Since the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54-3.20 billion euros.

China's plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide.

Air pollutant emissions from coal-fired power plants in China over the past two decades

Characteristics of condensable particulate matter before and after wet flue gas desulfurization and wet electrostatic precipitator from ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants in China

Natural gas is considered a helpful transition fuel in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of other conventional power plants burning coal or liquid fossil fuels. Natural Gas Hydrates (NGHs) constitute the largest reservoir of natural gas in the world. Methane contained within the crystalline structure can be replaced by carbon dioxide to enhance gas recovery from hydrates. This technical review presents a techno-economic analysis of the full pathway, which begins with the capture of CO2 from power and process industries and ends with its transportation to a geological sequestration site consisting of clathrate hydrates. Since extracted methane is still rich in CO2, on-site separation is required. Focus is thus placed on membrane-based gas separation technologies widely used for gas purification and CO2 removal from raw natural gas and exhaust gas. Nevertheless, the other carbon capture processes (i.e., oxy-fuel combustion, pre-combustion and post-combustion) are briefly discussed and their carbon capture costs are compared with membrane separation technology. Since a large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facility requires CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure, a technical, cost and safety assessment of CO2 transportation over long distances is carried out. Finally, this paper provides an overview of the storage solutions developed around the world, principally studying the geological NGH formation for CO2 sinks.

A Review on CO2 Capture Technologies with Focus on CO2-Enhanced Methane Recovery from Hydrates

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are emerging contaminants occurring in combustion-borne particulates and atmospheric particulate matter, but information on their formation and behavior on fly ash from municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerators is scarce. Here, we have found that MSW-associated fly ash samples contain an EPFR concentration of 3–10 × 1015 spins g–1, a line width (ΔHp-p) of ∼8.6 G, and a g-factor of 2.0032–2.0038. These EPFRs are proposed to be mixtures of carbon-centered and oxygen-centered free radicals. Fractionation of the fly ash-associated EPFRs into solvent-extracted and nonextractable radicals suggests that the solvent-extracted part accounts for ∼45–73% of the total amount of EPFRs. Spin densities of solvent-extracted EPFRs correlate positively with the concentrations of Fe, Cu, Mn, Ti, and Zn, whereas similar correlations are comparatively insignificant for nonextractable EPFRs. Under natural conditions, these two types of EPFRs exhibit different stabilization that s...

Formation and Evolution of Solvent-Extracted and Nonextractable Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals in Fly Ash of Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators.

Characteristics of filterable and condensable particulate matter emitted from two waste incineration power plants in China.

Characteristics of particulate matter from four coal–fired power plants with low–low temperature electrostatic precipitator in China

The dry impinger method, the indirect dilution method, and the direct dilution method can be used to measure the condensable particulate matter (CPM) emissions. We tested these methods in determini...

Evaluating Airborne Condensable Particulate Matter Measurement Methods in Typical Stationary Sources in China

Nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) play a central role in air pollution. Super-emitters present unique opportunities for emission mitigation in China and beyond. They comprise intensive industrial facilities (e.g., power or chemical plants), less than 1 × 1 km2 with high NOx plumes, dominating localized concentrations within a limited geographical scope. However, identification of super-emitters typically challenges emission mitigation due to insufficient spatiotemporal resolution. Here we map NOx emissions using an efficient, super-resolution (1 × 1 km2) inverse model based on whole-year TROPOMI satellite observations. Our map offers unique insights on nationwide NOx super-emitters. We resolve 1625 super-emitters in virtually every corner in China, even in remote and mountainous zones, which we trace back to either an industrial hotspot or a cluster (i.e., an industrial park). The state-of-the-art bottom-up emission inventory MEICv1.3 largely (67%) agrees with our results within a factor of two for cities. However, that inventory does not identify super-emitters, particularly underestimating one-third of the emissions by at least an order of magnitude. Many individual industrial hotspots are often found to be displaced or missing. Moreover, traditional top-down inverse methods do not effectively detect such super-emitters. Here we show it is necessary to address the NOx budget by revisiting super-emitters on a large scale. Integrating the results we obtain here with a multi-tiered observation system can lead to identification and mitigation of anomalous NOx emissions.

/pdf/missing-or-underrated-super-emitters-of-nitrogen-oxides-in-45pwx8weh1.pdf

Missing or Underrated Super-emitters of Nitrogen Oxides in China Exposed from Space

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Papers

Characteristics of filterable and condensable particulate matter emitted from two waste incineration power plants in China.

Characteristics of particulate matter from four coal–fired power plants with low–low temperature electrostatic precipitator in China

Evaluating Airborne Condensable Particulate Matter Measurement Methods in Typical Stationary Sources in China

Missing or Underrated Super-emitters of Nitrogen Oxides in China Exposed from Space