Search

City clusters play an important role in air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction in China, primarily due to their high fossil energy consumption levels. The "2 + 26" Cities, i.e., Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other perfectures in northern China, has experienced serious air pollution in recent years. We employ the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies model adapted to the "2 + 26" Cities (GAINS-JJJ) to evaluate the impacts of structural adjustments in four major sectors, industry, energy, transport and land use, under the Three-Year Action Plan for Blue Skies (Three-Year Action Plan) on the emissions of both the major air pollutants and CO 2 in the "2 + 26" Cities. The results indicate that the Three-Year Action Plan applied in the "2 + 26" Cities reduces the total emissions of primary fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤ 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ), SO 2 , NO x , NH 3 and CO 2 by 17%, 25%, 21%, 3% and 1%, respectively, from 2017 to 2020. The emission reduction potentials vary widely across the 28 prefectures, which may be attributed to the differences in energy structure, industrial composition, and policy enforcement rate. Among the four sectors, adjustment of industrial structure attains the highest co-benefits of CO 2 reduction and air pollution control due to its high CO 2 reduction potential, while structural adjustments in energy and transport attain much lower co-benefits, despite their relatively high air pollutant emissions reductions, primarily resulting from an increase in the coal-electric load and associated carbon emissions caused by electric reform policies.., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In recent years, implementation of aggressive and strict clean air policies has resulted in significant decline in observed PM 2.5 concentration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region and its surrounding areas (i.e., the "2 + 26" region). To eliminate the effects of interannual and seasonal meteorological variation, and to evaluate the effectiveness of emission abatement policies, we applied a boosted regression tree model to remove confounding meteorological factors. Results showed that the annual average PM2.5 concentration normalized by meteorology for the "2 + 26" region declined by 38% during 2014-2019 (i.e., from 96 to 60 μg/m 3 ); however, the BTH region exhibited the most remarkable decrease in PM 2.5 concentration (i.e., a 60% reduction). Certain seasonal trend in normalized PM 2.5 level remained for four target subregions owing to the effects of anthropogenic emissions in autumn and winter. Although strong interannual variations of meteorological conditions were unfavorable for pollutant dispersion during the heating seasons of 2016-2018, the aggressive abatement policies were estimated to have contributed to reductions in normalized PM 2.5 concentration of 19%, 10%, 19%, and 17% in the BTH, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi subregions, respectively. Our study eliminated the meteorological contribution to concentration variation and confirmed the effectiveness of the implemented clean air policies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Coking industry is an important volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission source in China, however, detailed information on VOCs emissions is lacking. Therefore, we selected a typical mechanized coking plant and collected air samples according to the Emission Standard of Pollutants for Coking Chemical Industry (GB16171-2012). Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method, we analyzed the VOCs in the air samples, and applied maximum increment reactivity (MIR) rule to estimate ozone formation potential (OFP) of the VOCs emitted from the coke production. More than 90 VOCs species were detected from the coking plant, including alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons and oxygenated VOCs. The concentrations of VOCs (ρ(VOCs)) generated at different stages of the coking process are significantly different. ρ(VOCs) from coke oven chimney had the highest concentration (87.1 mg/m 3 ), followed by coke pushing (4.0 mg/m 3 ), coal charging (3.3 mg/m 3 ) and coke oven tops (1.1 mg/m 3 ). VOCs species emitted from the coke production processes were dominated by alkanes and alkenes, but the composition proportions were different at the different stages. Alkenes were the most abundant emission species in flue gases of the coke oven chimney accounting for up to 66% of the total VOCs, while the VOCs emissions from coke pushing and coal charging were dominated by alkanes (36% and 42%, respectively), and the alkanes and alkenes emitted from coke oven top were similar (31% and 29%, respectively). Based on above results, reduction of VOCs emissions from coke oven chimney flue gases is suggested to be an effective measure, especially for alkenes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest This manuscript “Characteristics and Ozone Formation Potential of Volatile Organic Compounds in Emissions from a Typical Chinese Coking Plant” has no conflict of Interest., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

• In 2020, cement production in China accounted for 56 % of the global output. • Low-carbon technologies in the cement industry have significant synergies with air pollutants. • Deep learning algorithms provide different perspectives for predicting cement output. • This study provides a basis for reducing pollution and carbon emissions in the cement industry. The cement industry is a major source of carbon dioxide and air pollutant emissions. This study developed a high-resolution emission inventory for China's cement industry and forecasted emissions from 2025 to 2035. The results showed that emissions in 2020 were 251, 709, 142, and 1.35 × 106 Gg for SO 2 , NO x , PM 2.5 , and CO 2 , respectively. The optimal model projections for 2035 showed that fuel and clinker substitutions had the best reduction effect on SO 2 and CO 2 , with average reduction rates of –11.42 % and –7.37 %, respectively, compared to the 2035 frozen scenario. Pollutant control measures and clinker substitution had the best emission reduction effect on NO x and PM 2.5 , and the average reduction rates were –26.09 % and –4.23 %, respectively, compared to the 2035 frozen scenario. These results showed that the substitution of fuel and clinker has important co-benefits for air pollutants in the cement industry. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emission inventory, involving both air pollutants (APs) and greenhouse gases (GHGs), is needed so that the questions of air pollution and climate change can be co-addressed, coordinated, and collaborated upon. In this study, an emission inventory, including both APs and CO 2 (representing GHGs), was developed for China 2019 using two special measures. First, the framework of air pollution source classification was used for the integrative inventory and then the CO 2 emissions for each sector/subsector/source in the GHG inventory were precisely arranged into the framework of APs by every possible means such as drawing on the constraints from the International Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), which enabled the sharing of common or intrinsically connected activity data for both APs and CO 2. Second, an attempt was made to deduce the activity data of various industrial processes through proper interpretation of the information carried in Pollutant Permits. The calculated emissions of APs and CO 2 were found to be comparable to the results of other studies. Additionally, the average per capita CO 2 and pollution equivalents (PEs) were 10.29 ± 6.75 tons and 11.72 ± 7.35 tons, respectively, over the provincial regions with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) lower than ￥70000 (about $10000). Whereas the average per capita CO 2 and PEs dropped to 6.10 ± 1.83 tons and 6.70 ± 2.09 tons, respectively, over the provincial regions with per capita GDP higher than ￥70000. This somewhat supports the philosophy of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) regarding the close connection between emission and development. Moreover, the two emission intensities (for APs and CO 2) were found to vary synchronously among the provinces, reflecting the inter-linked fates of the two emissions under the control measures oriented toward either APs or GHGs. [Display omitted] • An emission inventory integrating air pollutants and CO 2 are compiled. • GHG classification framework are used for the integrative inventory with additional constraints from ISIC. • Pollutant-Permit information is employed to derive activity data of industrial processes and links. • The EKC philosophy on emission/development relation is partly supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the regional air quality, many control strategies have been developed by Chinese government for reducing air pollutant emission from power plants, industrial and transport sources during the past decade. However, little attention has been paid to residential combustion sources. To fill the knowledge gap, a series of surveys were carried out to investigate the residential energy use in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region during the period of 2013–2014. Study shows that the actual average amount of residential coal consumption is over 0.7 t yr − 1 per capita in 2013, which is much higher than that of 0.15 t yr − 1 per capita reported in the 2014 China Energy Statistical Yearbook (CESY). Combining the investigated activities data with the best available emission factors (EFs), bottom-up method was used to evaluate the potential air pollutant emissions from residential coal combustion in BTH region in 2013. The results indicate that Baoding is the top contributor to the whole BTH region and accounts for approximately 15% of the regional residential emissions in 2013. The spatial pattern of air pollutants shows that high emissions locate in the southeast, along the Yanshan and Taihang Mountains, where much more rural people live and coal combustion is prevalent in winter. The future emission scenario at the end of the 13th Five Year Plan (in 2020) was also predicted based on the policy guidance for the residential coal consumptions in the BTH region. The scenario analysis indicates that air pollutant emissions will drop substantially around 90% because more strict rules will be made for reducing the residential coal consumption. With combined survey information and statistical data, the uncertainty of the emission inventory which was established in this study for the residential sector in the BTH region is reduced and the emission inventory is more reliable for air quality decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]