Search

Coal mining technology directly affects coal production quantity and quality, which in turn affects global energy supplies, especially in rapidly urbanizing, industrializing economies. In this research, a coal production technological diffusion mathematical model is proposed, the results from which indicated that while total coal production is expected to decline in the following decades, coal will continue to provide a sizable share of global prime energy to meet the expected energy demands. A general data analysis was conducted to fully understand coal mining technological paradigmatic development and future necessary improvements to ensure more efficient, environmentally-friendly coal production. It was found that the coal mining technological paradigm followed a three-stage trajectory; competition, diffusion, and shift; in accordance with the traditional technological paradigm S-curve, and underground coal gasification (UCG) related technologies were identified as the main development direction for coal mining technologies. An integrated energy exploitation approach for ecological coal mining was then designed to deal with current environmental and energy returns on investment problems, to improve performance, and to act as a foundation for future UCG technological developments. Some policy recommendations are given to guide the implementation of the proposed ecologically oriented integrated coal mining system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of distributive justice with regard to energy hold that every household has the right to affordable access to energy. However, when passively participating in clean energy reform policies, households, and especially low-income households, are often forced to use energy beyond the scope of affordability, resulting in distributive injustice. However, research on the quantitative estimation of injustice in energy distribution is still rare. In this paper, an evaluation model of energy vulnerability and distributive justice is established through the "reverse deduction method," and the change value of energy vulnerability before and after energy reform is used to calculate the loss value of distributive justice, which is used as the basis for energy policy evaluation. Taking the policy of replacing coal with natural gas for rural heating in Gaocheng District, Hebei Province, China as a case study, the value of lost distributive justice is calculated. The results show that 34.51% of households experienced distributive injustice after the energy reform, while 19.34% of households improved their energy vulnerability and achieved energy justice through energy subsidy policies. However, 46.15% of households were able to adapt to the energy reform independently without subsidies, which indicates a waste of resources in the energy subsidy policy. The policy implication of these results is that differentiated energy subsidy policies should be implemented according to household energy vulnerability, so as to maximize the policy benefits on the premise of ensuring justice in household energy distribution and minimizing injustice. The empirical study proves that the method of assessing injustice in energy distribution based on the "reverse deduction method" of energy vulnerability is feasible and a new attempt. • The passive participation of low-income households in clean energy reform policies results in distributive injustice. • Apply the vulnerability framework to calculate energy distribution injustice. • The implementation of differentiated subsidies can effectively improve the vulnerability of rural households energy poverty. • It is feasible and a new attempt to measure energy distributive injustice by using the "reverse deduction method". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]