Air quality and health benefits from ultra-low emission control policy indicated by continuous emission monitoring: a case study in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

To evaluate the improved emission estimates from online monitoring, we applied the Models-3/CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality) system to simulate the air quality of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region using two emission inventories with and without incorporated data from continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMSs) at coal-fired power plants (cases 1 and 2, respectively). The normalized mean biases (NMBs) between the observed and simulated hourly concentrations of SO2, NO2, O3, and PM2.5 in case 2 were −3.1 %, 56.3 %, −19.5 %, and −1.4 %, all smaller in absolute value than those in case 1 at 8.2 %, 68.9 %, −24.6 %, and 7.6 %, respectively. The results indicate that incorporation of CEMS data in the emission inventory reduced the biases between simulation and observation and could better reflect the actual sources of regional air pollution. Based on the CEMS data, the air quality changes and corresponding health impacts were quantified for different implementation levels of China's recent “ultra-low” emission policy. If the coal-fired power sector met the requirement alone (case 3), the differences in the simulated monthly SO2, NO2, O3, and PM2.5 concentrations compared to those of case 2, our base case for policy comparisons, would be less than 7 % for all pollutants. The result implies a minor benefit of ultra-low emission control if implemented in the power sector alone, which is attributed to its limited contribution to the total emissions in the YRD after years of pollution control (11 %, 7 %, and 2 % of SO2, NOX, and primary particle matter (PM) in case 2, respectively). If the ultra-low emission policy was enacted at both power plants and selected industrial sources including boilers, cement, and iron and steel factories (case 4), the simulated SO2, NO2, and PM2.5 concentrations compared to the base case would be 33 %–64 %, 16 %–23 %, and 6 %–22 % lower, respectively, depending on the month (January, April, July, and October 2015). Combining CMAQ and the Integrated Exposure Response (IER) model, we further estimated that 305 deaths and 8744 years of life loss (YLL) attributable to PM2.5 exposure could be avoided with the implementation of the ultra-low emission policy in the power sector in the YRD region. The analogous values would be much higher, at 10 651 deaths and 316 562 YLL avoided, if both power and industrial sectors met the ultra-low emission limits. In order to improve regional air quality and to reduce human health risk effectively, coordinated control of multiple sources should be implemented, and the ultra-low emission policy should be substantially expanded to major emission sources in industries other than the power industry.

Air quality and health benefits from ultra-low emission control policy indicated by continuous emission monitoring: A case study in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

To evaluate improved emission estimation from online monitoring data, we applied the Models-3/CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality) system to simulate the air quality of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region using two emission inventories without/with incorporated data from continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) at coal-fired power plants (Cases 1 and 2), respectively. The normalized mean biases (NMBs) of annual SO2, NO2, O3 and PM2.5 concentrations between observations and simulations in Case 2 were −3.1 %, 56.3 %, −19.5 % and −1.4 %, all smaller in absolute value than those in Case 1, at 8.2 %, 68.9 %, −24.6 % and 7.6 %, respectively. The results indicate that incorporation of CEMS data in the emission inventory helped reduce the biases between simulation and observation and can better reflect the actual sources of regional air pollution. Based on the CEMS data, the air quality changes and corresponding health impacts were quantified for different implementation levels of China's recent ultra-low emission policy. If only the coal-fired power sector met the requirement, the simulated differences in the monthly SO2, NO2, O3 and PM2.5 concentrations compared to those of Case 2, our base case for policy comparisons, were less than 7 % for all pollutants. The result implies only a minor benefit of ultra-low emission control if implemented in the power sector alone, attributed to its limited contribution to total emissions in the YRD after years of pollution control in the sector (11 %, 7 % and 2 % of SO2, NOX and primary particle matter (PM), respectively). If the ultra-low emission policy was enacted at both power plant and industrial boilers, the simulated SO2, NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations compared to the base case were 33 %–64 %, 16 %–23 % and 6 %–22 % lower respectively, depending on the month (January, April, July and October 2015). Combining CMAQ and the Integrated Exposure Response (IER) model, we further estimated that 305 deaths and 874 years of life loss (YLL) attributable to PM2.5 exposure could be avoided with the implementation of the ultra-low emission policy in the power sector in the YRD region. The analogous values would be much higher, at 10,651 deaths and 316,562 YLL avoided, if both power and industrial sectors met the ultra-low emission limits, accounting for 5.5 % and 6.2 % of the totals for the region, respectively. In order to improve regional air quality and to reduce human health risk effectively, coordinated control of various pollution sources should be implemented, and the ultra-low emission control policy should be substantially expanded to industrial boilers and other emission sources in non-power industries.

Utilisation of Mass and Night Ventilation in Decreasing Cooling Load Demand

The building sector consumes 36% of the world’s energy and produces around 40% of energy-related carbon emissions. While the building industry moves towards a zero net greenhouse-gas emission policy, ventilation is, and will be, a necessity for the preservation of air quality—especially in climates defined by unsavoury conditions. Therefore, a “mixing mode” cooling system was employed to lower the required energy consumption at an earthen building situated in the premises of Istanbul Technical University. A room of the high-mass earthen building was monitored under different ventilation and shading conditions. Night ventilation was conducted using two modes, 3.2 and 2.3 air changes per hour, and the air conditioning unit, operating from 08:00 to 17:00, had a set temperature of 23 ∘C. Night ventilation was somewhat impactful, reducing the average expected cooling energy demand up to 27%. Furthermore, the earthen building proved to be extremely effective on moderating extremes of temperature under non-ventilated conditions. During a rather hot day, with an outdoor maximum temperature of 35 ∘C, the indoor maximum temperature of the high-mass building was only 25 ∘C, namely within thermal comfort levels. The diurnal temperature proved to be key in the effective application of night ventilation.

Municipal Solid Waste Management and Treatment in China

This chapter focuses on the generation, treatment, and management policy, but excluding reduction and recycling information, of municipal solid waste (MSW) in China. Cities in China generated 215 million tons of MSW in 2017. It presents a big challenge for sustainable development of cities. Currently, sanitary landfill is the dominant method for MSW treatment, treating 57.2% of total waste. MSW composting has seen a decrease in application, only used to treat less than 2.5% of total MSW. Meanwhile, waste to energy in the form of incineration for energy production has developed significantly in the last decade. The percentage of MSW amount treated by incineration is 40.2% from the total amount of treated MSW in 2017, a sharp increase from only 4.9% in 2003, due to China's commitment to WtE. The content of this chapter shall include comprehensive data from government and industry, including plant capacity, quantity, technology, emission, policy and regulation promoting, and guiding WtE in China.

Feasibility study of emission policy for photovoltaic integrated building microgrids

The photovoltaics (PV) based microgrids play important role in the development of green buildings. This work investigates the effects of emission policy on the PV integrated commercial and residential building microgrids. The component sizes of microgrid are determined by simulated optimal power dispatch with an optimization algorithm based on minimizing the cost of energy (COE). The COE is computed with consideration of the capital depreciation cost, fuel cost, emissions damage cost and maintenance cost. The simulation results show that the emission policy and photovoltaic subsidy have little effect on sizing the commercial microgrid system. However, the component sizing design for residential microgrid system is sensitive to the emission policy. Increasing emission taxes and photovoltaic subsidy can effectively raise the proportion of PV in the system. The most important factor of restricting PV usage in microgrids is the cost of batteries. Increasing the battery lifetime or selecting the lower cost of battery can significantly increase the installation of PV, thus rise the green building standard.