Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Chinese Coal-Based Clean Energy Industry: LCA-Based and WTP-Oriented Modeling

The evolution of energy system occupies an important position in economic development and quality of life. Influenced by the energy endowment in China, developing the coal-based clean energy industry has been regarded as a guaranteed path to realizing the clean and efficient use of coal resources. However, an evaluation paradigm could systematically assess the health impacts of airborne pollution in this industry is still lack, which is our concern. Combining with life cycle analysis, probabilistic risk models, and health impacts models, this study proposes a series of models which are consistent enough to unite pollutant concentration, health risk, and health impact, and equip assessment results with more intuitive significance using life and economic loss. Further, case studies for three typical coal-based clean energy processing, namely, coal mining, coal-fired power generation, and coal liquefaction are presented to verify the reliability of these models. It is proved that this evaluation paradigm can help to find out the worksite, substage, and airborne pollutant with the most severe impact, and more importantly, the application of evaluation indicators with life and economic meaning is more profitable to provide references for minimizing or eliminating the health impacts, moreover, explicit the developing directions of the national energy industry.

The Enemy Within? Green Industrial Policy and Stranded Assets in China’s Power Sector

This article examines potential interest group opposition to green industrial policies through the lens of state investment in China’s coal power sector. Using a novel data set on financial investments in Chinese coal power plants, we show that state actors have controlling stakes in the majority of nominally private coal plants. Importantly, the majority of such plants have investments from multiple levels of government. Green industrial policies could therefore face resistance from economic coalitions within the state, as state-owned coal plants and government agencies object to policies that harm their financial interests. Theoretically, this implies the need for a conceptualization of state capacity that allows for the ability to overcome internal opposition. Empirically, we highlight a predicament for the Chinese state: it has set ambitious goals to decarbonize but also has a vested interest in ensuring the profitability of the world’s largest coal-fired power generation fleet.

The Role of Work Engagement in the Association between Psychological Capital and Safety Citizenship Behavior in Coal Miners: A Mediation Analysis

With the development of science and technology and the increasing importance attached by to these domains by the state and government departments in recent years, China’s coal production and safety supervision level continue to increase. However, the prevalence of frequent coal mine safety accidents has not been effectively curbed. The main purpose of this study was to explore the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between psychological capital and safety citizenship behavior among Chinese coal miners. Data for 317 coal miners were collected from five coal and energy enterprises. The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), the Job Engagement Scale (JES), and the Safety Citizenship Behavior Scale (SCBS) were used to evaluate the coal miners’ psychological capital, work engagement, and safety citizenship behavior. The causal steps approach and bootstrap Method were used in this study to assess the proposed mediation models. A correlation analysis indicated that psychological capital, work engagement, and safety citizenship behavior were significantly correlated with each other. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that work engagement mediated the relationship between psychological capital and safety citizenship behavior. Psychological capital does not only have a direct impact on coal miners’ safety citizenship behavior, but it also has an indirect impact on coal miners’ safety citizenship behavior via work engagement. Therefore, effectively enhancing an individual’s psychological capital and work engagement may be a basic factor determining coal miners’ safety citizenship behavior, which further promotes safety production within the enterprise.

Characterization of humic acids from original coal and its oxidization production

Five coal samples obtained from Chinese coal-producing areas were oxidized by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and humic acids (HAs) were derived from original coal and its oxidizition samples. HAs were characterized by physical and chemical methods, between which was also comparison. Yield, ash, aromaticity, molecular weight and functional group of HAs showed variance between original coals. While, yield, molecular weight, and the quantity of oxygen-containing groups of HAs increased more from coals oxidized with H2O2. However, the increase of oxygen-containing functional groups depended on original coals. For Yimin lignite, the oxidation of H2O2 could obviously improve the carboxyl group content of HAs, thus promoting the adsorption of nitrogen. This study demonstrated that oxidation of coal by using H2O2 was one pretreatment way to obtain and modify HAs which could be used as prerequisite and functional material in agricultural field.

Stress Distribution and Optimum Spacing Determination of Double-Withdrawal-Channel Surrounding Rocks: A Case Study of Chinese Coal Mine

In this study, the 31113 fully mechanised working face in the Lijiahao Coal Mine was selected as the project background. The failure characteristics and optimum spacing of a double-withdrawal-channel surrounding rock were extensively investigated through field measurements, theoretical analysis, and numerical simulations. The following results were obtained. The loading influence range of the working face was fixed. Under the influence of mining, the stress distribution variation in the double-withdrawal channels with spacing and the influence of stress distribution on the surrounding rock stability of the withdrawal channels were determined. The optimum distance between the double-withdrawal channels to achieve the stability of the surrounding rock was at least 25 m, and engineering measures are required to limit the mining height in the final mining stage. The rationality of the main and auxiliary withdrawal channel spacing of 25 m and measures to limit the mining height in the final stage were demonstrated. The findings of this study provide a valuable reference for constructing the layout of withdrawal channels in the adjacent working faces of the same mining area.

Study on Broken Floor Rock Mass by Mining Underground Pressure

As the dangerous level of floor water inrush in Chinese coal field is becoming more and more serious annually, the widely used formulas of broken floor rock mass are belonged to nonlinear type or empirical type. However, they are not well conformed to the practical situation and including mining underground pressure. The biggest depth of broken floor rock mass and the length of gob-floor or mining-floor until the maximum broken floor location are expressed by theoretical formulas on integrity theory. Taking a mining face in Chinese Anhui Province as the object, the relationship between broken floor rock mass and mining underground pressure is studied by numerical simulation, the theoretical analysis, and the DC exploration. The peak and scope of broken floor rock mass will enlarge until reaching limit value with the increasingly advanced distance. The mining gob stress contour is saddle-shaped, and its growing speed is becoming slower, so the 180 m coal mining face has reached the sufficient mining stage. Wave velocity of broken floor rock mass from 0 m to 16 m is greatly decreased by the mining disturbance, and it is basically conformed to theoretical formula and practical situation. The results can be relatively better used in the pressure mining of the Ordovician limestone, because it can provide some safe guarantee for mining deep coal seam.