Evolution of the exergy flow network embodied in the global fossil energy trade: Based on complex network

Xiaoqing Hao, Haizhong An, Hai Qi and Xiangyun Gao

Applied Energy, 2016, vol. 162, issue C, 1515-1522

Abstract: Different quality, reserves and production force countries to import fossil fuels to advance their economic development. It is exergy of fossil fuels that is essentially important to economy. Thus, it forms an international exergy flow network embodied in the global fossil energy trade. Based on complex network theory, we built a global fossil energy exergy flow network with countries as nodes, the international exergy flows as edges and the exergy of each flow as the weight of the edges. We analyzed the distribution of countries, the overall structure, major countries and major exergy flow paths of the network from 1996 to 2012. The results show that even if the fossil energy trade becomes more frequent and larger, there are always a few trade relationships and countries that play critical roles in the fossil energy trade. The trade relationship intensity at the global level is relatively lower than the corresponding intensity at the regional level. There are four main fossil energy trade groups, and these groups have the Russian Federation, the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia as their core countries. If an energy war, an energy crisis or other problems occur in the countries with more partners, their impacts are likely to spread to other countries and even affect the global fossil energy trade.

Keywords: Exergy; Complex network; Fossil energy; International trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915004870
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:162:y:2016:i:c:p:1515-1522

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.032

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().