Spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors for GHG emissions of aluminum industry in China

doi:10.1007/s11708-022-0819-7

Front. Energy

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (2) : 294-305 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-022-0819-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors for GHG emissions of aluminum industry in China

Chao TANG¹, Yong GENG²(

), Xue RUI³, Guimei ZHAO⁴

¹. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
². School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; China Institute for Urban Governance, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China; SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
³. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
⁴. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China

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Abstract

China’s aluminum (Al) production has released a huge amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As one of the biggest country of primary Al production, China must mitigate its overall GHG emission from its Al industry so that the national carbon neutrality target can be achieved. Under such a background, the study described in this paper conducts a dynamic material flow analysis to reveal the spatiotemporal evolution features of Al flows in China from 2000 to 2020. Decomposition analysis is also performed to uncover the driving factors of GHG emission generated from the Al industry. The major findings include the fact that China’s primary Al production center has transferred to the western region; the primary Al smelting and carbon anode consumption are the most carbon-intensive processes in the Al life cycle; the accumulative GHG emission from electricity accounts for 78.14% of the total GHG emission generated from the Al industry; China’s current Al recycling ratio is low although the corresponding GHG emission can be reduced by 93.73% if all the primary Al can be replaced by secondary Al; and the total GHG emission can be reduced by 88.58% if major primary Al manufacturing firms are transferred from Inner Mongolia to Yunnan. Based upon these findings and considering regional disparity, several policy implications are proposed, including promotion of secondary Al production, support of clean electricity penetration, and relocation of the Al industry.

Keywords aluminum material flow analysis GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions LMDI (logarithmic mean divisa index)

Corresponding Author(s): Yong GENG

Online First Date: 22 March 2022 Issue Date: 29 May 2023

Cite this article:

Chao TANG,Yong GENG,Xue RUI, et al. Spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors for GHG emissions of aluminum industry in China[J]. Front. Energy, 2023, 17(2): 294-305.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-022-0819-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2023/V17/I2/294

Fig.1 System boundary of GHG emission and MFA in China’s Al cycle.

Fig.2 China’s cumulative Al flows from 2000 to 2020 (import flow (green), export flow (pink), production flow (yellow), loss flow (red), reuse flow (gray), and stock flow (blue)).

Fig.3 Spatiotemporal evolution of China’s Al industry.

Fig.4 Accumulative energy consumption and GHG emission from China’s Al cycle during 2000–2020.

Fig.5 GHG emissions of China’s Al cycle from 2000 to 2020.

Fig.6 GEF-E in Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Yunnan, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang (The bubble size denotes the primary Al production of each province while the pie chart represents the electricity structure of each province in 2020.)

Fig.7 LMDI results.

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