Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), biofloc technology (BFT), and higher-place ponds (HPP) are considered as alternative technologies in addressing major environmental challenges linked to conventional Whiteleg shrimp farming systems. Global concern about energy consumption and carbon emission in aquaculture industries, especially in countries like China. The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) in shrimp aquaculture, especially in comparing different shrimp production systems, is being used. In our study, surveys on three RAS, three BFT and nine HPP farms have been conducted, and the data inputs were used to establish a cradle to farm-gate LCA by means of software SimaPro 9.3.0.2 and CML-IA methods to evaluate the environmental performance in both Shandong and Guangdong provinces, China. During assessment of the impact of the shrimp culture process on the environment, seed rearing, intermediate rearing and grow-up stages including eleven categories (abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, etc.) were considered. In most impact categories, the results showed that HPP had the highest environmental impact per unit production when compared to RAS and BFT. A ton of live weight shrimp production did generate 2940, 1970, and 3010 kg CO2 eq; 41.1, 16.3, 17.2 kg PO4 eq; 0.3, 20.2 and 30.3 kg SO2 eq in RAS, BFT and HPP systems, respectively. Grow-up stage was the critical phase for environmental impact analysis and opportunities to prevent pollution. Electricity and feed production were identified as primary contributors in all farming processes. Results indicate that BFT and RAS could be used in combination to reduce environmental impacts. In order to improve the environmental performance of these farming systems, feed ingredients substitution; feeding management and effluent treatment are among the suggested measures. In order to enhanced aquaculture LCI databases and support aquaculture LCA research, the life cycle inventory for shrimp farming were established.
Industry, encompassing various sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, and services, is crucial for economic growth and societal progress. However, industrial growth often comes at the cost of environmental degradation and energy resource depletion, ignoring the need for sustainable development. This study analyzed 131 articles published from 2004 to 2023, using the energy–economy–environment (3E) method to explore industrial research trends. The primary focus of industrial 3E research is on environmental impact and sustainable development, particularly related to energy consumption. This field covers various topics like systems, efficiency, optimization, and others. LCA methods and system dynamics models are commonly used in research method innovation. This study summarizes the main viewpoints of industrial 3E research and highlights future research directions and priorities, including transitions to areas like agriculture, fisheries, and renewable energy and combining evaluation and prediction methods with 3E methods, conducting large-scale system research, and examining coupling relationships within and between industrial systems.
China has set high water-conservation, energy-saving, and pollutant-reduction goals for the petrochemical industry. This represents a challenge to petrochemical enterprises because of the complex coupling between water, energy, and environmental pollutant (WEE) subsystems, elements (different types of WEE), and production units. However, there has been little research on the element-level coupling relationship. The connection and difference between the coupling relationships of the system, element, and unit levels are not well understood. Therefore, an integrated analysis method was developed to quantify the petrochemical WEE nexus (WEEN) at these three levels, including a generic WEEN model, material and energy flow analysis, and a WEEN analysis matrix. Three indicators were proposed to analyze three-level coupling quantitatively and to formulate improvement strategies for water-conservation, energy-saving, and pollutant-reduction. A case study demonstrated significant three-level coupling. The coupled percentage of WEE subsystems were 95.87%, 61.97%, and 54.99%, respectively. The dominant energy subsystem was the root of high consumption and pollution. Based on synergies and trade-offs, we proposed element optimization priorities: High priority (deoxidized water and fuel), medium priority (steam, circulating water, and wastewater), and low priority (fresh water, demineralized water, waste gas, and electricity). The identified unit improvement potential revealed overestimation (hydrotreating and delayed coking units) and underestimation (crude distillation units) of conventional methods that overlook three-level coupling.
Green supply chain management is a crucial way to balance economic benefits and environmental impacts. As an important economic aquatic product in China, sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) is facing the dual challenges of economic benefits (profit) and environmental sustainability (material input and emission output). Currently, the sea cucumber industry in China lacks a green supplier screening system, resulting in a fragmented pattern of cooperation among enterprises. Core enterprises in the supply chain cannot assume social responsibility to help and guide upstream and downstream enterprises to jointly improve environmental performance. This study focuses on the selection and evaluation of green suppliers for sea cucumber processing enterprises. Firstly, a green supplier assessment indicator system for sea cucumber processing enterprises was established, and the indicator weights were determined by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Next taking a large sea cucumber processing enterprise in Dalian, China, as an example, the importance level of each index was evaluated by fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE), and the score and ranking of existing suppliers were determined. The validity and practicality of the method were verified. The results show that Supplier 1 (S1) has the highest score, and the price of sea cucumber farming, the cleaner production level of sea cucumber farming, environmental awareness, and long-term cooperation willingness were the most important factors in the selection of green suppliers for sea cucumber processing enterprises, which provides useful clues on the best practice of making sustainable development decisions. With an in-depth understanding of the key factors, suppliers can formulate different prices according to the differences in sales channels to improve the economic deficiencies. Environmental pollution can also be reduced by using clean energy, establishing a recirculating aquaculture system, and using micro-ecological preparations. The conclusions of this study can provide technical support and decision-making suggestions for the application of green supply chain management in China’s aquaculture industry.
The textile industry has a high environmental impact so that implementing cleaner production audit is an effective way to achieve energy conservation and emissions reduction. But the evaluation method in current cleaner production audit divided the evaluation of CPOs into two parts: environment and economy. The evaluation index system was constructed from three criteria of environment benefits, economy benefits and product performance; weights of five indicators were determined by combination weights of entropy method and factor weight sorting method. Then efficiencies were evaluated comprehensively. The results showed that the best alkali recovery option was the nanofiltration membrane method (S=0.80).
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