbon tax has limited effect on energy-saving and CO 2 reduction in the metallurgical industry of China and levying a carbon tax has a negative effect on GTFP during the research period. Therefore, the government should not achieve CO 2 reduction targets at the expense of green economic growth. GTFP is suggested to be considered in future assessment criteria in the process of transforming to low-carbon economy. Image 1063 • We estimate the inter-fuel and inter-factor substitution in China's metallurgical industry. • The Sequential- Malmquist-Luenberger index is used to measure GTFP. • The impact of carbon tax on GTFP of China's metallurgical industry is measured. • The government should not reduce CO 2 emissions at the expense of green economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial sector is characterized by high energy consumption and high carbon emissions. It is of great significance to clarify the determinants of industrial CO 2 emissions for emissions abatement policy making. For this purpose, a comprehensive decomposition framework that can quantify the impacts of both oriented technologies and economic factors on CO 2 emissions is developed. By applying the proposed decomposition framework, this paper investigates the determinants of China's industrial CO 2 emissions. The main findings show that, during the study period, (1) investment scale expansion was the leading factor promoting emissions growth; (2) against our expectations, efforts for energy structure adjustment failed to curb emissions but had marginal promoting effects on emissions growth; (3) energy-oriented and output-oriented technologies were indispensable contributors to emissions mitigation, followed by decreases in investment efficiency, potential energy intensity, and the CO 2 emission coefficient; and (4) energy use efficiency and production efficiency changes usually exerted moderate influences on industrial CO 2 emissions, and their influencing directions were sensitive in different sub-industries and Five-Year Plan periods. In most situations, the inhibiting effects could not counteract the promoting effects. Based on these empirical findings, policy recommendations to further reduce industrial CO 2 emissions are provided. • Empirical analysis was conducted at sub-industries and different FYPs levels. • Investment scale was the leading factor promoting industrial CO 2 emissions. • The technology progress contributed most to emission mitigation. • Driving effects distinctly differed among sub-industries and FYP periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on energy-saving retrofits of the existing industrial systems can effectively improve the systems' energy-saving level and increase company revenue. The energy-saving bottleneck diagnosis for systems is the foundation of the energy-saving retrofit design. The diagnosis also aims to yield a more targeted energy-saving retrofit, thus ensuring the energy-saving effect and investment income of the transformation project. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method to diagnose the energy-saving bottleneck of the existing industrial systems. First, the energy-saving bottleneck diagnosis is decomposed into two parts: the diagnosis of energy-saving bottleneck units and the diagnosis of energy-saving bottleneck factors. Then, the energy density decomposition method is improved and a multi-mode energy efficiency density decomposition method is proposed. Next, an energy-saving bottleneck diagnosis method for industrial systems based on multi-mode energy efficiency density decomposition and an orthogonal test method is proposed. The proposed method can analyze the energy-saving potential of existing systems, accurately locate energy-saving bottlenecks, and avoid the dependence on a large amount of expert experience or complete production data in the existing methods. Finally, the proposed method is applied to an actual circulating cooling water system and the system energy-saving bottleneck diagnosis is realized, thus verifying the practicability of the method. • Energy-saving bottlenecks in industrial systems are analyzed and decomposed. • A method for energy-saving bottleneck diagnosis from two directions is proposed. • An improved energy efficiency density decomposition method is proposed. • The diagnosis of energy-saving bottlenecks in industrial systems is achieved. • The verification is performed for an industrial circulating cooling water system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced ultrafiltration process as the cleaner treatment of cutting oil wastewater has been presented in this paper. Twisted tapes as turbulence promoters were used for fouling mitigation and the enhancement of cutting oil wastewater ultrafiltration for the first time. The response surface methodology was used for modelling and analysis of the most important effects, particularly an aspect ratio of twisted tape and cross-flow rate, on the flux and specific energy consumption as responses. The improved maximal flux under minimal specific energy consumption has been obtained by the optimization of twisted tape dimension alongside the working conditions. The application of twisted tapes remarkably increases the flux. The linear effects of the cross-flow rate and the aspect ratio have a dominant positive influence on the flux. The linear effect of cross-flow rate has a positive dominant effect on the specific energy consumption. The squared effect of the aspect ratio is statistically significant and allows for optimization. The optimal flux of 201 L m−2 h−1 can be reached under specific energy consumption of 1.34 kWh m−3 with a twisted tape of the aspect ratio of 1.55 and 2% w/w oil concentration. The optimized process has the desirability of 0.81 what is beyond commercially available. Image 1 • The ultrafiltration of cutting oil wastewater was enhanced by application of twisted tapes. • Response surface methodology was used for the effects analysis and optimization of the process. • An aspect ratio of twisted tape has statistically significant linear and quadratic effects on flux. • Cross-flow rate has bigger influence on the specific energy consumption than twisted tape. • The proposed optimized process has desirability beyond commercially available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investments in energy efficiency often remain undecided upon and there is a large potential for enhancing energy efficiency in the industrial and commercial sectors. Within this context, the aim of the research project M_Key "Management as a key driver of energy performance" is to better understand how large-scale energy consumer (LSEC) companies make energy-efficiency investment decisions. With about 35% of the total Swiss electricity consumption, LSECs are an important target group for energy-efficiency programmes in Switzerland. The goal of this paper is to present and describe the main findings of M_Key (Management as Key for Energy Performance) research project. For the first time, these findings extensively depict large-scale energy consumers in Switzerland. They highlight the low level of energy management in Swiss LSECs and of the resources allocated to tackle energy issues. Due to a lack of monitoring and control tools, companies have difficulty assessing their energy-efficiency investments. Energy issues are not generally a priority for companies, with a few exceptions, mainly in large firms. Requirements from national or cantonal energy policies have a significant role (and in the case of SMEs a key role) in inciting companies to action. When energy efficiency is perceived as strategic, companies tend to have a high level of energy management. The better the energy management system is, the more likely the chances are for a positive decision on energy-efficiency investment. Another important conclusion is that the more strategic a project or investment is considered to be, the less restrictive are the financial criteria applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers and entrepreneurs are aware that reducing energy waste and underutilization are mandatory to actually foster the green transition. Nevertheless, small–medium enterprises usually meet technical and overwhelming financial constraints. They are unable to make profits, become less energy-sensitive, and cut down on their emissions simultaneously. Industrial districts are a source of both wealth and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) supply a suitable strategy to ease symbiotic exchanges among various organizations. Surplus electricity from larger, energy-autonomous companies will be a new input for more vulnerable ones. This type of district is challenging, and it can provide an unexplored opportunity to cooperate, invest in renewable energy sources, and form alliances. To better exploit underutilized energy in industrial districts, it is essential to explore energy symbiosis (ES), i.e., an energy-based perspective of industrial symbiosis. This study presents an original mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model that aims to identify possible inter-firm exchanges and introduce microgrid-based support for distributed renewable-energy generators (DREGs) and battery energy storage systems (BESS) over a one-year simulation period. The model simultaneously targets economic and ecological objectives. The paper compares two case studies, one with battery support and one without. The optimization model was tested using a case study and found to improve energy efficiency (with a 43.46% saving in energy costs) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (with an 84.59% reduction in GHG) by facilitating symbiotic exchanges among SMEs in industrial districts. The inclusion of BESS support further enhanced the model's ability to utilize green and recovered energy. These findings have implications for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and SMEs seeking to transition to more sustainable energy practices. Future work could explore the applicability of the MILP optimization model in other contexts and the potential for scaling up the model to larger industrial districts. • New MILP model for energy symbiosis park design developed. • Eco-industrial Park with shared renewable energy facilities and battery designed. • Model tested via two case studies: with batteries and without. • The analysis shows how batteries support enhance the park use of renewable sources. • Levelized Cost of Electricity of the park cut down of half the initial value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual consumption of petroleum products in India was about 221 million metric tons in 2015. Of this, 84% was imported. The Indian industrial sector accounts for about 16%-20% of the total fuel consumption for thermal energy for different heating applications in the temperature range of 50°C--250 °C. Solar collectors can meet these temperature requirements and offer the possibility to mitigate the consumption of oil. This study highlights the fact that conversion efficiency from solar energy is much higher for process heating than for electricity generation and that process heating applications constitute a significant share of industrial energy consumption. In this paper, a methodology has been developed to estimate the potential for integration of solar collectors for process heating. The methodology employs process operating temperatures to select the type of solar collectors. The size of the solar field is estimated taking into account the thermal heat loads, working fluid and temperatures of these processes, the efficiency of the chosen solar collectors, location-based solar irradiance and capacity utilization of the solar collectors. The proposed methodology has been validated with a software tool called System Advisor Model (SAM). The techno-economic analysis will indicate the viability of solar systems for integration in industries. Therefore, the consociated parameters on economic (capital cost, fuel oil savings, monetary benefits), financial (Payback periods, Rates of Returns) and environmental (Carbon savings) are estimated. Further, the methodology has been applied to select Indian industries to verify its potential quantitatively. The industries selected include Textile, Pulp & Paper, Dairy, Leather and Automobile. Process-wise energy demands are considered while estimating the potential as the fuel requirement offset by solar energy in terms of absolute fuel oil savings, monetary benefits and carbon savings. The other economic and financial parameters mentioned above were estimated to verify the capability and present the market position of solar systems. Further, sensitivity analyses have been performed with respect to solar energy penetration and fuel oil prices to address the viability of integration of solar energy for process heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing sector nowadays has to deal with the global need to reduce the environmental impact of human activity. As manufacturing accounts for a significant portion of the global CO 2 emissions, scientific research should be addressed to understand the environmental impact of manufacturing processes and, in the meantime, to take advantage of their full potential in reducing the overall CO 2 emissions. The present review paper aims at describing the role of metal shaping processes in reducing the environmental impact across different stages of metal components life. Actually, an increased consciousness concerning both the environmental performances of manufacturing processes and their potential to enable circular economy practices can uncover and unlock new energy and resource efficiency strategies. Besides the straightforward role in the manufacturing stage, the impact of these processes in others life stages (mainly material production and End-of-life) is analyzed. The review paper aims both at outlining the already developed scientific research in the domain of energy and resource efficiency and at highlighting the role of metal shaping processes in putting in place energy and resource efficient manufacturing strategies. Concerning the unit process level, quantified improvements in environmental indicators with varying processes parameters, machine tools architectures, used process and manufacturing approach itself have been analyzed. As far as material efficiency is concerned, both innovative recycling as well as reuse strategies (remanufacturing, reshape and relocate) implemented by means of metal shaping processes are described. The idea is to provide a comprehensive picture of environmental aspects of metal shaping processes analyzing the developed scientific research, looking at them from a new perspectives and outlining research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large untapped potential for improved energy efficiency in various sectors of the economy. Governmental industrial energy audit programs subsidizing the companies to conduct an energy audit are the most common policy in trying to overcome the energy efficiency gap. Evaluation studies have been carried out to gain knowledge about the success of a completed energy audit policy program. The evaluations were made in different ways and in addition focused on different performance indicators and used different ways of categorizing data. In this article, a literature review has been made of five evaluation studies from different energy audit programs, where the problems of the present incomparability between programs due to differences are discussed. The policy implication of this paper is that new energy audit policy programs must distinguish a harmonized way of categorizing data, both regarding energy efficiency measures and energy end-use. Further, a proposition for a standard for how to evaluate energy audit policy programs is suggested. Conclusions from this study are that important elements, such as the free-rider effect and harmonized energy end-use data, should be defined and included in evaluation studies. A harmonized standard for evaluating audit programs is not least needed within the EU, where member states are obliged to launch audit programs for large enterprises, and preferably also for small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper serves as an important contribution for the development of such a standard in further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government, industry, and corporate behaviors all encourage companies to actively implement energy efficiency measures (EEMs) but few empirical studies have identified the specific barriers and drivers of EEMs and their relative importance. This paper aims to better understand the barriers and drivers of EEMs to help determine how policies and regulations support their proliferation. We conducted a questionnaire survey of the enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial transfer, carefully reviewed related policies, and built the Condition-Resource-Management (CRM) model to screen out the main factors that affect the improvement of energy efficiency. The mechanism of enterprise energy efficiency improvement was analyzed from the three different perspectives of EEMs (implementation steps, factors, and actors), and the main factors in each stage of the decision-making process were identified. The results show that in the seven steps of EEMs, the importance of awareness and investment priorities is great. Both economic and regulatory barriers and drivers have a significant effect on the improvement of energy efficiency via profit and behavioral impacts. Finally, based on the analysis results, we propose that policy makers need to (a) pay more attention to economic and legal tools and (b) appropriately increase supervision and punishment, and (c) government should provide more financial and technical support to encourage enterprises to improve energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge energy consumption and high pollutants emission have restrained the sustainable development of China's iron and steel industry. It is very necessary to explore those underlying obstacles which hinder the sustainable development of this industry from a systematic point. This paper adopted an improved emergy based method and a set of indicator system to evaluate the sustainability of steel production enterprises, in which dilution method, disability adjusted life years (DALY) method and potentially disappeared fraction (PDF) method were integrated into classic emergy analysis to quantify the impact of emissions, and then the related indicator system characterizing the industrial production process was put forward. One steel production enterprise in Sichuan Province, China, as a case, was studied using the proposed methods and indicator system. The research results show that this enterprise is not sustainable in the long term, due to large share of nonrenewable inputs and strong dependence on imported inputs; emissions' impact further aggravates this situation due to the increasing environmental loading; the proposed methods and indicator system can act as one of helpful tools for decision-making in steel & iron industry. Finally, this paper gives some corresponding suggestions so as to improve the comprehensive performance of this enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remanufacturing facilitates multiple usages of products by providing several life cycles and contributes to more sustainable societies by the reduction of raw materials and energy consumption. Previous studies on sustainability assessment in remanufacturing focus predominantly on the life cycle design and the life cycle engineering approach. There is a research gap regarding the assessment of remanufacturing operational excellence as far as sustainability issues are concerned. The problem in the application of the principles of sustainable development in everyday business operations is the lack of clearly defined sustainability indicators, which might be used in the assessment of remanufacturing activities. In this paper authors present a set of indicators which are used as the criteria for sustainability assessment and to address company classification. Authors define three classes of companies, which respond to the different sustainability levels. The aim of this paper is to provide a new tool for decision making based on Grey Decisions Making. This tool helps in classifying the current state of remanufacturing operations, and then identifying and prioritizing operations in the company which need improvement actions. The authors present the numerical example in order to explain the decision making process and indicate how the application of Grey Decision Making (GDM) can contribute towards more sustainable societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to make more sustainable decisions, industry seeks reliable methods to assess and compare sustainability for manufacturing. Sustainability characterization is intended to provide such a reliable method to access and track sustainability information. As a step towards developing a standard reference for sustainability characterization of unit-manufacturing processes, in this paper, we focus on injection molding with energy as a sustainability indicator. This paper proposes a science-based guideline for energy: (i) prediction, (ii) benchmarking and performance evaluation, and (iii) improvement, for unit-manufacturing processes, which unlike the previous methods does not require a physical benchmark. We discuss in detail the steps of the proposed guideline for the injection molding process. The guideline considers different influencing factors such as part geometry, material-related physical and processing properties, and the manufacturing equipment information. The guideline is implemented by developing a user friendly system, and is demonstrated by a case study. We expect this work to contribute to the development of a standard reference methodology to help further sustainability in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial energy efficiency has raised to the top of European energy policy agenda, and particular efforts should be placed to tackle the barriers to energy efficiency of small and non-energy intensive industrial users. To enhance the adoption rate of a specific industrial energy efficiency measure, it is crucial to properly evaluate the barriers. Without a proper level of detail - considering both the measure's specificity and the evaluation's perspective - company managers are hampered when making investment decisions, and policymakers are prevented from developing the most effective policies. The paper aims at highlighting that the value of a given intervention-dependent barrier may differ when evaluating it at the company level, by technology area, or with respect to a specific measure. To achieve this objective, an exploratory investigation of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises into the metalworking sector has been performed with respect to selected cross-cutting technologies. Although general barriers appear as most relevant at the company level, large differences appear when considering intervention-dependent barriers by technology area as well as at the energy efficiency measure level. The research presents innovative results, as the literature and policymakers have not accounted so far for how the value of barriers can effectively vary with respect to a single measure, but have only considered barriers at company level. Additionally, the paper highlights that differences can be appreciated when evaluating the intervention-dependent barriers according to some firm characteristics (i.e. size, production complexity, and innovativeness). The study concludes with suggestions for policymakers as well as industrial decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the majority of industrial emissions stems from heat generation, the choice of fuel is, next to energy efficiency, one of the tools to influence climate impact (and security of supply) in industrial energy use. At the same time, the choice of fuel is not only a matter of price but of the furnace, it is used in. Top-down models often struggle to include technological explicitness, which is especially important to represent the heterogeneous structure of industrial energy demand. In this paper, an approach to apply a discrete choice model to industrial high temperature energy demand is presented. The model's parameters are estimated based on observed fuel choices. The model exhibits an average coefficient of determination of 0.45 when compared to a constant fuel use from 2002 to 2013 in major countries of the European Union. Results suggest that energy carriers are perceived very differently by industrial consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China gradually completes the process of industrialization, its industrial energy consumption growth is now slowing and even decreasing. Meanwhile, household energy consumption in the residential sector has seen steady growth. This paper aims to explore the mechanisms of factors affecting urban household energy-saving behavior including the habitual energy-saving behaviors and purchasing energy-saving behaviors. A structural equation model is built to analyze the influencing routes and effects of individual objective and subjective characteristic factors, external influencing factors, and energy-saving intentions on shaping energy-saving behaviors. The empirical results drawing on the survey data collected in Shandong province show that external influencing factors that have two kinds of mediating effects through energy-saving intentions and individual subjective characteristic factors are the most crucial factors to energy-saving behaviors. Values included in individual subjective factors and quality of energy-saving products included in external influencing factors have greatest effects on energy-saving behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the major carbon dioxide emitter, industrial sector has attracted considerable attention of the whole society on the energy saving and emissions reduction issue. Since the tobacco primary process has the typical characteristics of process industry, and it represents about 80% of the total energy consumption of cigarette production, this paper proposes an integrated model employing the e-p method, which is widely used in the energy consumption analysis of the process industry, to estimate the energy saving and emissions reduction potential of the tobacco primary process. Based on the energy consumption data of the three Chinese cigarette enterprises in 2015, the results show that as to the section energy intensity factor of the tobacco primary process, the changes of the tobacco leaf pre-conditioning section and the cut lamina drying section can lead to 18%–47% and 9%–36% reduction of the unit cut tobacco energy intensity, and as to the production ratio factor, the lower proportion of cut stem can lead to 15%–33% reduction of the unit cut tobacco energy intensity because of the higher energy intensity of the stem process section. In addition, scenario analysis has been used to discover the energy saving and emissions reduction potential by process optimization and products structure upgrade under the premise of the fixed total production volume, the actual production portfolio and process equipment of three enterprises. Finally, the effective measures and policy suggestions to realize the goal of energy saving and emissions reduction for three cigarette enterprises are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle-class expansion has played a crucial role in driving the changes in embodied carbon emissions. However, its driving mechanisms still need to be clarified. In this paper, we compiled novel multiregional input-output tables to capture the rise of the middle class in China in terms of its expansion and consumption pattern changes. Structural path analysis was employed to investigate the critical paths of embodied carbon emissions from middle classes of different regions in China during 2012–2015. Structural path decomposition was further used to explore the driving factors along the paths, including changes in population size, consumption patterns, industrial structure, and carbon intensity. Our results show that, from 2012 to 2015, the role of the middle class in driving carbon emissions through the most critical paths was either enhanced or reduced depending on different factorial changes. Generally, the paths with enhanced roles of the middle class stemmed from the urban and rural middle classes in Central China, Southwestern Coastal, and Northern Coastal regions, and the changes in consumption patterns and population of the urban middle class were the main driving factors. The top 30 paths of carbon emissions growth driven by the urban and rural middle classes approximately increase 19.5 Mt and 8 Mt of carbon emissions, respectively. In contrast, most of the paths with the weakened role of the middle class were intraregional paths in the Southern Coastal and Eastern Coastal regions, and carbon intensity was the dominant factor governing the changes. Our analysis systematically revealed, for the first time, the heterogeneous impacts and driving factors of middle-class expansion in different regions of China on carbon emissions. Therefore, it provides new insights for climate mitigation in the context of China's plan to cultivate a majority middle-class society. • New multiregional input-output tables are compiled for the rise of the middle class in China. • Middle-class expansion has heterogeneous effects on regional carbon emissions. • Urban and rural middle class lead to an incease of 19.5 and 8 Mt CO2 for top 30 paths, respectively. • Four driving factors play different roles in supply chains affecting carbon emissions. • Consumption patterns and urban middle-class size changes were the main driving factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by the construction and manufacturing sector every year, there is an urgent need for reducing construction materials consumption as the construction industry continues to grow. Current practices for designing structural elements, which are based on traditional design methods, result in building box-shaped elements and consuming more materials than what is structurally necessary. Excess materials can be removed without compromising the structural soundness of the elements while also providing added architectural value. This paper presents an approach based on generative design concepts, genetic algorithms, and the Lagrangian Multiplier Method to design concrete beams that use near-exact amounts of material only where they are needed. In this study, beam designs are optimized to reduce concrete and steel use in reinforced concrete beams. The effectiveness of the approach was demonstrated through its deployment to design a cantilever beam and a simply supported beam. The results of both applications were very promising as the reductions in material costs reached 63% and the related reductions in CO 2 emissions reached 57% per beam. This lays strong foundations for expanding the effort to scale this approach into entire buildings. The optimized structures can be constructed using 3D concrete printing technology, which eliminates the barriers imposed by traditional form-based construction. The results of this study contribute to means for making construction more economical and environmentally sustainable. • Traditional design methods of structural concrete elements result in material waste. • Cement production significantly contributes to the earth's greenhouse emissions. • Applying generative design concepts to concrete structures reduces material waste. • Resulting cost reductions could reach 63% per simply supported or cantilever beam. • The corresponding CO 2 emission reductions could reach 57% per beam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Compressed air systems account for a significant proportion of industrial energy usage in the European Union and the United States. Improving the energy efficiency of final air consumers is an essential aspect of overall system optimisation. This paper investigates and compares the minimisation of air consumption in linear pneumatic actuator systems using two approaches: dual pressures and the utilisation of expansion energy in compressed air. In order to simplify the implementation of energy saving circuits for industrial end-users, a software program has been developed based on a combination of genetic algorithms and dynamic simulations. The developed program, described in this paper, automates the selection process of optimal design parameters and control input variables for pneumatic cylinders. The robustness of the optimisation software has been experimentally validated. The results from a vertical lifting application case study indicate that the proposed optimisation approaches can reduce compressed air usage by up to 29% per cycle, whilst simultaneously satisfying other common automation design objectives or constraints. The paper concludes with a discussion on methods to increase the application of such energy efficiency measures in pneumatic production machinery. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Rapid economic development of industrial cities has led to a significant increase in energy consumption and carbon emissions in China. Through the log-mean Divisia index decomposition method and the cluster analysis method, this paper provides a systematic method to (1) analyze the time series of carbon emissions from the energy consumption of the industrial sector in a city; (2) explore the main factors affecting carbon emissions; and (3) divide industries in a city into different types and analyze combination features of “emissions–efficiency”. Finally, this paper takes Tianjin as an example, and studies the emissions characteristics of Tianjin. Results show that high-emission and low-efficiency industries play important roles in the development and economic growth of industries in Tianjin, improvements in energy utilization efficiency are the most important contributors to effective industrial energy conservation and emission reductions in Tianjin, and that the method developed in this paper is practical in the analysis of carbon emissions characteristics of an industrial city or region. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art in electrical energy metering, with a particular focus on energy metering in complex manufacturing facilities. Higher levels of quantification and visibility in energy consumption is necessary due to the rising energy costs and proposed environmental taxes, which are forcing industrial enterprises to improve their energy efficiency. Traditionally, decisions relating to the planning and operation of complex manufacturing facilities have been based solely on conventional metrics such as raw material costs, labour costs and productivity with respect to market demands. Energy consumption has rarely been considered as a driver of manufacturing strategy; however this issue is becoming more prevalent, and is a topic of concern in the board room and a topic of significant research interest in the last five years. By integrating energy consumption criteria into a facilities planning and operating structures, a reduction of energy costs is to be expected. Such criteria and metrics include peak shaving, adapting the production program to external conditions such as energy prices or renewable energy availability, and implementing best practice energy management standards. In order to accurately quantify the effectiveness of projects designed to improve energy efficiency, it is first necessary to assess current performance. Power and energy metering equipment is essential for this assessment and in addition also allows the measurement of a wide variety of additional electrical statistics related to power quality such as voltage sags and surges to more complex power quality disturbances, for example harmonic distortion. The technologies available and the associated measurement and inference is presented in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The energy consumption of China’s six most energy-intensive sub-industries is about half of the total national energy consumption, and accounts for more than 70% of industrial energy consumption in recent years. These six industries are capital and energy intensive and have a great impact on the energy consumption of China, so they are directly related to the achievement of the energy conservation goal in the 13th Five Year Plan. This paper investigates the influential factors of energy consumption in the industries by employing the cointegration method, and estimates the possible energy conservation potential considering energy rebound effect. The results show that GDP and the scale of industries are the deterministic factors increasing energy consumption, while R&D intensity decreases it. Energy price has little impact on energy consumption. The average energy rebound effect is calculated using the latent variable approach and the result is 90.75%. Considering energy rebound effect, the energy conservation potential of China’s energy intensive industries is 14.18–26.54 million tons of standard coal equivalent in 2020 and 44.64–80.72 million tons of standard coal equivalent in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a theoretical background of the inverse DEA with pollution generating technology that is capable of dealing with undesirable outputs. Interaction between input, desirable output, undesirable output and environmental efficiency is investigated for industrial sector of Iranian provinces. Five scenarios are designed to perform this aim and construct a gradual planning scheme for short to long run CO 2 reduction. The following results are found. There exit a high potential of saving capital in short and mid and long-run from 80% to 150% in total. Province P8 and P5 are found as the most effective provinces in terms of saving inputs (labor and capital) in proposed scenarios. No labor reduction is suggested for a short run or for a long run in total, approximately 7%–160% extra labor is needed in the planning period. Some provinces face with infeasibility problem in the planning scheme especially in period on CO 2 reduction. The tightest scenario in terms of CO 2 reduction requires both extra labor and capital while reducing undesirable output and expanding desirable output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO 2 emissions from China's energy intensive industries increased sharply during 2000–2013 and reached around 43.84 billion tons in 2013. The large amounts of emissions make it necessary to study the CO 2 emissions performance and efficiency in these industries. In this paper, we use the Shephard input distance function and nonparametric metafrontier approach to construct an index called Metafrontier Malmquist CO 2 Emissions Performance Index (MMCPI) to evaluate the efficiency of CO 2 emissions from China's energy intensive industries. Then we decompose the index into three components: technical efficiency change (TEC), technical change (TC) and catching-up effect. Finally, we calculate the reduction potential of CO 2 emissions under both the meta-frontier and group-frontier. The results show that, the CO 2 emissions efficiency in China's energy intensive industries improved in the period of 2000–2013. In addition, under the group-frontier, there is almost no CO 2 emissions reduction potential for energy intensive industries in Jiangsu and Shanghai in Eastern China, while CO 2 emissions reduction potential in Hebei Province is the largest. In Central China, CO 2 emissions reduction potential in Shanxi is the largest and Henan has the lowest. In Western China, the potential of CO 2 emissions reduction in Sichuan is the lowest, while Ningxia has the largest reduction potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving eco-efficiency is an important way to promote environmental decoupling. Based on the input-output model and data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper evaluates the eco-efficiency of 44 sectors in China with a new DEA model considering inter-sectoral linkages, then explores how the industrial network would be optimized as inefficient sectors become efficient under constant resources supply and constant final demand. The empirical results indicate that 22 sectors are inefficient and deserve further improvement. Inefficient sectors becoming efficient will drive the industrial network to evolve in a more intensive direction, and allow the economy to achieve greater economic benefits with less energy consumption and pollution. Accounting under constant resources supply suggests that increasing external demand should be a key to promoting environmental decoupling in the economy. Accounting under constant final demand indicates more stringent environmental regulations should be used to drive technology upgrades. • A new eco-efficiency measurement combining the input-output model and DEA is built. • The eco-efficiency and potential deficiencies of 44 sectors in China are evaluated. • The impact of inefficient sectors becoming efficient on the economy is measured. • The industrial network presents significant potential for environmental decoupling. • Key constraints to environmental decoupling in the industrial network are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional cement production wastes a large amount of natural resources and energy, and causes environmental pollution, which cannot meet the green and sustainable development needs of modern building materials. Geopolymer is an environmentally friendly materials that can utilize industrial solid wastes and have low environmental load and energy consumption, which is expected to become a substitute for OPC. However, geopolymers also have shortcomings in some properties that need to be improved. This paper reviews the recent research progress on the performance improvement, potential new applicationw and sustainability assessment of geopolymer materials. Discussion from this paper showed that the properties of geopolymer materials, including rheology, hardening properties, toughness, etc., can be significantly improved by some methods such as chemical additives, mineral admixtures, nanoparticles, fibers, etc. Furthermore, this paper proves that geopolymers have great application potential as porous thermal insulation materials and 3D printing building materials, and points out some performance optimization methods for geopolymer-based porous materials and 3D printing materials. In this work, it was also concluded that geopolymer shows significant advantages over OPC in sustainable analysis index such as E-energy and E-CO 2 (Energy and CO 2 emission) based on LCA method. Finally, a few potential opportunities and development directions have been suggested for future research on geopolymer materials. [Display omitted] • Some effective methods to improve properties of geopolymer materials are reviewed. • Two potential applications of geopolymers as special building materials are discussed. • Sustainability assessment of geopolymer materials based on LCA method is analyzed. • Several future research and development directions of geopolymers are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption has become one of the main costs of the stone processing industry and results in substantial stress on the environment. Consequently, the energy-saving issue has drawn increasing attention in the stone processing industry. Cutting power modeling is the crucial technology of energy prediction of stone machining process, being the foundation of energy-saving optimization in this sector. The cutting power changes dynamically during the variable material removal rate process (V-MRR process). Therefore, the power characteristic of the V-MRR process is more complicated than that of the constant material removal rate process (C-MRR process). In the stone processing industry, various machining processes belong to the V-MRR process, such as block sawing, slab chamfering, curved surface milling and grinding. In this paper, a modeling methodology of cutting energy consumption for variable-MRR process is proposed. The dynamic power characteristic can be reflected in this methodology, and the influences of cutting parameters on stone-cutting energy consumption are also fully considered. Based on the specially designed test system, experimental studies were conducted to obtain the fitting coefficients of the proposed energy consumption model. Then, energy calculations of four stone blocks sawing processes were performed. The results show that the predictive accuracy of all tested stone block sawing cases is above 90%. Finally, a case application is elaborated to demonstrate that the proposed method can help stone manufacturers determine the energy-optimal process plan. The detailed results of energy-saving & benefits-improving with using the proposed method are also proved in the case study. • This paper proposes a new modeling method of cutting energy consumption for V-MRR process. • The dynamic power characteristic can be fully considered in the I -model. • The power simulation using I -model is more in accordance with the actual situation. • The I -model can help stone manufacturers determine the energy-optimal process plan. • It shows that the effects of energy-saving & benefit-improving using the I -model are remarkable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deteriorating air quality, which is linked to human actions related to energy resources, has become an urgent global problem. China's air pollution has reached the hazardous level since 2000s. In consideration of the serious health and social problems, residential demand for clean air is increasing. This paper applies the Contingent Valuation method to estimate public's willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing air pollution in the urban area of China. Open-ended scenarios through face-to-face surveys are used to elicit public's WTP. The Two-Part model is employed for the estimation: the probit model is used to estimate the probability of respondents who have positive WTP values, and the interval regression model is employed to estimate the specific WTP level of those with nonzero WTP values. The results show that nearly 90% of the respondents are willing to pay for reducing air pollution, and the average amount of WTP per individual is 382.6RMB per year. Household income is found to be positively correlated with people's WTP, and those who trust the government are more willing to share the cost of reducing air pollution. This study recommends designing some effective mechanisms to tap the potentially available source of money for smog mitigation and improving the transparency of smog governance to enhance the government credibility as solutions to cope with smog crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting energy efficiency technologies (EETs) in heavy industrial sector is a crucial approach for energy conservation worldwide. Due to the existence of various barriers, the diffusion of EETs is often slow and is largely influenced by policy incentives. Insufficient consideration of the heterogeneity of EETs makes the one-size-fits-all policy design scheme ineffective and inefficient in practice. Therefore, this paper analyzes the design of differentiated technology policies to accelerate the promotion of EETs. The analysis is based on technology classification results from a bottom-up technology evaluation system. Technical attributes were qualitatively analyzed and the 130 total technologies were divided into three segments: 76 main production-process technologies (PP), 39 process-integrated resource and energy recycling technologies (RER) and 15 pollution control technologies (PC). Then the 115 PP and RER technologies were quantitatively analyzed by calculating benefit-cost ratio, investment payback time and technical penetration. The evaluation results proved that EETs had marked differences in economic efficiency and technical maturity, with dynamic investment payback time ranging from 0.3 to 11 years and penetrations ranging from 1% to 80%. Graphing investment payback time on a vertical axis and technical penetration on a horizontal axis, the 115 technologies were classified into four quadrants. Features and policy-support demands of those three types of technologies in the four quadrants were discussed and corresponding technology policies were proposed. The thorough technical investigations in this study also provided a complete technological database for policy-making, which was freely offered on the website of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of increasing energy costs, corporate image concerns, and environmental legislation is driving a transition towards energy and resource efficiency within the manufacturing sector. Developing a more comprehensive understanding of how energy is consumed within manufacturing facilities is now a core component of research efforts aiming to advance industrial energy efficiency. A variety of different research teams have proposed approaches and methodologies that attempt to quantify the energy consumed at a unit process level however, the application of intelligent energy sensors that aim to support this goal is a topic that has received very little attention within the literature. This paper presents a novel nonintrusive intelligent energy sensor that can infer the operational status of a machine tool from information contained within the power signals recorded at the machine tools main incomer. Researchers within the literature agree that obtaining transparency on the status of a machine tool during machining will motivate improvements that can reduce the energetic impacts of machining and therefore improve the overall energy efficiency of manufacturing. The research work presented in this article reveals that the information available at the machine tools electrical service entry is capable of identifying individual component activations in addition to the overall operational status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to classical economics, the substitution of production factors could be used to reduce a specific input factor, but it is restricted by the irreplaceability of factors. As an essential production factor of production, can energy be substituted by other factors such as capital or labor? How significant is the substitution effect between factors or energy varieties? This paper attempts to study a paradigm to analyze the effectiveness of element substitution for energy saving. This paper explores the substitution relationship between inter-factor and inter-fuel from 1985 to 2017, which is based on the trans-log cost function. At the same time, the contribution of budget effect, substitution effect, output effect are analyzed in this paper as well as technological progress to the reduction of carbon emission intensity. As being found, the marketization of energy prices is underdeveloped, which hinders the substitution effect of energy in the metallurgical industry. The own-price elasticities of labor, energy, and capital are −0.3261, −0.1569, and −0.0706, respectively. The substitution of energy by capital is a more effective and sustainable alternative. Besides, a carbon tax can save 22.25 million TCE of energy consumption and reduce 62.67 million tons of carbon emissions in the whole industry. • This paper attempts to study a paradigm about element substitution for energy saving. • Investigate the substitution relationship between inter-factor and inter-fuel. • Analyze the contribution of budget, substitution, output, and technology to the reduction of carbon intensity. • Carbon tax can reduce 62.7 million tons of carbon emissions, accounting for 2.7% of the total industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pumps are used in mines for dewatering and consume about 18% of the total energy usage in an opencast coal mine. Quantitative estimation of water removal rate in a mine is necessary for designing an effective dewatering system and to minimise energy consumption. In this paper, a generic model is proposed to estimate water and energy requirement for pumping in an opencast mine based on the mine excavation characteristics. The modelling framework is used to estimate specific water removal (SWR) and specific energy consumption (SEC) for water pumping in an opencast mine of a given topography, climatic condition and soil properties. A case study of water pumping of an opencast coal mine in India resulted in SWR of 22.8 m 3 /t and SEC of 8.97 kWh/t of coal for a maximum daily rainfall of 100 mm/d in the year 2010. The results show that the SEC increases by 34% from 3rd year in 1998 (6.65 kWh/t) to the 15th year (8.97 kWh/t), with progress of mining. The model can help the mine planner to decide the pump capacity and operating strategy for optimal energy usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building energy consumption and industrial solid wastes have attracted great concerns in recent years. A novel thermal insulation composite (NTIC) is prepared by combining industrial solid wastes with expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads for non-structural applications of building energy conservation. Industrial solid waste containing flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum improves the fire resistance of NTIC samples and reduces the carbon footprint of the material as compared with similar insulation composites based on portland cement. In order to substantially reduce the density and thermal conductivity of NTIC samples, the proportion of industrial solid wastes should be decreased. However, significant quantities of large voids appear in the samples which leads to the difficulty of the shaping and sharp decrease of mechanical properties. Compression method was used to solve the above problem in this paper. The morphological characterization, physico-mechanical properties, water absorption, thermal conductivity and fire behavior of the NTIC samples with different compression ratios were studied. The results showed that density, mechanical properties, water absorption and thermal conductivity of the NTIC samples gradually decreased with the increase of EPS beads content. The samples with a compression ratio of 1.8 possessed preferable mechanical properties and lower water absorption than those with a compression ratio of 1.4 in the case of approximately same density due to many voids inside the latter. The thermal conductivity of samples was mainly determined by their density. There is no fire combustion for all the samples under the flame, which illustrated the NTICs in this paper possessed superior fire safety. • A novel thermal insulation composite was prepared by using a compression method. • An environmentally friendly cementitious composite was used. • The mechanical strength and thermal conductivity were positively linear with density. • The water absorption of NTIC samples could be reduced by adjusting compression ratio. • Flue gas desulfurization gypsum was beneficial to fire resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector is an important industry in China's economic development and energy consumption, and research on its energy efficiency has attracted increasing attention from researchers. Currently, the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model ignores the competition among regions, resulting in inaccurate estimation of efficiency. This paper employed traditional DEA, cross-efficiency DEA and game cross-efficiency DEA approaches to measure the energy efficiency of the construction industry in 30 of China's provinces from 2005 to 2016. The temporal trend and spatial distribution characteristics of energy efficiency determined through the game cross-efficiency method were then depicted by clustering analysis. Finally, the spatial heterogeneity of energy efficiency was analysed in detail. The results indicated that the efficiency calculated using the game cross-efficiency DEA model considering the competitive relationship was lower than the traditionally calculated efficiency and higher than the efficiency calculated using cross-efficiency DEA. Moreover, during the period of study, the energy efficiency showed a holistic growth trend with volatility. Clustering analysis demonstrated that the energy efficiency of eastern China was significantly higher than that of central and western China. Additionally, the spatial gaps in China's construction industry narrowed, while the spatial agglomerations strengthened. This paper also found a significant positive agglomeration in the energy efficiency of the construction sector in neighbouring provinces of China in the space dimension. In conclusion, province-specific policies based upon temporal and spatial heterogeneity were proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the construction industry in China. • Game cross-efficiency is first used in construction sector. • Provincial energy efficiencies of construction sector are examined in 2005–2016. • Spatial distribution characteristics of energy efficiency are depicted. • Energy efficiency is assessed in four agglomeration areas. • Positive spatial agglomeration exists in energy efficiency of construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the perception of experts on the contribution of the Brazilian industrial sector in terms of sustainable development, focusing in particular on three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) presented by United Nations (UN). A survey was conducted with professionals from Brazilian industry in order to identify their perceptions. It obtained sixty one answers and the collected data was evaluated technically and descriptively by TOPSIS analysis. It was found that Brazil has been carrying out some relevant actions, both sporadic and planned, with significant opportunities for improvement. Comparatively, the most cited contributions are those related to increasing productivity and technological modernization, which contributes to the inclusion of young people in the labor market, improving resource efficiency and the minimization of environmental degradation. Conversely, the least cited contributions are those related to the stimulation of sustainable consumption and negotiation with small companies. Therefore, the authors believe that the findings of this research could be useful for professionals and academics as guidance. It is also important to mention that no similar paper was found with an academic basis, which reinforces the originality and the contribution of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a market-based financial instrument, green credit is one of the key drivers for constructing green financial system. Green credit policy (GCP) can guide capital flow from high-energy consumption and high-pollution industries to technologically advanced emerging industrial sectors, so as to support the development of green industries and curb the emissions of polluting industries. In order to explore the extent to which the goal of green credit policy in China has been achieved, based on the micro data of China's listed enterprises from 2009 to 2017, this paper explores the impact of "Green Credit Guidelines" (2012 Guidelines) policy on the green transformation of heavy polluting industries (HPIs) by using a Difference in Differences (DID) and Propensity Score Matched-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) models. We then analyze the mechanism between GCP and green transformation of HPIs and identify the heterogeneous effects of GCP on the green transformation of HPIs. The results show that the 2012 Guidelines significantly promote the green transformation of HPIs, through debt financing constraints and equity financing constraints. The effect of 2012 Guidelines on green transformation of small-scale and private enterprises is more pronounced. However, the positive effect of 2012 Guidelines on the green transformation of HPIs has not been sustained in the long term. Our study provides an insight for decision makers to manage green transformation of HPIs from the GCP perspective, by informing the economic consequences of GCP and pushing the industrial transformation towards green development. • Difference in differences is used to explore the impact of green credit policy on green transformation. • Debt financing constraint and equity financing constraint are main impact mechanisms. • The results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the downward pressure of the economy, China's extensive economic growth that relies on factor input is difficult to sustain. Scientific analysis of the industrial restructuring and energy consumption has become the key to realizing China's economic growth from high-speed to high-quality. Based on the fully-modified least square method and panel vector error correction model, this paper explores the equilibrium relationship and Granger causality among the industrial restructuring, energy consumption and economic growth at aggregated and disaggregated levels. The results show that: (1) The effect of industrial structure rationalization on economic growth is higher than that of industrial structure upgrading. When emphasizing industrial structure upgrade, the more reliable industrial policy to achieve China's sustainable economic growth is to pay attention to the industrial structure rationalization, especially in western China. (2) The impacts of natural gas and renewable energy consumption on economic growth are much smaller than coal and electricity consumption; more energy policies should be designed to encourage clean energy development. • The industrial structure rationalization has highest contribution to the economic growth of eastern China, followed by central and western China. • There exists unidirectional causality from industrial structure upgrading to structure rationalizing in western China and bidirectional causality between them in central China. • Effects of natural gas and renewable energy consumption on economic growth are much smaller than coal and electricity consumption. • Unidirectional long-term causality from renewable energy to economic growth exist in each sub-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Under the pressures of rapid industrialization and urbanization, many Asian countries are facing the challenge of reducing air pollution and CO2 emissions simultaneously while maintaining their economic growth. Under such a circumstance, a growing attention is focused on successful implementation of co-benefit policies that are designed to reduce both air pollutants and CO2 emissions. However, the concept of co-benefit policies must be developed further in order to identify its quantitative and qualitative validity, which can be assessed using a reliable methodology for the estimation of co-benefits and through clarification of the importance of this approach for stakeholders in urban environmental policy-making. Based on a systematic review of co-benefit research and air pollution control policies in Japan, we investigated the local air pollution control policy in Kawasaki City, one of the industrial centers of Japan, and confirmed that it has contributed both to the sharp decline of atmospheric sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels and to energy efficiency improvements in local industries. Our results suggest that preventive actions and local-scale compliance enforcement tools (that are uniquely designed and act as a form of agreement between government and individual firms) could contribute significantly to successful implementation of co-benefit policies in the long-term. We conclude our paper with a discussion of linkages between low-carbon technology innovations and policy designs that could further nurture co-benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Petroleum refining is a technology complex, energy- and CO 2 emission-intensive industrial process, which is affected by the type and property of the crude oil. China has been the exploitation of crude oil to paraffinic most. This paper targets to quantify and evaluate the material or energy metabolism and environment loads of paraffin-based petroleum at refining process unit-level through the established petroleum flow and energy flow on the CO 2 emissions accounting framework, and explores energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction pathways and policy implications, using a typical paraffin-based petroleum refining enterprise in China as a case. The results indicated that the crude oil from the inputs were fractionated in the atmospheric and vacuum distillation (AVD) unit, and its energy consumption and CO 2 emissions accounted for 14.38% and 13.2% of the total energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in the case study, respectively. With the transformation of petroleum refinery plant structure, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), ketone benzol dewaxing (KBD), and delayed coking units dominated more energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. FCC unit was both the largest energy consumer and supplier, flue gas waste heat recovery efficiency of which was an important factor affecting energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction for FCC unit and even enterprise. KBD unit records the largest energy and CO 2 emission intensities, which are 67.95 kgce/t product and 256.82 kgCO 2e /t product respectively, due to the high wax content of paraffin-based crude oil and the coal-dominated power generation structure. Based on these research findings, three mitigation policy recommendations were proposed, including the improvement of energy efficiency, optimization of energy consumption structure and product output structure. Carbon capture and storage can reduce CO 2 emission by about a third in the concentrated units of primary energy consumption (i.e. AVD, FCC, and DC). The results of this paper are key components of the life cycle assessment of the CO 2 emissions of petroleum fuels produced by domestic paraffin-based crude oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is clear that an increase in gases, due to fossil energy consumption, in the atmosphere has been causing greenhouse effect influencing the world's temperature. The effect of renewable usage, on the other hand, on global warming is not very clear. For instance, the influence of wind energy usage on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) has been a controversial research topic for the last two-three decades. Throughout some empirical analyses, some researches reached no evidence that wind can reduce global warming, as some other researches observed that the wind has proven to have a positive impact on environmental quality by lowering CO 2 emissions. This paper, on the other hand, reveals that wind usage can influence GHG positively or negatively at different time periods. By observing the monthly period 1989:1–2017:8, this paper examines the effect of wind energy usage on GHG emissions for the variables of wind energy consumption, coal consumption, natural gas consumption, other renewable energy consumption, and total energy consumption interrelated carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. This research launches the methodology of Morlet wavelet coherence analysis allowing a researcher to conduct the analyses of variables in both time and frequency dimensions. The research also performed Monte Carlo simulations with 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10000 replications to reach significant outputs. The paper, therefore, (a) observes whether there exists causality between the variables within the whole sample and all sub-samples together with other interrelated control variables, (b) monitors the significant causalities (co-movements) at different time frequencies, (c) hence, determines the potential influence of wind energy usage on CO 2 emissions at different time periods corresponding to different time frequencies. This paper eventually detects three significant emergent outcomes. The first outcome is that the increase in CO 2 led to enlarged use of wind energy for the periods 1999, 2001–2002, and 2015–2017. The second outcome is that wind energy consumption diminished the CO 2 emissions for the period 2015–2017. The 1st and 2nd outputs are obtained at 5% significance level. The third outcome is that the wind power turbines intensified the emissions during the periods 1991–2004 (at10% significance) and 1999–2002 (at 5% significance) in the US. This research later suggests therefore that policy makers consider the consumption of wind energy to reduce CO 2 emissions. • Observes the impact of wind energy power consumption on CO 2 emissions in the US. • Employs wavelet coherency and partial wavelet coherency analyses. • Reveals that wind power consumption contributes to CO 2 emissions for the period 1991-2005. • Yields that wind power consumption diminishes CO 2 emissions after 2015 in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on sustainability or sustainable development has emerged significantly over the past two decades, evidenced by an increasing interest and publication momentum by academic scholars. Given the importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), that constitute ∼99% of all firms, this paper adopts a three-stage systematic review protocol to present a state of art literature review on sustainable development in SMEs. Four different analysis-synthesis approaches (bibliometric analysis, methodological analysis, qualitative content analysis, and logical reasoning of authors) were used on the literature data of 117 relevant papers (from 37 journals) identified from mainstream academic databases. This review provides insights not previously fully captured or evaluated by other reviews on this topic. The findings provide several implications on the current state of literature on sustainable development in SMEs, leading to research gaps and directions for future research. The findings provide a robust roadmap for further investigation in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]