Life Cycle of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle Production

Life cycle impact of emissions, energy requirements, and exergetic losses are calculated for a novel process for producing titanium dioxide nanoparticles from an ilmenite feedstock. The Altairnano hydrochloride process analyzed is tailored for the production of nanoscale particles, unlike established commercial processes. The life cycle energy requirements for the production of these particles is compared with that of traditional building materials on a per unit mass basis. The environmental impact assessment and energy analysis results both emphasize the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels in the upstream life cycle. Exergy analysis shows fuel losses to be secondary to material losses, particularly in the mining of ilmenite ore. These analyses are based on the same inventory data. The main contributions of this work are to provide life cycle inventory of a nanomanufacturing process and reveal potential insights from exergy analysis that are not available from other methods.     

城市水资源生态足迹核算模型及应用——以沈阳市为例

水资源生态足迹可以直接反映区域人类社会经济活动对水资源的压力.本研究在现有的生态足迹模型基础上,充分考虑城市自然生态系统对水资源的需求,建立了包括居民日常生活用水、生产运营用水、公共服务用水和生态需水4类帐户的城市水资源生态足迹核算模型,并结合沈阳市实际情况,确定了模型中的相关参数,对沈阳市水资源生态足迹和生态承载力进行分析.结果表明:2000-2009年,沈阳市人均水资源生态足迹总体呈下降态势,但各年度均为水生态赤字;2005年较2000年水资源生态足迹人均下降0.31 hm2,2006、2007年有小幅回升,2008、2009年趋于平稳,说明沈阳市水资源可持续利用状况有一定改善,但仍处于不可持续状态.     

水足迹研究进展

水为生命之源,水资源的合理分配与科学管理是区域可持续发展与流域综合管理的核心环节;水足迹作为一种全面核算人类活动对水资源真实占用的综合指标,将人类消费终端与水资源利用密切关联,为维护流域水资源安全、提高区域水资源利用效率提供了重要的科学依据,已成为当前国际水资源管理的前沿研究领域。在明确水足迹及水资源生态足迹相关概念的基础上,对比分析了水足迹与生态足迹、水资源生态足迹模型的异同,明晰了过程、产品及区域等不同研究对象的水足迹核算方法,系统梳理了产品和区域水足迹评价、基于水足迹的区域水资源安全研究、区域水足迹可持续性分析等水足迹主要研究内容的近今进展,并展望了进一步的重点研究方向,即水足迹综合研究、水足迹评价不确定性分析、水足迹与物质流核算的关联研究,以及基于足迹整合的可持续发展多维测度等。     

2004—2013年东北三省主要粮食作物生产碳足迹

东北是我国重要的粮食主产区,在国家粮食安全保障中起着至关重要的作用.作物生产是主要的碳排放源,探明不同作物生产的碳足迹差异,对促进低碳农业发展具有重要意义.本研究利用2004—2013年东北三省主要粮食作物(水稻、玉米和大豆)的产量、播种面积、农田生产投入等统计数据,估算了该区粮食生产碳足迹.结果表明: 2004—2013年,东北地区3种主要粮食作物中,水稻生产单位面积碳足迹最高,平均达到(2463±56) kg CE·hm^-2,玉米次之.玉米的碳足迹上升趋势最明显,从2004年的1164 kg CE·hm^-2增加到2013年的1768 kg CE·hm^-2,增速为67 kg CE·hm^-2·a^-1.在碳足迹构成中,化肥贡献最大,分别占水稻、玉米、大豆总碳投入的45%、90%、83%.水稻生产中灌溉用电所占比例为29%~42%,远高于玉米和大豆.东北三省碳足迹差异显著,3种作物的单位产量碳足迹均在吉林省最高,单位面积碳足迹均在黑龙江省最低.随着农村劳动力非农化和作物生产机械化的快速递增,未来粮食生产中柴油等机械化碳投入将快速增长.提升化肥利用效率、灌溉效率和机械化作业效率将是发展东北地区低碳农业的关键途径.     

2001-2009年中国碳排放与碳足迹时空格局

碳排放引发的全球变暖给自然环境及人类社会都带来了显著影响,而碳足迹可以衡量自然生态系统对人类活动碳排放的响应。为研究自然-社会二元系统碳动态,基于MODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)数据和统计资料计算2001—2009年中国陆地植被净初级生产力、能源消费碳排放、碳足迹和碳赤字;在GIS(Geographic Information System)技术支持下,运用空间自相关分析方法讨论其时空格局;据此划分生态经济区。结果表明:(1)2001—2009年全国植被净初级生产力(Net Primary Production,NPP)平均值为3.32 Pg C/a(1 Pg=1015g),呈西南地区东南沿海华中、华东地区东北、华北地区西北地区的空间格局;(2)2001—2009年全国能源消费碳排放逐年增加,年均增长率16.7%,多年平均值2.53 Pg C/a,呈东部中部西部的空间格局;(3)2001—2009年全国碳足迹逐年增加,年均增长率14.7%,多年平均值6.98×106km2;具有正碳赤字(即碳源)的省份为山西、环渤海地区各省、长三角地区各省、广东;相邻省份碳赤字的相对大小由于互相影响而改变;(4)全国分为中东部、南部、北部、西部四个生态经济大区。研究结果直观揭示了中国碳排放和碳足迹的时空动态,为实现自然-社会二元系统的可持续发展提供科学依据。     

中国单位畜牧产品生态足迹分析

中国畜牧业生产以农户散养为主要生产方式,一方面,它的工业化程度远低于发达国家,另一方面,又比其他发展中国家生产得更为精细.因此在计算单位畜牧产品生态足迹这一畜牧业生态影响评价中的重要参数时,必须考虑到我国牲畜口粮的特点.分析了我国牲畜口粮的成分,据此确定猪肉、禽肉和禽蛋足迹主要来自饲料中粮食,而牛肉、羊肉和牛奶足迹则来自草料和饲料中粮食.基于我国单位畜牧产品耗粮量和草地平均产肉产奶量,计算各种单位畜牧产品的生态足迹.结果表明,1kg禽肉足迹为7.6687gm2(全球平方m2,记作gm2)、禽蛋足迹为8.0106gm2、猪肉足迹为9.7859gm2或11.7326gm2、牛肉足迹为139.704gm2、羊肉足迹为232.0662gm2和牛奶足迹为37.2368 gm2.将计算结果与世界自然基金会(World Wildlife Fund,简称WWF)的结果进行了对比分析,并从料肉比、役畜、牲畜食草量和居民饮食结构等几个方面分析了二者之间差异的原因.     

Environmental Load from Dutch Private Consumption: How Much Damage Takes Place Abroad?

This article describes a method for determining the environmental load of Dutch private consumption. The method generates detailed information about consumption-related environmental impacts. The environmental load of households (direct) and production (indirect) was determined for 360 expenditure categories reported in the Dutch Expenditure Survey. The indirect environmental load was calculated with linked input-output tables covering worldwide production and trade. The environmental load per Euro turnover of industries was linked to consumer expenditures. With this method we can quantify several types of environmental load per expenditure category and per economic production region.
It was found that food production, room heating, and car use are the most important elements in the environmental load of Dutch private consumption. The impacts taking place abroad were—with the exception of emission of greenhouse gases and road traffic noise—found to be larger than domestic impacts. Most land use was found to take place in developing (non-OECD) countries, whereas most emissions occur in industrialized (OECD) countries.     

The Location and Protection Status of Earth’s Diminishing Marine Wilderness

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The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross‐national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco‐efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies.