IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v115y2018icp291-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigation of water-energy-emission nexus of air pollution control of the coal-fired power industry: A case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Chunyan
  • Li, Yaqing
  • Liu, Yi

Abstract

Coal-fired power generation is water- and energy-intensive and is associated with high emissions. As a result, China has issued a strict emission policy ("ultra-low emission control") for the coal-fired power industry. This study investigated the water, energy and emissions nexus (WEEN), focusing on end-of pipe treatment technologies for the coal-fired power industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The result revealed that the energy consumption for pollutant removal was 1.2 million tons coal equivalent (Mtce) for the 118 investigated plants in 2014. Of the energy consumed, 60%, 11% and 29% was used for SO2, NOx and dust removal, respectively. Water consumption for pollutant removal was 13% of total water consumption for electricity generation. The result implied that this policy could reduce SO2, NOx and dust emissions by 89%, 90%, and 88%, respectively, while consuming an average of 2% less energy and 8% more water as tradeoffs. Construction cost associated with implementing these technology changes could be as high as 5–14 billion yuan in total. The synergies and tradeoffs quantified in this study provide numerical information that could assist with making decisions on the most suitable technology sets for emission control with consideration of water, energy, emissions and cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Chunyan & Li, Yaqing & Liu, Yi, 2018. "Investigation of water-energy-emission nexus of air pollution control of the coal-fired power industry: A case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 291-301.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:115:y:2018:i:c:p:291-301
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.01.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518300442
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.01.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koch, Hagen & Vögele, Stefan, 2009. "Dynamic modelling of water demand, water availability and adaptation strategies for power plants to global change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2031-2039, May.
    2. Wu, X.D. & Xia, X.H. & Chen, G.Q. & Wu, X.F. & Chen, B., 2016. "Embodied energy analysis for coal-based power generation system-highlighting the role of indirect energy cost," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 936-950.
    3. Gu, Yujiong & Xu, Jing & Chen, Dongchao & Wang, Zhong & Li, Qianqian, 2016. "Overall review of peak shaving for coal-fired power units in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 723-731.
    4. Yu, Fanxian & Chen, Jining & Sun, Fu & Zeng, Siyu & Wang, Can, 2011. "Trend of technology innovation in China's coal-fired electricity industry under resource and environmental constraints," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1586-1599, March.
    5. Fthenakis, Vasilis & Kim, Hyung Chul, 2010. "Life-cycle uses of water in U.S. electricity generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(7), pages 2039-2048, September.
    6. Zhang, Xiaohan & Winchester, Niven & Zhang, Xiliang, 2017. "The future of coal in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 644-652.
    7. Larson, Eric D. & Zongxin, Wu & DeLaquil, Pat & Wenying, Chen & Pengfei, Gao, 2003. "Future implications of China's energy-technology choices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1189-1204, September.
    8. Huang, Weilong & Ma, Ding & Chen, Wenying, 2017. "Connecting water and energy: Assessing the impacts of carbon and water constraints on China’s power sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1497-1505.
    9. Feeley, Thomas J. & Skone, Timothy J. & Stiegel, Gary J. & McNemar, Andrea & Nemeth, Michael & Schimmoller, Brian & Murphy, James T. & Manfredo, Lynn, 2008. "Water: A critical resource in the thermoelectric power industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-11.
    10. Lubega, William N. & Farid, Amro M., 2014. "Quantitative engineering systems modeling and analysis of the energy–water nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 142-157.
    11. DeNooyer, Tyler A. & Peschel, Joshua M. & Zhang, Zhenxing & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2016. "Integrating water resources and power generation: The energy–water nexus in Illinois," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 363-371.
    12. Shi, Wenxiao & Lin, Chen & Chen, Wei & Hong, Jinglan & Chang, Jingcai & Dong, Yong & Zhang, Yanlu, 2017. "Environmental effect of current desulfurization technology on fly dust emission in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-9.
    13. Gude, Veera Gnaneswar, 2015. "Energy and water autarky of wastewater treatment and power generation systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 52-68.
    14. Kejun Jiang & Xiulian Hu, 2006. "Energy demand and emissions in 2030 in China: scenarios and policy options," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 7(3), pages 233-250, September.
    15. Ackerman, Frank & Fisher, Jeremy, 2013. "Is there a water–energy nexus in electricity generation? Long-term scenarios for the western United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 235-241.
    16. Zhu, Xiaojie & Guo, Ruipeng & Chen, Bin & Zhang, Jing & Hayat, Tasawar & Alsaedi, Ahmed, 2015. "Embodiment of virtual water of power generation in the electric power system in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 345-354.
    17. Cristóbal, Jorge & Guillén-Gosálbez, Gonzalo & Jiménez, Laureano & Irabien, Angel, 2012. "Optimization of global and local pollution control in electricity production from coal burning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 369-378.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mingwei Yan & Yuetao Shi, 2020. "Thermal and Economic Analysis of Multi-Effect Concentration System by Utilizing Waste Heat of Flue Gas for Magnesium Desulfurization Wastewater," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Hossam A. Gabbar & Abdelazeem A. Abdelsalam, 2020. "Energy—Water Nexus: Integration, Monitoring, KPIs Tools and Research Vision," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Cong Hu & Biliang Hu & Xunpeng Shi & Yan Wu, 2020. "The Roles of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Strategy in Industrial Energy and Related Pollutant Emission Intensities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Fan, Jing-Li & Kong, Ling-Si & Zhang, Xian, 2018. "Synergetic effects of water and climate policy on energy-water nexus in China: A computable general equilibrium analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 308-317.
    5. Yuqi Su & Yi Liang & Li Chai & Zixuan Han & Sai Ma & Jiaxuan Lyu & Zhiping Li & Liu Yang, 2019. "Water Degradation by China’s Fossil Fuels Production: A Life Cycle Assessment Based on an Input–Output Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-12, July.
    6. Ding, Tao & Liang, Liang & Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Min & Wei, Yuqi, 2020. "Water-energy nexus: The origin, development and prospect," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 419(C).
    7. Yao, Wanxiang & Zheng, Zhimiao & Zhao, Jun & Wang, Xiao & Wang, Yan & Li, Xianli & Fu, Jidong, 2020. "The factor analysis of fog and haze under the coupling of multiple factors -- taking four Chinese cities as an example," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Yu, Shiwei & Zheng, Shuhong & Zhang, Xuejiao & Gong, Chengzhu & Cheng, Jinhua, 2018. "Realizing China's goals on energy saving and pollution reduction: Industrial structure multi-objective optimization approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 300-312.
    9. Chu, Chu & Ritter, William & Sun, Xiaohui, 2019. "Spatial variances of water-energy nexus in China and its implications for provincial resource interdependence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 487-502.
    10. Meng, Fanxin & Liu, Gengyuan & Liang, Sai & Su, Meirong & Yang, Zhifeng, 2019. "Critical review of the energy-water-carbon nexus in cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 1017-1032.
    11. Fan, Jing-Li & Kong, Ling-Si & Wang, Hang & Zhang, Xian, 2019. "A water-energy nexus review from the perspective of urban metabolism," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 392(C), pages 128-136.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guerra, Omar J. & Reklaitis, Gintaras V., 2018. "Advances and challenges in water management within energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 4009-4019.
    2. Wu, X.D. & Chen, G.Q., 2017. "Energy and water nexus in power generation: The surprisingly high amount of industrial water use induced by solar power infrastructure in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 125-136.
    3. Ahmad, Shakeel & Jia, Haifeng & Chen, Zhengxia & Li, Qian & Xu, Changqing, 2020. "Water-energy nexus and energy efficiency: A systematic analysis of urban water systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. Fang, Delin & Chen, Bin, 2017. "Linkage analysis for the water–energy nexus of city," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 770-779.
    5. Logan, Lauren H. & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2018. "Probabilistic assessment of aquatic species risk from thermoelectric power plant effluent: Incorporating biology into the energy-water nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 434-450.
    6. Chai, Li & Liao, Xiawei & Yang, Liu & Yan, Xianglin, 2018. "Assessing life cycle water use and pollution of coal-fired power generation in China using input-output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 951-958.
    7. Wakeel, Muhammad & Chen, Bin & Hayat, Tasawar & Alsaedi, Ahmed & Ahmad, Bashir, 2016. "Energy consumption for water use cycles in different countries: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 868-885.
    8. Zhou, Yuanchun & Ma, Mengdie & Gao, Peiqi & Xu, Qiming & Bi, Jun & Naren, Tuya, 2019. "Managing water resources from the energy - water nexus perspective under a changing climate: A case study of Jiangsu province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 380-390.
    9. Voisin, N. & Kintner-Meyer, M. & Skaggs, R. & Nguyen, T. & Wu, D. & Dirks, J. & Xie, Y. & Hejazi, M., 2016. "Vulnerability of the US western electric grid to hydro-climatological conditions: How bad can it get?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 1-12.
    10. Liu, Yitong & Chen, Bin & Wei, Wendong & Shao, Ling & Li, Zhi & Jiang, Weizhong & Chen, Guoqian, 2020. "Global water use associated with energy supply, demand and international trade of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    11. Ding, Tao & Liang, Liang & Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Min & Wei, Yuqi, 2020. "Water-energy nexus: The origin, development and prospect," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 419(C).
    12. Agrawal, Nikhil & Ahiduzzaman, Md & Kumar, Amit, 2018. "The development of an integrated model for the assessment of water and GHG footprints for the power generation sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 558-575.
    13. Duan, Cuncun & Chen, Bin, 2017. "Energy–water nexus of international energy trade of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 725-734.
    14. Joe Williams & Stefan Bouzarovski & Erik Swyngedouw, 2019. "The urban resource nexus: On the politics of relationality, water–energy infrastructure and the fallacy of integration," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 652-669, June.
    15. DeNooyer, Tyler A. & Peschel, Joshua M. & Zhang, Zhenxing & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2016. "Integrating water resources and power generation: The energy–water nexus in Illinois," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 363-371.
    16. Zhang, Chao & Zhong, Lijin & Liang, Sai & Sanders, Kelly T. & Wang, Jiao & Xu, Ming, 2017. "Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 438-448.
    17. Hejazi, Mohamad & Edmonds, James & Clarke, Leon & Kyle, Page & Davies, Evan & Chaturvedi, Vaibhav & Wise, Marshall & Patel, Pralit & Eom, Jiyong & Calvin, Katherine & Moss, Richard & Kim, Son, 2014. "Long-term global water projections using six socioeconomic scenarios in an integrated assessment modeling framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 205-226.
    18. Tidwell, Vincent C. & Gunda, Thushara & Gayoso, Natalie, 2021. "Plant-level characteristics could aid in the assessment of water-related threats to the electric power sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    19. Srinivasan, Shweta & Kholod, Nazar & Chaturvedi, Vaibhav & Ghosh, Probal Pratap & Mathur, Ritu & Clarke, Leon & Evans, Meredydd & Hejazi, Mohamad & Kanudia, Amit & Koti, Poonam Nagar & Liu, Bo & Parik, 2018. "Water for electricity in India: A multi-model study of future challenges and linkages to climate change mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 673-684.
    20. Lv, J. & Li, Y.P. & Shan, B.G. & Jin, S.W. & Suo, C., 2018. "Planning energy-water nexus system under multiple uncertainties – A case study of Hebei province," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 389-403.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:115:y:2018:i:c:p:291-301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.