OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND REDUCED CO2 EMISSIONS IN DRY BULK SHIPPING STEMMING FROM THE RELAXATION OF THE PANAMAX BEAM CONSTRAINT

In 2014 the Panama Canal Authority is scheduled to bring into commission new locks that will eliminate the long standing Panamax beam constraint of 32.2m. The expansion of the canal is aimed at increased capacity for container transits but will clearly have consequences for all types of vessel. There is an emerging demand for dry bulk carriers that are larger than the current Panamax limit of around 85,000 dwt but smaller than the Capesize class of around 160,000 dwt and the expansion of the canal will facilitate this development. Larger vessels will permit economies of scale and greater efficiency in the dry bulk shipping sector compared to what is currently possible with conventional Panamax ships. The relaxation of the constraint will additionally permit the development of more efficient hull forms than is possible within the existing beam constraint and the expansion of the Panama Canal’s locks will therefore (eventually) contribute directly to the reduction of CO2 produced by dry bulk shipping. The use of the Panamax constraint is far wider than the dry bulk sector, however, and the potential for reduction in carbon emissions for other sectors currently constrained to 32.2m beam is recommended for further study to evaluate the total carbon reduction ‘windfall’ that could result from the expansion of the Canal.

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Importance of the Panama canal in the reduction of CO2 emissions from maritime transport

International Journal of Sustainable Transportation ◽

10.1080/15568318.2019.1632994 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (11) ◽

pp. 819-832 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Luis Carral ◽

Carlos Fernández-Garrido ◽

Adan Vega ◽

Rodolfo Sabonge

Keyword(s):

Co2 Emissions ◽

Panama Canal ◽

Maritime Transport ◽

Reduction Of Co2

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Exploring Carbon Neutral Potential in Urban Densification: A Precinct Perspective and Scenario Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12124814 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 4814

Author(s):

Bin Huang ◽

Ke Xing ◽

Stephen Pullen ◽

Lida Liao

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Scenario Analysis ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Carbon Reduction ◽

Carbon Neutrality ◽

Carbon Neutral ◽

Carbon Performance

Decarbonising the urban built environment for reaching carbon neutrality is high on the agenda for many cities undergoing rapid expansion and densification. As an important urban form, precincts have been increasingly focused on as the context for urban redevelopment planning and at the forefront for trialling carbon reduction measures. However, due to interplays between the built forms and the occupancy, the carbon performance of a precinct is significantly affected by morphological variations, demographical changes, and renewable energy system deployment. Despite much research on the development of low-carbon precincts, there is limited analysis on aggregated effects of population growth, building energy efficiency, renewable energy penetration, and carbon reduction targets in relation to precinct carbon signature and carbon neutral potential for precinct redevelopment and decarbonisation planning. In this paper, an integrated carbon assessment model, including overall precinct carbon emissions and carbon offset contributed by precinct-scale renewable energy harvesting, is developed and applied to examine the lifecycle carbon signature of urban precincts. Using a case study on a residential precinct redevelopment, scenario analysis is employed to explore opportunities for decarbonising densification development and the carbon neutral potential. Results from scenario analysis indicate that redevelopment of buildings with higher-rated energy efficiency and increase of renewable energy penetration can have a long term positive impact on the carbon performance of urban precincts. Meanwhile, demographical factors in precinct evolution also have a strong influence on a precinct’s carbon neutral potential. Whilst population size exerts upward pressure on total carbon emissions, changes in family types and associated consumption behaviour, such as travelling, can make positive contributions to carbon reduction. The analysis also highlights the significance of embodied carbon to the total carbon signature and the carbon reduction potential of a precinct during densification, reinforcing the notion that “develop with less” is as important as carbon offsetting measures for decarbonising the precinct toward carbon neutrality.

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A Green Quality Management Decision Model with Carbon Tax and Capacity Expansion under Activity-Based Costing (ABC)—A Case Study in the Tire Manufacturing Industry

Energies ◽

10.3390/en11071858 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 1858 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Wen-Hsien Tsai

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Quality Management ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Carbon Tax ◽

Environmental Cost ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Management Decision ◽

Activity Based Costing ◽

Carbon Reduction

Issues related to global environmental protection are highly important. Under the global trend of energy saving and carbon reduction, in order to lower the carbon emissions of products or services offered by enterprises, the Taiwanese government aims to control carbon emissions by constructing a carbon tax system and mandating enterprises to pay a carbon tax. The collection of a carbon tax can minimize the total social environmental cost and increase the efficiency of carbon reduction; the need to control the green quality cost can serve as a criterion of green management decision-making. This study aimed to reorganize carbon emissions in different stages of production in order to lower the total carbon emissions of products. Activity-based costing (ABC) was adopted to assess green quality management and production cost. The optimal green quality production portfolio was selected via a mathematical programming model to focus on the expansion of productivity and outsourcing strategy in order to effectively lessen the harmful effects on the environment and maximize profits. Besides academic contributions, the findings of this study could serve as a reference to enterprises on assessing the effects of carbon emissions, carbon taxes, and environmental management on production decision-making.

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Integrated Planning for Regional Electric Power System Management with Risk Measure and Carbon Emission Constraints: A Case Study of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12040601 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 601 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yulei Xie ◽

Zhenghui Fu ◽

Dehong Xia ◽

Wentao Lu ◽

Guohe Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electric Power ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Risk Measure ◽

Electric Power Industry ◽

Power Industry ◽

Electric Power System ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Carbon Reduction

With the carbon reduction targets being set in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, China is facing great pressure to meet its emission reduction commitment. The electric power industry as the major source of carbon emissions needs to be a focus. However, the uncertainty of power systems, the risk of reducing emissions and the fuzziness of carbon capture technology popularization rate and carbon reduction targets makes previous planning methods unsatisfactory for current planning. This paper establishes an interval fuzzy programming with a risk measure model which takes carbon capture technology and carbon reduction targets into account, to ensure that the complex electric management system achieves the best developmental state. It was concluded that in order to reduce carbon emissions, wind power and hydropower would be the best choices, and coal-fired power would be the suboptimal choice, and solar power would play a complementary role. Besides, decision makers should put much more effort into promoting and improving carbon capture technology instead of simply setting emission reduction targets. The non-synchronism of the downward trend in carbon emissions per unit of electricity generation and electric power industry total carbon emissions need to be taken seriously.

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Carbon Emission Estimation of Assembled Composite Concrete Beams during Construction

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14071810 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 1810

Author(s):

Kaitong Xu ◽

Haibo Kang ◽

Wei Wang ◽

Ping Jiang ◽

Na Li

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Carbon Emission ◽

Composite Beams ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Construction Process ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Carbon Emission Reduction ◽

The Government

At present, the issue of carbon emissions from buildings has become a hot topic, and carbon emission reduction is also becoming a political and economic contest for countries. As a result, the government and researchers have gradually begun to attach great importance to the industrialization of low-carbon and energy-saving buildings. The rise of prefabricated buildings has promoted a major transformation of the construction methods in the construction industry, which is conducive to reducing the consumption of resources and energy, and of great significance in promoting the low-carbon emission reduction of industrial buildings. This article mainly studies the calculation model for carbon emissions of the three-stage life cycle of component production, logistics transportation, and on-site installation in the whole construction process of composite beams for prefabricated buildings. The construction of CG-2 composite beams in Fujian province, China, was taken as the example. Based on the life cycle assessment method, carbon emissions from the actual construction process of composite beams were evaluated, and that generated by the composite beam components during the transportation stage by using diesel, gasoline, and electric energy consumption methods were compared in detail. The results show that (1) the carbon emissions generated by composite beams during the production stage were relatively high, accounting for 80.8% of the total carbon emissions, while during the transport stage and installation stage, they only accounted for 7.6% and 11.6%, respectively; and (2) during the transportation stage with three different energy-consuming trucks, the carbon emissions from diesel fuel trucks were higher, reaching 186.05 kg, followed by gasoline trucks, which generated about 115.68 kg; electric trucks produced the lowest, only 12.24 kg.

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Economic Development, CO2 Emissions and Energy Use Nexus-Evidence from the Danube Region Countries

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14113165 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (11) ◽

pp. 3165

Author(s):

Eva Litavcová ◽

Jana Chovancová

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Bounds Testing ◽

Mutual Cooperation ◽

Long Run ◽

Short Run ◽

Danube Region ◽

The Impact

The aim of this study is to examine the empirical cointegration, long-run and short-run dynamics and causal relationships between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in 14 Danube region countries over the period of 1990–2019. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing methodology was applied for each of the examined variables as a dependent variable. Limited by the length of the time series, we excluded two countries from the analysis and obtained valid results for the others for 26 of 36 ARDL models. The ARDL bounds reliably confirmed long-run cointegration between carbon emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Economic growth and energy consumption have a significant impact on carbon emissions in the long-run in all of these four countries; in the short-run, the impact of economic growth is significant in Austria. Likewise, when examining cointegration between energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth in the short-run, a significant contribution of CO2 emissions on energy consumptions for seven countries was found as a result of nine valid models. The results contribute to the information base essential for making responsible and informed decisions by policymakers and other stakeholders in individual countries. Moreover, they can serve as a platform for mutual cooperation and cohesion among countries in this region.

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