Networking Chemicals Flows: Efficiency-Value-Environment Functionalized Symbiosis Algorithms and Application.

Maximizing the network of chemical symbiosis can enhance economic benefits and reduce life cycle environmental impacts, which are pivotal for achieving sustainability in the chemical industry. This study designs two innovative symbiosis algorithms, the Longest Path Algorithm and the Maximum Symbiosis Algorithm, specifically for chemical industrial clusters (CICs). The algorithms are applied to a prototypical CIC encompassing 569 distinct raw materials and yielding 435 unique products alongside 55 byproducts. First, the study provides an exhaustive overview of the assorted chemicals and their intrinsic traits, flow patterns, and conventional relationships within the cluster. On that basis, the former algorithm reveals that the longest path constitutes 5 enterprises, embodying the entire disperse dyestuff industry chain; the latter algorithm identifies 218 pairs of symbiotic relationships, leading to an additional 0.91 million tonnes of symbiotic chemicals. These interrelations also yield substantial cost savings of 1.25 billion CNY (0.17 billion US dollar) and enhance life cycle benefits by 0.62 to 11.87 times compared to the present status. The efficacious application of these algorithms to the cluster reaffirms their capacity to meet the designated objectives. This study introduces a fresh interdisciplinary standpoint to optimize chemical manufacturing processes and contributes essential theoretical underpinning for implementing pollution and carbon reduction strategies in similar CICs.

Screening of priority antibiotics in Chinese seawater based on the persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and resistance.

Antibiotics are emerging pollutants that have detrimental effects on both target and non-target organisms in the environment. However, current methods for environmental risk assessment primarily focus on the risk to non-target organisms in ecosystems, overlooking a crucial risk of antibiotics - the induction of resistance in targeted bacteria. To address this oversight, we have incorporated resistance (R) risk with persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity (PBT) to establish a more comprehensive PBTR (persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, and resistance) framework for antibiotic-specific risk assessment. Using the PBTR framework, we evaluated 74 antibiotics detected in Chinese seawater from 2000 to 2021, and identified priority antibiotics. Our analysis revealed that the priority antibiotics with R risk accounted for the largest proportion (50% to 70%), followed by P risk (40% to 58%), T risk (16% to 35%) and B risk (0 to 13%). To further categorize these priority antibiotics, we assigned them a risk level according to their fulfillment of criteria related to P, B, T, and R. Antibiotics meeting all four indicators were classified as Grade I, representing the highest risk level. Grade II and Grade III were assigned to antibiotics meeting three or two indicators, respectively. Antibiotics meeting only one indicator were classified as Grade IV, representing the lowest risk level. The majority of priority antibiotics fell into Grade IV, indicating low risk (55% to 79%), followed by Grade III (16% to 45%). The highest risk antibiotic identified in this study was clindamycin (CLIN), categorized as Grade II, in the East China Sea. Our findings aligned with previous studies for 25 antibiotics, affirming the validity of the PBTR framework. Moreover, we identified 13 new priority antibiotics, highlighting the advancement of this approach. This study provides a feasible screening strategy and monitoring recommendations for priority antibiotics in Chinese seawater.

Unveiling the Nexus Profile of Embodied Water-Energy-Carbon-Value Flows of the Yellow River Basin in China.

Unveiling the nexus profile of the water-energy-carbon (WEC) and value flows embodied in regional trade is essential for enhancing the co-benefits between economic development and environment conservation. However, minimal research explores the WEC and value-added nexus efficiency of the Yellow Basin River (YRB) with a comprehensive framework. Thus, this study built a nexus framework based on a multiregional input-output model (MRIO) to analyze embodied WEC and value-added flows in the nine provinces of the YRB and all 31 provinces of China, primarily in 2017 compared to 2012 and 2015. Three dimensions (space, sectors, and environmental and economic factors) depict the WEC and value-added nexus patterns. The results from these three dimensions uncovered that the YRB benefits from regional trade but suffers environmental losses, and the development imbalance among the provinces of the basin is exacerbated. The proposed integrated framework can be generalized to water-energy extended nexus analysis in other regions to portray a more complex human-environment system nexus pattern. The new knowledge of how embodied WEC interacts with concomitant economic activities within and beyond the YRB can benefit multiresource-integrated management in the YRB and coordinated regional development in China.

Carbon Mitigation and Environmental Co-Benefits of a Clean Energy Transition in China's Industrial Parks.

Industrial parks are emerging priorities for carbon mitigation. Here we analyze air quality, human health, and freshwater conservation co-benefits of decarbonizing the energy supply of 850 China's industrial parks. We examine a clean energy transition including early retirement of coal-fired facilities and subsequent replacement with grid electricity and onsite energy alternatives (municipal solid waste-to-energy, rooftop photovoltaic, and distributed wind power). We find that such a transition would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41% (equal to 7% of 2014 national CO2 equivalent emissions); emissions of SO2 by 41%, NOx by 32%, and PM2.5 by 43% and freshwater consumption by 20%, relative to a 2030 baseline scenario. Based on modeled air pollutant concentrations, we estimate such a clean energy transition will result in ∼42,000 avoided premature deaths annually due to reduced ambient PM2.5 and ozone exposure. Costs and benefits are monetized including technical costs of changes in equipment and energy use and societal benefits resulting from improvements in human health and reductions of climate impacts. We find that decarbonizing industrial parks brings annual economic benefits of US$30-156 billion in 2030. A clean energy transition in China's industrial parks thus provides both environmental and economic benefits.

Industrial effluents boosted antibiotic resistome risk in coastal environments.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been regarded as an important source of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in environment, but out of municipal domestic WWTPs, few evidences show how environment is affected by industrial WWTPs. Here we chose Hangzhou Bay (HZB), China as our study area, where land-based municipal and industrial WWTPs discharged their effluent into the bay for decades. We adopted high-throughput metagenomic sequencing to examine the antibiotic resistome of the WWTP effluent and coastal sediment samples. And we proposed a conceptual framework for the assessment of antibiotic resistome risk, and a new bioinformatic pipeline for the evaluation of the potential horizontal gene transfer (HGT) frequency. Our results revealed that the diversity and abundance of ARGs in the WWTP's effluent were significantly higher than those in the sediment. Furthermore, the antibiotic resistome in the effluent-receiving area (ERA) showed significant difference from that in HZB. For the first time, we identified that industrial WWTP effluent boosted antibiotic resistome risk in coastal sediment. The crucial evidences included: 1) the proportion of ARGs derived from WWTP activated sludge (WA) was higher (14.3 %) and two high-risky polymyxin resistance genes (mcr-4 and mcr-5) were enriched in the industrial effluent receiving area; 2) the HGT potential was higher between resistant microbiome of the industrial effluent and its ERA sediment; and 3) the highest resistome risk was determined in the industrial effluent, and some biocide resistance genes located on high-risky contigs were related to long-term stress of industrial chemicals. These findings highlight the important effects of industrial activities on the development of environmental antimicrobial resistance.

The occurrence, distribution and removal of adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) in a typical fine chemical industrial park.

Coastal water quality in China has been impacted by direct discharge of industrial wastewater, and various kinds of AOX pollutants have been detected in the seawater and sediment. As the dominant pollution source of Hangzhou Bay, a typical fine chemical industry park "HSEDA" was selected as the study area in this research. The AOX in both wastewater and sludge phases from 22 large-scaled enterprises were simultaneously investigated. The results quantitatively illustrated the AOX flows from engineered wastewater and sludge treatment systems to natural environment. It can be seen that industrial enterprises discharged at least 160 t AOX every year, and about 105.4 t/a AOX eventually entered the natural environment. The dye manufacturing industry, which accounted for more than 60% of the total AOX emission load in HSEDA, was identified as the AOX pollution-intensive sector. The occurrence, characteristic pollutants and fate of AOX in dye wastewater were discussed, on the basis of which the improvements of cleaner production and wastewater treatment technologies have been put forward.

Managing Methane Emissions in Abandoned Coal Mines: Comparison of Different Recovery Technologies by Integrating Techno-Economic Analysis and Life-Cycle Assessment.

Methane emissions from worldwide increasing abandoned coal mines have posed multiple challenges of global warming, energy waste, and explosion risk. This study first profiles the dynamic patterns of coal mine methane emissions in different recovery technologies, methane extraction with drainage (MEWD, mine-water concurrently extracted and treated) and direct methane extraction (DME, noncontrol on mine-water), in two abandoned mines from Ningxia and Inner Mongolia as China's leading coal provinces. Then, we conducted a techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment to quantify their comprehensive benefits. The key findings are as follows: (1) MEWD can long recover methane, although the economic profits decrease with declining methane extraction volume. DME can only work for ∼5 years, after which the mine is flooded, where methane is sealed underground and not recoverable. (2) MEWD drains and further treats the mine-water with an additional 29.4-35.9 million CNY cost compared with DME, while MEWD can achieve greater life-cycle environmental benefits with more cumulative methane recovery, whose CO2-eq (GWP-100) and SO2 reductions are 64.4 and 53.4% higher than those of DME. (3) MEWD is more promising for large-scale implementation, where feed-in tariffs and carbon market measures can improve the economics for sustainable management of incremental abandoned mine methane.

Prevalence of small-sized microplastics in coastal sediments detected by multipoint confocal micro-Raman spectrum scanning.

Microplastics have become global emerging issue and received widespread attention in recent years. Due to their chemical persistence, plastic particles can be broken into smaller items but accumulated for long time in the environment like sediment. However, limited by current detection technologies, the distribution and characteristics of small-sized microplastics in coastal sediment remain uncertain. In this study, we established a new method based on micro-Raman spectroscopy for detecting small-sized microplastics, namely multipoint confocal micro-Raman spectrum scanning (MCmRSS). The MCmRSS was first applied in detecting microplastics in the sediment samples collected from three bays of the East China Sea. The minimum size of microplastics was 4 µm and average microplastics concentration was 91 ± 55 items /g dry weight sediment, with fragment and polyethylene as the most common shape and polymer type, respectively. The spatial variation of microplastics was in accordance with the strength of coastal human activities and marine dynamics. In all the microplastic items, the small-sized ones (<10 µm) accounted for 67%; and the relationship between microplastic concentration and its size followed a power-exponential equation. Compared with previous studies, the number of microplastics in coastal sediments detected by the MCmRSS increased by 2 orders of magnitude, which was benefited from the advantages of multipoint scanning in the fixed identification areas and high resolution of micro-Raman spectrum. Our findings would summon the re-evaluation of the potential risks of small-sized microplastics in the coastal environment.

Insights into the distribution, partitioning and influencing factors of antibiotics concentration and ecological risk in typical bays of the East China Sea.

In order to obtain in-depth insight of the behavioral fate and ecological risks of antibiotics in coastal environment, this study investigated the distribution, partitioning and primary influencing factors of antibiotics in water and sediment in the East China Sea. After quantification of 77 target antibiotics in 6 categories, ten antibiotics were detected simultaneously with a detection frequency >50.0% in water and sediment; the concentrations of these ten antibiotics were 0.1-1508.0 ng L-1 and 0.01-9.4 ng g-1 in water and dry sediment, respectively. Sulfadiazine and Azithromycin (Pseudo partitioning coefficient were 28-3814 L kg-1 and 21-2405 L kg-1, respectively.) had the largest partitioning coefficient between sediment and water. In addition, pseudo partitioning coefficient of Sulfadiazine and Clindamycin were higher than the values of corresponding equilibrium partitioning constant (Kd), which would likely cause them to re-release from sediment to water. Compared to the physiochemical properties of the sediment, water quality has a greater impact on antibiotic partitioning. We found that the partitioning of antibiotics was significantly positively correlated with salinity, suspended solids, pH, NH4+-N and Zn; and negatively correlated with temperature, dissolved oxygen, PO43-, chemical oxygen demand, NO3--N, oil, Cu and Cd. The ecological risks of antibiotics in water and sediment were also evaluated for revealing their relationship with the concentration partitioning of antibiotics. Results showed that the target antibiotics mainly pose ecological risks to Daphnia with low and median chronic toxicity risk rather than fish and green algae. The antibiotics in sediment were more chronically toxic to Daphnia than that in water. The risk quotient ratio of sediment and water (RQs/RQw) ranged from 0 to 1154.0, which were exactly opposite of the values of organic carbon normalized partition coefficient (Koc), suggesting that the physical properties of antibiotics drove the ecological risk allocation of antibiotics in sediment and water.

Ozone oxidation of 2,4,6-TCP in the presence of halide ions: Kinetics, degradation pathways and toxicity evaluation.

2,4,6-Trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) is extensively consumed in industrial production and may cause environmental damages. The effect of halide ions on the decomposition of 2,4,6-TCP has often been overlooked. In this study, the bromide ion was found to have a stronger negative impact on 2,4,6-TCP degradation than chloride ion in the O3 system, and led to the formation of adsorbable organic halogens (AOX). Kinetic modeling demonstrated that the concentration of various radicals was largely depended on the solution pH, and stronger basicity not only contributed to the mineralization of 2,4,6-TCP, but also inhibited the formation of halogenated by-products. Combining the intermediate identification and quantum chemical calculation, the degradation pathways of 2,4,6-TCP during ozone oxidation process were proposed. The toxicity test and ECOSAR simulation demonstrated that the acute toxicity of some 2,4,6-TCP degradation intermediates was relatively higher than their parent compound. With high concentrations of halide ions, the ozone-treated solution showed greater toxicity than the originator 2,4,6-TCP solution. These results illustrate that the ozone treatment of the halide-containing wastewater may cause potential ecological hazards and its application needs to be more cautious.

Managing water sustainability in textile industry through adaptive multiple stakeholder collaboration.

Textile manufacturing poses pressing challenges on water sustainability characterized by intensive chemical consumption and waterborne pollution. Industrial clustering is a hallmark of textile industry development, featuring a two-stage wastewater treatment system consisting of in-plant and centralized treatment facilities. Driven by increasingly stringent wastewater discharge limits, three pillar stakeholders in textile industrial clusters, the local government, enterprises and environmental utility operators, seek for systematic countermeasures by balancing contradictory interests. This study presents a trilateral game model to uncover the economic and environmental tradeoffs among the three stakeholders targeting the optimization of wastewater systems. The model is solidified by a representative textile industrial cluster and is then extrapolated to 242 large-scale Chinese textile clusters to quantify the benefits. The key finds are (1) the in-use wastewater systems in many clusters function with low eco-efficiency; (2) the optimal paradigm is to adaptively leave room at half- to onefold for discharge limits from in-plant to centralized treatment facilities; (3) the environmental and economic benefits thereof are 24∼x223C61% and 6%, respectively, after retrofitting to the optimal paradigm for the Chinese textile clusters.

A decade advance in eco-efficiency and cost-benefits of emissions reduction targeting fine chemical manufacturers.

Fine chemical industry, characterized of small scale, large heterogeneity, and high added value, is the most technology-intensive and dynamic sub-sector in chemical industry, but also has much high environmental factor in production. This study aims to explore green development pathways of about 60 fine chemicals manufacturers in a typical fine chemical industrial park with an annual output of 15 billion USD in China. We analyzed eco-efficiency and cost-benefits of emissions reduction of the park during 2011-2019 from multiple perspectives, by integrating decoupling index, data envelopment analysis, and linear econometric model. The key findings are: (1) the fine chemical industry has witnessed a volatile paradigm of absolute decoupling between economic growth and environmental pressure during the past decade, with a decoupling index of -2.2-12.4; (2) variation of eco-efficiency between benchmark enterprises and majority of enterprises are remarkable, at an average scope of 0.23-0.35, among which 77%-85% enterprises under-performed the average; and pharmaceutics production in particular needs a leapfrog to improve its performance substantially because 84%-95% of them were below the average; (3) pollutants emission plays a decisive role in affecting enterprises' eco-efficiency, and water pollutants work more in first half decade and air pollutants overturn in the second half; and (4) the marginal effect of control investment on water pollutants reductions has declined in 2019 by 66% (chemical oxygen demand (COD)) and 70% (ammonia nitrogen compounds (NH3-N)) compared with those of 2012; however, air pollutants reductions marginal effect is still in climb stage in 2019 by 607% (sulfur dioxide (SO2)) and 17% (nitrogen oxides (NOx)) compared with those in 2018. Fine chemical manufacturers are supposed to enforce a paradigm shift from end-of-pipe to systematic emissions control due to the decline trend of marginal cost-benefits on emissions reduction subsequently.

Fate of antibiotics in engineered wastewater systems and receiving water environment: A case study on the coast of Hangzhou Bay, China.

The occurrence of man-made antibiotics in natural environment has aroused attentions from both scientists and publics. However, few studies tracked antibiotics from their production site to the end of disposal environment. Taking the coastal region of Hangzhou Bay as the study area, the fate of 77 antibiotics from 6 categories in two-step wastewater treatment plants (WTPs, i.e. pharmaceutical WTP and integrated WTP) was focused; and the antibiotics in both dissolved and adsorbed phases were investigated simultaneously in this study. The ubiquitous occurrence of antibiotics was observed in the two-step WTPs, with antibiotic concentrations following the order of PWTP (LOQ - 1.0 × 105 ng·L-1) > IWTPi (for industrial wastewater treatment, LOQ - 3.7 × 103 ng·L-1) > IWTPd (for domestic sewage treatment, LOQ - 1.3 × 103 ng·L-1). And the types of antibiotics detected in excess sludge and suspended particles were in accordance with those in wastewater. Quinolones were invariably dominant in both dissolved and adsorbed fractions. High removal efficiencies (median values >50.0%) were acquired for the dissolved quinolones (except for DFX), tetracyclines, ß-lactams, and lincosamides. Anaerobic/anoxic/oxic achieved the highest aqueous removal of antibiotics among the investigated treatment technologies in the three WTPs. PWTP and IWTP removed 9797 and 487 g·d-1 of antibiotics, respectively; and a final effluent with 126.4 g·d-1 of antibiotics was discharged into the effluent-receiving area (ERA) of Hangzhou Bay. Source apportionment analysis demonstrated that the effluents of IWTPd and IWTPd contributed respectively 39.3% and 8.9% to the total antibiotics in the ERA. The results illustrate quantitatively the antibiotic flows from engineered wastewater systems to natural water environment, on the basis of which the improvements of wastewater treatment technologies and discharge management would be put forward.

Identification of the priority antibiotics based on their detection frequency, concentration, and ecological risk in urbanized coastal water.

Antibiotics have raised significant concern as emerging pollutants for their increasing consumption, persistent input, and potential threat to ecological environment. Due to low concentrations and various types in coastal water, simultaneous quantification of all kinds of antibiotics is time-consuming and costly. In order to make antibiotic regular monitoring in coastal water possible, identifying the priority antibiotics in the environment is essential. Here, a method for screening the priority antibiotics in coastal water was proposed, considering individual antibiotic concentration, the positive correlation between individual and total antibiotic concentration, the detection frequency, and obvious ecological risk. Taking coastal water of the East China Sea as an example, on a list of 77 target antibiotics, 7 (SMX, TMP, SCP, SMP, CNX, ATM, and ETM) and 4 (SMX, SCP, SMP, and CNX) antibiotics were selected to be the priority antibiotics in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Furthermore, the 4 priority antibiotics in 2018 were all involved in the 7 priority antibiotics in 2017. The sum of the priority antibiotic concentrations accounted for 0.8% and 23.2% of total antibiotic concentrations, and the sum of their RQ accounted for 69.2% and 66.8% of total RQ values in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Among the above 7 priority antibiotics, ATM is mainly used in human clinical, SMX, SCP, and SMP are mainly consumed in veterinary medicine, TMP, CNX, and ETM are commonly used for humans and animals. The proposed method might provide an important reference for the monitoring and management of antibiotic pollution in coastal water.

Managing energy infrastructure to decarbonize industrial parks in China.

Industrial parks are flourishing globally and are mostly equipped with a shareable energy infrastructure, which has a long service lifetime and thus locks in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We conducted a two-phase study to decarbonize Chinese industrial parks by targeting energy infrastructure. Firstly, a high-resolution geodatabase of energy infrastructure in 1604 industrial parks was established. These energy infrastructures largely featured heavy coal dependence, small capacities, cogeneration of heat and power, and were young in age. Cumulative GHG emissions, during their remaining lifetime, will reach 46.2 Gt CO2 equivalent(eq.); comparable to  the 11% of the 1.5 °C global carbon budget. Secondly, a vintage stock model was developed by tailoring countermeasures for each unit and implementing a cost-benefit analysis and life cycle assessment. Total GHG mitigation potential was quantified as 8%~16% relative to the baseline scenario with positive economic benefits. The synergistic reductions in freshwater consumption, SO2 emissions, and NOx emissions will stand at rates of 34~39%, 24%~31% and 10%~14%, respectively.

Antibiotics in coastal water and sediments of the East China Sea: Distribution, ecological risk assessment and indicators screening.

The distribution of 77 antibiotics in the coastal water and sediment from 3 bays of the East China Sea was investigated. There were 43 and 25 antibiotics detected with total concentrations of 30.8-2106.1 ng/L and 2.2-99.9 ng/g in water and sediment, respectively. Approximately 83.0% and 85.4% of the individual antibiotic concentrations were lower than 5.0 ng/L in water and 1.0 ng/g in sediment. Clindamycin (1.2-1507.9 ng/L, mean 183.8 ng/L) and erythromycin (ND-45.2 ng/g, mean 3.4 ng/g) were the most abundant in water and sediment, respectively. Ecological risk assessment revealed that the joint toxicity was enhanced when multiple antibiotics were present simultaneously. A decrease in the total antibiotic concentration and the ecological risk in water was observed from nearshore to offshore. Three antibiotics (sulfamethoxypyridazine, sulfamethoxazole and cinoxacin) were selected to be prioritized based on ecological risks for antibiotics monitoring and management of the coastal water in the East China Sea.

Wastewater discharge drives ARGs spread in the coastal area: A case study in Hangzhou Bay, China.

The distribution of 14 ARGs, intI1, and 16S rDNA were analysed in 4 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), 2 effluent receiving areas (ERAs), and Hangzhou Bay (HZB). The results showed that each integrated WWTP (IWWTP) received higher abundance of ARGs than pharmaceutical WWTPs (PWWTPs), and IWWTPs removed ARGs more efficiently than PWWTPs. The WWTP effluents greatly contributed to the ARGs pollution in the water environments of the ERAs and HZB, and the total abundance of the ARGs displayed a distance decay pattern. In coastal sediments, more ARGs were accumulated in remote sites. The correlation analysis showed that the occurrence of ARGs was more related to 16S rDNA and intI1 in the WWTPs. Three macrolides resistance genes (ermB, mphA, and vatB) had strong correlations with 16S rDNA and intI1 in all the sample groups. Our study clearly reveals the link between land WWTPs discharge and emerging pollution of ARGs in coastal environments.