Hossein Khajehpour

Abstract

Carbon accounting is necessary for designing effective climate change mitigation policies. A proper and fair accounting method should motivate both the producers toward cleaner production methods and the consumers toward reducing the embodied emissions of their consumption. This research work proposes a new approach to map the production chain of carbon emissions in which every subsystem is responsible for the level and efficiency of its production activities and embodied emissions for providing its economic activities or final demands. The exergy cost formation concept is used to track the emissions in the production chain. The results of this accounting present the total carbon loads on economic outputs either consumed locally or exported abroad (CExA). The CExA results are then compared to the results of conventional production-based (PBA) and consumption-based (CBA) carbon inventories. Here we show that, in addition to the levels of production and consumption, the economic structures of the countries and the efficiency of the production activities are important factors differentiating the roles of the countries in the global emissions. Our results show that the share of the imported emissions to the total CExA varies between 14% for developing countries to 34% for the developed countries. Moreover, although the ratio of CBA to PBA for the countries is highly dependent on their economic states (0.87 for developing countries and 1.21 for developed countries), the ratio of CExA to PBA does not follow a unique trend among developing or developed countries. The results demonstrate that, according to the proposed sharing approach, the import-oriented developed countries, which have benefited the most from the carbon leakage effect, are mostly penalized for the embodied emissions associated with the imports to their economy, and vice versa.

Abstract

Limited access to energy resources and increasing demand for mitigation of the environmental impacts have necessitated higher production efficiencies. Therefore, the promotion of R&D activities has been one of the main parts of national energy policies. In this research work, two methods are used for assessing the effectiveness of the R&D capital on resource conservation. First, by developing the resource-included knowledge production function of the energy sector and second, through direct assessment of the functionality of resource productivity from R&D capital. Based on official data provided by national statistical centers, a comparative analysis has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of R&D in the electricity generation sectors in the United Kingdom and Germany. In these analyses, non-renewable exergy cost is used as an index of resource depletion and environmental burden. It is shown that, due to non-economic energy transition policies, the inclusion of the R&D investment does not result in statistically meaningful elasticity of production for the R&D capital. However, according to the second method, it is shown that the R&D investment in the United Kingdom has been more effective in resource conservation than in Germany. Possible reasons for such differences are discussed and recommendations for further investigations are presented.

Abstract

[Abstract]

The present study compared different approaches to assessing the environmental cost-effectiveness of energy policy scenarios. As a case study, the megacity of Tehran in Iran was studied. A key policy challenge in this city is to curb high concentrations of PM2.5 and mitigate the associated adverse impacts. The results demonstrated that in the business as usual case, the spatially averaged primary and secondary PM2.5 concentration in Tehran will increase by 30% in the 2010–2030 period. Adopting certain planned policy scenarios and the corresponding pollutant concentration reductions in Tehran shows that although most of the emission comes from industrial activities around the city, the distribution of the transportation emission sources may play the most effective role in decreasing pollution levels in transport-related energy policies. Next, based on environmental damage costs and abatement costs in different pollution mitigation scenarios, the best (most environmentally cost-effective) scenarios were evaluated. The eco-efficiencies of the energy policies were assessed based on two proxies of environmental impacts: the reduced damage cost as a function of the reduced emission rates of the pollutants and the decreased number of polluted days in the year. In a sample area in which the simulated concentrations were verified by local measurements, the most efficient mitigation scenario would decrease the average concentration of PM2.5 by 35% in 2030 and the number of polluted days by 20%. These findings indicate how far the linear functionality of the damage cost from emission levels may mislead environmental impact assessments. This is due to neglecting the source distribution effects and geographical conditions of the environment.

Abstract

Energy Return on Investment (EROI) is an indicator of how efficient is an energy supply system. In the present study, the conventional approach of EROI assessment is extended to include the equivalent energy investment needed for offsetting the life cycle environmental impacts. Moreover, the issue of allocation of the invested energy among different by-products is addressed. The EROI of multiple products has been specified using different benchmarks of price, energy content, exergy content, and exergy costs. The application of the concept is demonstrated through a case study of an Iranian oil production unit. The overall conventional and environmentally-extended EROI values of the produced oil in Iran is estimated to be 26.8:1, 23.3:1, respectively. Also, when taking the downstream environmental emissions into account, the EROI will be as low as 6.8:1. This shows that the EROI may be overestimated by 75% if the embodied costs are not taken into account. The comparison of the aggregated EROI estimates based on state-properties (price, energy, and exergy) and disaggregated process-property (exergy cost), gives a measure of the error of aggregation. It is shown that this error may be as high as 11.5% in the case of the multi-product energy system of the studied case.

Abstract

Environmental considerations have imposed new restrictions in the planning and management of energy systems. This research aims at describing the necessity and application of a new concept in environmental responsibility accounting. The method is based on physical quantities to overcome the weaknesses of already developed allocation approaches, and to internalize the external environmental damages using the exergy concept. The proposed method is a modification of the exergoenvironmental analysis in order to take into account the effect of non-energy streams in a macro-level energy system. In the proposed method, environmental responsibilities are to be calculated based on the exergy destruction within the system. As a case study, the method is applied to a complex energy system. It is shown that the derived environmental responsibilities are representative of the units’ role in total emissions and corresponding contributions to an integrated environmental management. Comparison of the results shows that the responsibilities are higher than the emission reduction limits for service consuming units, while they are less for service providing units. The differences between the responsibilities and permits could represent the non-internalized external damage costs.

Abstract

In the present research work, an environmental policy procedure for setting a cap on emissions, as a crucial step in any total emission control system, has been provided and evaluated. It is shown that general regulations on emission intensities and rates do not guarantee that ambient air quality standards are met in intense industrial zones. Local emission limits are necessary to meet ambient air quality standards in these zones. To that end, we used dispersion simulators to back-calculate pollutant concentration thresholds for a large and intense energy system in the Assaluyeh region of southern Iran. Verified modeling results indicate 218 d of pollutant concentration threshold exceedance in Assaluyeh in a simulated year. Back-calculation to assess the total permissible emission level indicates the need for 68% reduction in total emission to meet ambient air quality standards. We then used the model to help identify effective control strategies, including emission reductions and appropriate timing of specific operations. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:130–138.

Abstract

Environmental degradation due to economic activities is a key challenge facing sustainable development. The fossil fuel production sector is a very polluting industry. In this research, the future trends of pollution accumulation in the region due to direct/indirect oily discharge into the semi-enclosed area of the Persian Gulf are studied. The purpose of the study was not only to alert policy-makers about potential future threats in the region but also to conduct a trial to develop potential solutions to these problems. Four different environmental cases were studied via the principle of system dynamic modeling simulation. The cases consisted of three situations: relaxed, simple policy, and restricted policies. The results show that a rational environmental policy imposing penalties on producing firms is very effective in mitigating environmental pollution. However, while these penalties are not powerful enough to discourage or reduce the highly profitable oil production in the region, they may prevent the disposal of pollutants harmful to the marine environment to some degree.