Controlling Industrial Air-Pollutant Emissions under Multi-Factor Interactions Based on a Developed Hybrid-Factorial Environmental Input–Output Model

Jing Liu () and Yujin Yang
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Jing Liu: Fujian Engineering and Research Center of Rural Sewage Treatment and Water Safety, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China
Yujin Yang: Fujian Engineering and Research Center of Rural Sewage Treatment and Water Safety, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: A hybrid-factorial environmental input–output model (HEIM) is proposed for controlling industrial energy-related air pollution. HEIM has the advantages of analyzing industrial air-pollutant emission system (IAES) performance, quantifying key factors’ individual and reciprocal effects on the system, generating optimal system planning strategies under multiple scenarios. HEIM is then applied to Fujian province, which is a special economic development region in China. The significant findings are as follows: (i) the main sectors of pollutants’ (NO x , SO 2 , PM and VOCs) emissions are electricity supply (ELE), transportation (TRA), nonmetal minerals (NON), chemical products (CHE) and metal processing (MET); (ii) the proportion of air pollutants (NO x , SO 2 and PM) emitted from energy activities can reach 83.8%, 88.6% and 68.1% of the province’s total emissions, implying that it is desired for industrial activities to improve the energy efficiency and promote cleaner production; (iii) the system robustness was between 0.287 and 0.321 (maximum value is 0.368), indicating the emission structure of IAES was not healthy; (iv) the contributions of the key factors to air-pollutant emission equivalent are NO x emission (51.6%) > ELE coal consumption (25.8%) > SO 2 emission (12.5%); (v) the contributions of the key factors affecting system robustness are equipment manufacturing’s (EQU) direct consumption coefficient (81.4%) > CHE coal consumption (11.7%) > NON coal consumption (5.0%). The optimal strategies should strictly control ELE coal consumption (replaced by clean energy) and strictly limit NO x and SO 2 emissions (e.g., technology upgrade) from the main sectors.

Keywords: air pollutants; cleaner production; emission mitigation; input–output model; multistage factorial analysis; robustness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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