Where coal is produced really matters the environmental impacts

IF 11.2 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Resources Conservation and Recycling Pub Date : 2024-10-28 DOI:10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107987

You Zhang , Xuewei Liu , Laure Patouillard , Manuele Margni , Cécile Bulle , Zengwei Yuan

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Abstract

China is the largest coal producer. The environmental impacts caused by its vast production deserve attention. Previous site-generic life cycle assessment (LCA) studies focused on single or several coal mines, ignoring spatial heterogeneity of environmental impacts and hardly providing industry-level suggestions. Here, we propose a technical framework for regionalized LCA and evaluate provincial-level environmental impacts per tonne of coal in China. It reveals significant variations in climate change and particulate matter formation potential (PMFP), with water scarcity potential (WSP) showing the highest spatial disparities, and also demonstrates the significance of this work. Key processes dominating environmental impacts and underlying factors driving these variations are identified. Furthermore, the total PMFP and WSP of provincial-level coal production since 2002 are estimated, showing a growing trend in spatial variation. This study provides valuable insights to enhance the environmental performance of China's coal industry and serves as a methodological reference for regionalized LCA research.

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煤炭产地对环境影响的真正影响

中国是最大的煤炭生产国。巨大的煤炭产量对环境造成的影响值得关注。以往的地点通用生命周期评估（LCA）研究主要针对单个或多个煤矿，忽略了环境影响的空间异质性，也很难提供行业层面的建议。在此，我们提出了一个区域化生命周期评估的技术框架，并对中国每吨煤的省级环境影响进行了评估。它揭示了气候变化和颗粒物形成潜势（PMFP）的显著差异，其中缺水潜势（WSP）的空间差异最大，同时也证明了这项工作的意义。确定了主导环境影响的关键过程和驱动这些变化的潜在因素。此外，还估算了自 2002 年以来省级煤炭生产的 PMFP 和 WSP 总量，结果显示空间差异呈增长趋势。这项研究为提高中国煤炭工业的环境绩效提供了有价值的见解，并为区域化生命周期评估研究提供了方法参考。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Resources Conservation and Recycling 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

22.90

自引率

6.10%

发文量

625

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling welcomes contributions from research, which consider sustainable management and conservation of resources. The journal prioritizes understanding the transformation processes crucial for transitioning toward more sustainable production and consumption systems. It highlights technological, economic, institutional, and policy aspects related to specific resource management practices such as conservation, recycling, and resource substitution, as well as broader strategies like improving resource productivity and restructuring production and consumption patterns. Contributions may address regional, national, or international scales and can range from individual resources or technologies to entire sectors or systems. Authors are encouraged to explore scientific and methodological issues alongside practical, environmental, and economic implications. However, manuscripts focusing solely on laboratory experiments without discussing their broader implications will not be considered for publication in the journal.