Search Results (30)

Bamboo residues represent an abundant, renewable biomass feedstock that can be converted into hard carbon—an emerging anode material for sodium-ion batteries. This study presents a detailed techno-economic analysis of hard carbon production from bamboo residues across China’s ten most bamboo-rich provinces. Regional feedstock availability was estimated from provincial production statistics, while average transportation distances were derived using a square-root-area-based approximation method. The process includes hydrothermal pretreatment, acid washing, carbonization, graphitization, and ball milling. Material and energy inputs were estimated for each stage, and both capital and operating expenses were evaluated using a discounted cash flow model assuming a 15% internal rate of return. The resulting minimum selling price of bamboo-derived hard carbon ranges from 14.47 to 18.15 CNY/kg. Assuming 10% of bamboo residues can be feasibly collected and processed, these ten provinces could collectively support an annual hard carbon production capacity of approximately 1.04 million tons. The results demonstrate that bamboo residues are a strategically distributed and underutilized resource for producing cost-competitive hard carbon at scale, particularly in provinces with existing bamboo industries and supply chains. Full article

The global energy transition is accelerating, bringing new challenges to power systems. A high penetration of renewable energy increases grid volatility. Virtual power plants (VPPs) address this by dynamically responding to market signals. They integrate renewables, energy storage, and flexible loads. Additionally, they participate in multi-tier markets, including energy, ancillary services, and capacity trading. This study proposes a load factor-based VPP pre-dispatch model for optimal resource allocation. It incorporates the coupling effects of electricity–carbon markets. A Nash negotiation strategy is developed for multi-VPP cooperation. The model uses an accelerated adaptive alternating-direction multiplier method (AA-ADMM) for efficient demand response. The approach balances computational efficiency with privacy protection. Revenue is allocated fairly based on individual contributions. The study uses data from a VPP dispatch center in Shanxi Province. Shanxi has abundant wind and solar resources, necessitating advanced scheduling methods. Cooperative operation boosts profits for three VPPs by CNY 1101, 260, and 823, respectively. The alliance’s total profit rises by CNY 2184. Carbon emissions drop by 31.3% to 8.113 tons, with a CNY 926 gain over independent operation. Post-cooperation, VPP1 and VPP2 see slight emission increases, while VPP3 achieves major reductions. This leads to significant low-carbon benefits. This method proves effective in cutting costs and emissions. It also balances economic and environmental gains while ensuring fair profit distribution. Full article

In the midst of the push for dual-carbon goals, urban centers are faced with the imperative of reducing emissions and conserving energy, while rural regions are harnessing their abundant new energy resources to promote balanced urban–rural development. Photovoltaic (PV) power generation, known for its cleanliness, safety, and emission-free nature, is playing a crucial role in the evolution of Henan Province’s power supply industry. This paper delves into the current state of Henan’s power supply infrastructure, the trajectory of its low-carbon development, and the policies that shape the PV sector. It also examines the establishment of an urban–rural mutual aid model through the lens of alternative energy technologies. By utilizing a combination of case studies and systematic theoretical research, this paper uncovers the economic potential that remains untapped of new energy sources in rural areas and presents strategies for synergistic development in alignment with dual-carbon goals within the power supply industry. The research underscores the significance of an urban–rural mutual assistance model in achieving carbon neutrality, addressing urban–rural development gaps, fostering shared prosperity, and contributing Chinese insights to global climate governance frameworks. Full article

The effective utilization of medium-high temperature geothermal energy is pivotal in reducing carbon emissions and plays a crucial role in developing clean energy technologies. The MiDu geothermal field, situated in the southeastern region of Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, lies within the Mediterranean–Himalayan high-temperature geothermal belt and is characterized by abundant geothermal resources. However, due to its considerable depth, exploration poses significant risks, resulting in a total utilization rate of less than 0.5% of the total reserves. This study employs natural seismic data to perform a tomographic analysis of the geothermal system in the Midu basin. By examining the P-wave velocity (Vp) and the velocity ratio of P-waves and S-waves (Vp/Vs) at various depths, the findings reveal that the basin comprises two distinct structural layers: the thrust basement of the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras and the strike–slip extensional sedimentary layer of the Cenozoic era. A low-velocity anomaly in the central basin corresponds to the loose Cenozoic sedimentary layer. In contrast, high-velocity anomalies at the basin edges correlate with boundary faults and the Mesozoic–Paleozoic strata. Below a depth of 4 km, the Red River Fault and MiDu Fault continue to dominate the basin’s structure, whereas the influence of the Malipo Fault diminishes. The MiDu Fault exhibits higher thermal conductivity than the Yinjie Fault. It interfaces with multiple carbonate and basalt formations characterized by well-developed pores and fractures, making it a crucial conduit for water and a control point for geothermal storage. Consequently, the existence of medium-high temperature (>90 °C) geothermal resources for power generation should be concentrated around the Midu fault on the western side of the basin, while the Yinjie fault area is more favorable for advancements in heating and wellness. Full article

Geothermal resources have become one of the crucial clean energy sources worldwide. The Gansu Province is renowned in China for its abundant geothermal resources. The Zaozigou area features prominent geothermal outcrops, indicating untapped geothermal potential. However, the level of geothermal resource development in this region remains low, coupled with a lack of comprehensive research on its hydrochemical characteristics and formation mechanisms. This study conducted an in-depth hydrochemical analysis of six geothermal water groups and two surface water groups within the collection area, along with collecting hydrogen and oxygen isotope data from nine geothermal water sources. Piper trigram and Na-K-Mg diagram were utilized to investigate the origin of the subsurface hot water. Various analyses, including characteristic coefficients, correlation analysis, hydrochemical types, recharge elevation, reservoir temperature, and circulation depth, were conducted on the geothermal water. The study proposes a preliminary conceptual model of the Zaozigou geothermal system, providing a theoretical basis for the rational utilization of geothermal resources and promoting sustainable resources. Full article

Controlling carbon emissions is a global goal, and China is actively implementing carbon reduction measures. As a major agricultural nation, China has considerable potential for developing agricultural residues as renewable and environmentally friendly biomass energy. In this study, we obtained data on crop yields, crop-to-grain ratios, and livestock excretion coefficients to calculate the biomass resources of agricultural and livestock residues in Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2022. Crop residue biomass resources showed a distribution pattern with higher levels in the north than in the south and the east than in the west. Henan and Heilongjiang provinces consistently had the highest resource levels, exceeding 35 million tons annually for 10 years. The biomass resources from livestock residues were relatively abundant in Sichuan, Henan, Yunnan, Shandong, Hunan, and Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan had the greatest potential for CO₂ emission reductions, primarily located in regions abundant in biomass resources and with high traditional energy consumption levels. ArcGIS was used to apply natural break classification to categorize the potential for emission reductions from agricultural and livestock residues across China from 2013 to 2022 into five classes. Based on factors such as crop planting area and livestock numbers, the spatiotemporal distribution of factors influencing the quantity of biomass resources was examined using Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression. A tailored and integrated approach should be used for biomass, and the development of biomass energy should be promoted through policy support and technological innovation. Full article

Harnessing the abundant solar resources holds great potential for sustainable energy generation. This research paper delves into a comprehensive analysis of seasonal tilt and solar tracking strategy scenarios for a 15 MW grid-connected PV solar power plant situated in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The study investigates the impact of fixed tilt, seasonal tilt, SAHST (single-axis horizontal solar tracking), and SAVST (single-axis vertical solar tracking) on energy yield, considering technical, economic, and environmental aspects. In the first scenario, a fixed tilt angle of 31 degrees was employed. The second scenario explored the use of seasonal tilt angles, with a summer tilt angle of 15 degrees and a winter tilt angle of 30 degrees. The third scenario analyzed SAHST. Finally, the fourth scenario focused on implementing SAVST. SAVST proved to be an exceptional solution, showcasing a remarkable increase in annual energy yield, and generating an additional 6680 MWh/year, 6336 MWh/year, and 5084 MWh/year compared to fixed, seasonal, and SAHST scenarios, respectively. As a result, surplus energy yielded an income of USD 554,440.00 per year compared to fixed tilt. However, the investment cost for the solar tracking system amounted to USD 1,451,932, accompanied by an annual operation and maintenance cost of 0.007 USD/W/year. The analysis revealed a promising payback period of 3 years, confirming the economic feasibility of this investment. The findings underscore the effectiveness of different strategies for optimizing solar power generation in the Kandahar region. Notably, the installation of SAVST emerged as an influential solution, significantly increasing power production. These research outcomes bear practical implications for solar tracking strategies for addressing the load challenges faced by Kandahar province and offer valuable insights for the operators and operation of solar power plants in similar regions. Full article

In the context of carbon neutrality, the phase-out of coal from the energy structure has resulted in numerous old coal mines that possess abundant underground space resources suitable for underground pumped hydroelectric energy storage (UPHES). Site selection and estimation of potential are critical to the planning and implementation of UPHES in old coal mines. This paper introduces a two-step site selection concept, including a screening assessment followed by a comprehensive assessment, to determine suitable locations for UPHES. The screening indicators in the screening assessment comprise geological features, mine water disasters, and minimum installed capacity, while the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied in the comprehensive assessment. Additionally, coal mines in Henan Province are preliminarily screened through the screening assessment and the potential for UPHES is thoroughly investigated. The estimated volume of the drifts and shafts in old coal mines is approximately 1.35 $\times$ 10⁷ m³, while in producing coal mines, it is around 2.96 $\times$ 10⁷ m³. Furthermore, the corresponding annual potential for UPHES is 1468.9 GWh and 3226.3 GWh, respectively. By consuming surplus wind and solar power, UPHES is able to reduce 4.68 $\times$ 10⁵ tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The study provides preliminary guidance for policy-makers in developing UPHES in old coal mines. Full article

Water quality is directly linked to drinking water safety for millions of people receiving the water. The Danjiangkou Reservoir is the main water source for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (MR-SNWDP), located in the vicinity of Henan and Hubei provinces in China. Aquatic microorganisms are key indicators of biologically assessing and monitoring the water quality of the reservoir as they are sensitive to environmental and water quality changes. This study aimed to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in bacterioplankton communities during wet (April) and dry (October) seasons at eight monitoring points in Hanku reservoir and five monitoring points in Danku reservoir. Each time point had three replicates, labeled as wet season Hanku (WH), wet season Danku (WD), dry season Hanku (DH), and dry season Danku (DD) of Danjiangkou Reservoir in 2021. High-throughput sequencing (Illumina PE250) of the 16S rRNA gene was performed, and alpha (ACE and Shannon) and beta (PCoA and NDMS) diversity indices were analyzed. The results showed that the dry season (DH and DD) had more diverse bacterioplankton communities compared to the wet season (WH and WD). Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla, and Acinetobacter, Exiguobacterium, and Planomicrobium were abundant in the wet season, while polynucleobacter was abundant in the dry season. The functional prediction of metabolic pathways revealed six major functions including carbohydrate metabolism, membrane transport, amino acid metabolism, signal transduction, and energy metabolism. Redundancy analysis showed that environmental parameters greatly affected bacterioplankton diversity during the dry season compared to the wet season. The findings suggest that seasonality has a significant impact on bacterioplankton communities, and the dry season has more diverse communities influenced by environmental parameters. Further, the relatively high abundance of certain bacteria such as Acinetobacter deteriorated the water quality during the wet season compared to the dry season. Our findings have significant implications for water resource management in China, and other countries facing similar challenges. However, further investigations are required to elucidate the role of environmental parameters in influencing bacterioplankton diversity in order to devise potential strategies for improving water quality management in the reservoir. Full article

In light of the growing economic uncertainties worldwide, the use of industrial robots has emerged as a significant opportunity for improving the production efficiency and the international division of labor in China’s energy industry. This study employed a two-way fixed-effect model utilizing data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2019 to investigate the impact of industrial robots on the energy industry’s participation in the international division of labor. The results of the study indicated that the widespread application of industrial robots can boost the international division of labor status of China’s energy sector. This conclusion remains robust even after addressing the potential endogeneity issues and conducting a range of sensitivity tests. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the regions that possess abundant energy resources or exhibit a lower carbon intensity are more likely to leverage the use of industrial robots to increase the technological sophistication and enhance their participation in the international division of labor. The application of industrial robots in the energy industry can enhance the international division of labor through two distinct channels: optimizing the factor structure and reducing the export costs. Our findings have important policy implications for ensuring energy security and improving the energy industry’s participation in the international division of labor. Full article

In recent years, with the increasing impact of extreme weather events on energy security, energy vulnerability has increased significantly, and more and more international institutions and departments have begun to incorporate resilience governance into energy security. This paper focuses on China’s inter-provincial energy security assessment. Compared with existing relevant research, the significant features of our work are (i) introducing the concept of energy resilience and presenting its evolution mechanism and evaluation criteria, (ii) developing a gray relational projection model by using the level difference maximization and optimization theory, (iii) measuring the energy resilience of 30 Chinese provinces over space and time. Our results show that the spatial–temporal patterns of energy resilience in China changed significantly from 2005 to 2018. High energy resilience moved from provinces with abundant nonrenewable energy before 2010 to provinces with high energy diversity. Energy endowment is a primary condition to ensure a region’s energy resilience. Renewable energy development, energy investment, economic development, and policy coordination play vital roles in ensuring regional energy resilience. Energy investment and economic development can effectively improve the energy resilience of resource-poor areas. This study’s results will serve as a reference for China and contribute to expanding knowledge in this field. Full article

The technical supply potential of biomass and the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are widely studied in the literature. However, relatively few studies have examined the role of biomass co-firing for future electricity in China by integratedly considering the economic supply potential and GHG effects. To fill this gap, we choose the Jiangsu Province in China as a case study and build up a partial equilibrium model with multiple agricultural commodities. Using this model combined with a life cycle assessment, we jointly determine the economic potential of the biomass supply for a biomass co-firing purpose and social benefits, including the agricultural producers’ surplus and GHG mitigation potential. The simulation incorporates the county-level biomass market of various crop residues as well as endogenous crop prices and transportation costs. We find that 0.7–12.5 M MT of residue-based biomass are economically viable for co-firing in coal-based power plants (up to 20%) at biomass prices between USD 50 and USD 100/MT. The net GHG savings achieved at these biomass prices are from 3.2 to 59 M MTCO₂e. Our findings indicate that biomass co-firing with coal in power plants would be a feasible low-carbon energy transition pathway if the biomass price is above USD 50/MT. In addition to biomass prices, other factors such as crop yields, production costs of residues, and transportation costs are found to be impactful on the economic viability of biomass and GHG savings. Our results can inform policy to develop localized carbon reduction strategies in provinces with abundant biomass resources and a high share of coal-fired electricity. Full article

Solar energy is considered one of the most hopeful alternative sources to avoiding dependence on fossil fuels, and it does not cause any air pollution. GIS-based solar energy potential evaluation is mainly focused on regional scale; further, more solar energy potential evaluation with building scale is calculated through observation data and mathematical model. Therefore, in this paper, a GIS-based joint solar energy potential evaluation is developed to evaluate the distributed photovoltaic potential and centralized photovoltaic potential. Shanxi province in China, which has abundant coal resources, is used as the study area. The raster grid scale is used as the minimum research scale, which could not only deal with the distributed photovoltaic potential but could also calculate the centralized photovoltaic potential. The obtained results indicate that the developed method could effectively deal with problems associated with the distributed photovoltaic potential and centralized photovoltaic potential in the raster grid scale. Full article

Polysaccharides such as hemicellulose in rapeseed can be used as an abundant resource to develop biomass energy. In the present study, the hemicellulose content in the middle stalk and taproot of a rapeseed core population of 139 accessions in Guizhou, Hubei and Anhui provinces was determined. Genotyping of the core population was carried out by a 60 K single nucleotide polymorphism chip, and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed to reveal the associated sites of hemicellulose content in rapeseed. The results of the GWAS showed that 28 SNPs (p ≤ 0.001) were significantly associated with hemicellulose content, and revealed that three sites—qHCs.C02 (contribution rate = 17.20%), qHCs.C05 (10.62%), and qHCs.C08 (8.80%)—are significantly associated with hemicellulose content in the stalk and three sites—qHCt.A09 (9.49%), qHCt.C05 (9.18%) and qHCt.C08 (13.10%)—are significantly associated with hemicellulose content in the taproot. Seven candidate genes associated with hemicellulose synthesis were identified in these major loci. Further RNA-seq analysis showed that two key differentially expressed genes (BnaC05G0092200ZS and BnaC05G0112400ZS) involved in hemicellulose synthesis were identified as having underlying QTL. This study excavated the key loci and candidate genes for regulating hemicellulose synthesis, providing a theoretical basis for developing rapeseed varieties with high hemicellulose content. At the same time, our results will be helpful in producing rapeseed cultivars with high lodging-resistance as well as highlighting the value of rapeseed as a resources for the bioenergy industry. Full article

Geothermal resources have been a source of significant clean energy in the world. The Sichuan Province is famous for its abundant geothermal resources in China, especially in western Sichuan. The Aba area is a significant minority region in northwestern Sichuan with abundant geothermal resources. In this study, hydrochemical and D-O analyses were conducted on the eight collected geothermal springs to investigate the genetic mechanism of the geothermal resource in the Aba area. The exposed temperatures and pH values of the geothermal springs ranged from 23 °C to 48 °C and from 6.6 to 9.5, respectively. Based on the hydrochemical characteristics, the eight geothermal springs were classified into two types: class A and class B. The class A geothermal springs belonged to the hydrochemical type of Ca-Mg-HCO₃-SO₄ and Ca-Mg-HCO₃ and were affected by the weathering and dissolution of carbonate and silicate. The class B hydrochemical type of geothermal spring was Na-HCO₃, which was determined by the weathering and dissolution of evaporite and silicate. A Na-K-Mg triangle diagram revealed that the geothermal springs belonged to immature water. A chalcedony geothermometer indicated that the temperature of the class A shallow geothermal reservoir in the Aba area was 59.70–73.00 °C and 70.65–120.91 °C for class B. Silicon enthalpy approaches showed that the initial reservoir temperature for class A was 181.36–203.07 °C (mixed by 85.76–89.44% cold water) and 271.74–295.58 °C (mixed by 87.39–87.54% cold water) for class B. The recharge elevation of the geothermal spring was 3415–3495 m as calculated by the D-O isotopes. We have proposed these genetic models of the two typical geothermal springs. The achievements provide a vital reference for the further development of geothermal water and the sustainable utilization of geothermal resources in the Aba area. Full article