Air Quality and Health Implications of Coal Power Retirements Attributed to Industrial Electricity Savings in China.

The coal-dominated electricity system, alongside increasing industrial electricity demand, places China into a dilemma between industrialization and environmental impacts. A practical solution is to exploit air quality and health cobenefits of industrial energy efficiency measures, which has not yet been integrated into China's energy transition strategy. This research examines the pivotal role of industrial electricity savings in accelerating coal plant retirements and assesses the nexus of energy-pollution-health by modeling nationwide coal-fired plants at individual unit level. It shows that minimizing electricity needs by implementing more efficient technologies leads to the phaseout of 1279 hyper-polluting units (subcritical, <300 MW) by 2040, advancing the retirement of these units by an average of 7 years (3-16 years). The retirements at different locations yield varying levels of air quality improvements (9-17%), across six power grids. Reduced exposure to PM2.5 could avoid 123,100 pollution-related cumulative deaths over the next 20 years from 2020, of which ∼75% occur in the Central, East, and North grids, particularly coal-intensive and populous provinces (e.g., Shandong and Jiangsu). These findings provide key indicators to support geographically specific policymaking and lay out a rationale for decision-makers to incorporate multiple benefits into early coal phaseout strategies to avoid lock-in risk.

Bottom-up estimates of deep decarbonization of U.S. manufacturing in 2050.

The world needs to rapidly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission to stave off the risks of disastrous climate change. In particular, decarbonizing U.S. manufacturing industries is particularly challenging due to the specific process requirements. This study estimates the potential for future CO2 emission reductions in this important sector. The analysis is a detailed accounting exercise that relies on estimates of emission-reduction potential from other studies and applies those potentials to the manufacturing sector using a bottom-up approach. The actions are grouped into four "pillars" that support deep decarbonization of manufacturing (DDM): Energy Efficiency, Material Efficiency, Industry-Specific, and Power Grid. Based on this bottom-up approach, the analysis shows that an 86% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from the Reference Case is feasible. No single pillar dominates DDM, although opportunities vary widely by sub-sector. The analysis shows that a strategy incorporating a broad set of elements from each pillar can be effective instead of relying on any single pillar. Some pillars, such as Energy Efficiency and Material Efficiency, have wide applicability; others have key niche roles that are Industry-Specific; the Power Grid pillar requires interaction between grid decarbonization and industry action to switch from fossil fuels to zero-carbon electricity where appropriate.

Industry 1.61803: the transition to an industry with reduced material demand fit for a low carbon future.

Arising from a discussion meeting in September 2016, this editorial introduces a special issue on the transition to a future industrial system with greatly reduced demand for material production and attempts to synthesize the main findings. The motivation for such a transition is to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, but unlike previous industrial transformations, there are no major stakeholders who will pursue the change for their own immediate benefit. The special issue, therefore, explores the means by which such a transition could be brought about. The editorial presents an overview of the opportunities identified in the papers of the volume, presents examples of actions that can be taken today to begin the process of change and concludes with an agenda for research that might support a rapid acceleration in the rate of change.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Energy demand for materials in an international context.

Materials are everywhere and have determined society. The rapid increase in consumption of materials has led to an increase in the use of energy and release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing emissions in material-producing industries is a key challenge. If all of industry switched to current best practices, the energy-efficiency improvement potential would be between 20% and 35% for most sectors. While these are considerable potentials, especially for sectors that have historically paid a lot of attention to energy-efficiency improvement, realization of these potentials under current 'business as usual' conditions is slow due to a large variety of barriers and limited efforts by industry and governments around the world. Importantly, the potentials are not sufficient to achieve the deep reductions in carbon emissions that will be necessary to stay within the climate boundaries as agreed in the 2015 Paris Conference of Parties. Other opportunities need to be included in the menu of options to mitigate GHG emissions. It is essential to develop integrated policies combining energy efficiency, renewable energy and material efficiency and material demand reduction, offering the most economically attractive way to realize deep reductions in carbon emissions.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.

Early-stage comparative sustainability assessment of new bio-based processes.

Our increasing demand for materials and energy has put critical roadblocks on our path towards a sustainable society. To remove these roadblocks, it is important to engage in smart research and development (R&D). We present an early-stage sustainability assessment framework that is used to analyze eight new bio-based process alternatives developed within the CatchBio research consortium in the Netherlands. This assessment relies on a multi-criteria approach, integrating the performance of chemical conversions based on five indicators into an index value. These indicators encompass economics, environmental impact, hazards and risks thereby incorporating elements of green chemistry principles, and techno-economic and life cycle assessments. The analyzed bio-based options target the production of fuels and chemicals through chemical catalysis. For each bio-based process, two R&D stages (current laboratory and expected future) are assessed against a comparable conventional process. The multi-criteria assessment in combination with the uncertainty and scenario analysis shows that the chemical production processes using biomass as feedstock can provide potential sustainability benefits over conventional alternatives. However, further development is necessary to realize the potential benefits from biomass gasification and pyrolysis processes for fuel production. This early stage assessment is intended as an input for R&D decision making to support optimal allocation and utilization of resources to further develop promising bio-based processes.

Material efficiency in Dutch packaging policy.

Packaging materials are one of the largest contributors to municipal solid waste generation. In this paper, we evaluate the material impacts of packaging policy in The Netherlands, focusing on the role of material efficiency (or waste prevention). Since 1991, five different policies have been implemented to reduce the environmental impact of packaging. The analysis shows that Dutch packaging policies helped to reduce the total packaging volume until 1999. After 2000, packaging consumption increased more rapidly than the baseline, suggesting that policy measures were not effective. Generally, we see limited attention to material efficiency to reduce packaging material use. For this purpose, we tried to gain more insight in recent activities on material efficiency, by building a database of packaging prevention initiatives. We identified 131 alterations to packaging implemented in the period 2005-2010, of which weight reduction was the predominant approach. More appropriate packaging policy is needed to increase the effectiveness of policies, with special attention to material efficiency.

The energy required to produce materials: constraints on energy-intensity improvements, parameters of demand.

In this paper, we review the energy requirements to make materials on a global scale by focusing on the five construction materials that dominate energy used in material production: steel, cement, paper, plastics and aluminium. We then estimate the possibility of reducing absolute material production energy by half, while doubling production from the present to 2050. The goal therefore is a 75 per cent reduction in energy intensity. Four technology-based strategies are investigated, regardless of cost: (i) widespread application of best available technology (BAT), (ii) BAT to cutting-edge technologies, (iii) aggressive recycling and finally, and (iv) significant improvements in recycling technologies. Taken together, these aggressive strategies could produce impressive gains, of the order of a 50-56 per cent reduction in energy intensity, but this is still short of our goal of a 75 per cent reduction. Ultimately, we face fundamental thermodynamic as well as practical constraints on our ability to improve the energy intensity of material production. A strategy to reduce demand by providing material services with less material (called 'material efficiency') is outlined as an approach to solving this dilemma.

Material efficiency: providing material services with less material production.

Material efficiency, as discussed in this Meeting Issue, entails the pursuit of the technical strategies, business models, consumer preferences and policy instruments that would lead to a substantial reduction in the production of high-volume energy-intensive materials required to deliver human well-being. This paper, which introduces a Discussion Meeting Issue on the topic of material efficiency, aims to give an overview of current thinking on the topic, spanning environmental, engineering, economics, sociology and policy issues. The motivations for material efficiency include reducing energy demand, reducing the emissions and other environmental impacts of industry, and increasing national resource security. There are many technical strategies that might bring it about, and these could mainly be implemented today if preferred by customers or producers. However, current economic structures favour the substitution of material for labour, and consumer preferences for material consumption appear to continue even beyond the point at which increased consumption provides any increase in well-being. Therefore, policy will be required to stimulate material efficiency. A theoretically ideal policy measure, such as a carbon price, would internalize the externality of emissions associated with material production, and thus motivate change directly. However, implementation of such a measure has proved elusive, and instead the adjustment of existing government purchasing policies or existing regulations-- for instance to do with building design, planning or vehicle standards--is likely to have a more immediate effect.

Preliminary evaluation of risks related to waste incineration of polymer nanocomposites.

If nanotechnology proves to be successful for bulk applications, large quantities of nanocomposites are likely to end up in municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) plants. Various studies indicate that nanoobjects might be harmful to human health and the environment. At this moment there is no evidence that all nanoobjects are safely removed from the off-gas when incinerating nanocomposites in MSWI plants. This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the fate of nanoobjects during waste incineration and the ability of MSWI plants to remove them. It appears that nanoobject emission levels will increase if bulk quantities of nanocomposites end up in municipal solid waste. Many primary and secondary nanoobjects arise from the incineration of nanocomposites and removal seems insufficient for objects that are smaller than 100nm. For the nanoobjects studied in this paper, risks occur for aluminum oxide, calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, POSS, silica, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, zirconia, mica, montmorillonite, talc, cobalt, gold, silver, carbon black and fullerenes. Since this conclusion is based on a desktop study without accompanying experiments, further research is required to reveal which nanoobjects will actually be emitted to the environment and to determine their toxicity to human health.