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Bioenergy is considered a sustainable substitute to fossil-fuel resources and the development of a prudent combination of renewable and innovative conversion technologies are essential for the valorization and effective conversion of biowaste to value-added commodities. Here, a negative pressure-induced carbonization process was proposed for the valorization of lignin-enriched biowaste precursor to bio-oil and environmental materials (biochar) at various temperatures. The high heating values (HHV) of the as-prepared biochars from the lignin enriched precursor under negative pressure (low-medium vacuum) were within 25.9-31.5 MJ/kg, which matched satisfactorily to the commercial charcoal. Whereas, the bio-oils produced from the lignin enriched precursor under vacuum conditions was a blend of complex aromatic and straight-chain hydro-carbons, including aldehyde, ketone, phenol, and furans, exhibiting ability as potential heating-oil with HHV within 21.2-28.2 MJ/kg. Moreover, the biochars produced under vacuum environments at higher temperature showed greater stability (22.5-35.9%) than those produced under N2 atmosphere.

Sustainability has emerged, arguably, as the premiere mission of contemporary architecture. Green assessment tools abound, consultancy services flourish, buildings are marketed on the basis of sustainability performance, and government, media, and corporations seem preoccupied with assessing the quality of the built environment through a green lens. Yet for all the effort, and indeed for all the progress made, fundamental issues resistant to the structural change that is essential for genuine sustainability remain. This paper reviews the state of play of sustainability across the urban landscape. It considers the road travelled so far, and points out some of the major challenges that lie ahead.

The greatest sustainability challenge facing humanity today is the greenhouse gas emissions and the global climate change with fossil fuels led by coal, natural gas and oil contributing 61.3% of global electricity generation in the year 2020. The cumulative effect of the Stockholm, Rio, and Johannesburg conferences identified sustainable energy development (SED) as a very important factor in the sustainable global development. This study reviews energy transition strategies and proposes a roadmap for sustainable energy transition for sustainable electricity generation and supply in line with commitments of the Paris Agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the rise in global average temperature to 1.5°C above the preindustrial level. The sustainable transition strategies typically consist of three major technological changes namely, energy savings on the demand side, generation efficiency at production level and fossil fuel substitution by various renewable energy sources and low carbon nuclear. For the transition remain technically and economically feasible and beneficial, policy initiatives are necessary to steer the global electricity transition towards a sustainable energy and electricity system. Large-scale renewable energy adoption should include measures to improve efficiency of existing nonrenewable sources which still have an important cost reduction and stabilization role. A resilient grid with advanced energy storage for storage and absorption of variable renewables should also be part of the transition strategies. From this study, it was noted that whereas sustainable development has social, economic, and environmental pillars, energy sustainability is best analysed by five-dimensional approach consisting of environmental, economic, social, technical, and institutional/political sustainability to determine resource sustainability. The energy transition requires new technology for maximum use of the abundant but intermittent renewable sources a sustainable mix with limited nonrenewable sources optimized to minimize cost and environmental impact but maintained quality, stability, and flexibility of an electricity supply system. Technologies needed for the transition are those that use conventional mitigation, negative emissions technologies which capture and sequester carbon emissions and finally technologies which alter the global atmospheric radiative energy budget to stabilize and reduce global average temperature. A sustainable electricity system needs facilitating technology, policy, strategies and infrastructure like smart grids, and models with an appropriate mix of both renewable and low carbon energy sources.

Abstract With the ever-growing need for lithium-ion batteries, particularly from the electric transportation industry, a large amount of lithium-ion batteries is bound to retire in the near future, thereby leading to serious disposal problems and detrimental impacts on environment and energy conservation. Currently, commercial lithium-ion batteries are composed of transition metal oxides or phosphates, aluminum, copper, graphite, organic electrolytes with harmful lithium salts, polymer separators, and plastic or metallic cases. The lack of proper disposal of spent lithium-ion batteries probably results in grave consequences, such as environmental pollution and waste of resources. Thus, recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries starts to receive attentions in recent years. However, owing to the pursuit of lithium-ion batteries with higher energy density, higher safety and more affordable price, the materials used in lithium-ion batteries are of a wide diversity and ever-evolving, consequently bringing difficulties to the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries. To address this issue, both technological innovations and the participation of governments are required. This article provides a review of recent advances in recycling technologies of spent lithium-ion batteries, including the development of recycling processes, the products obtained from recycling, and the effects of recycling on environmental burdens. In addition, the remaining challenges and future perspectives are also highlighted.

Abstract Domestic wind turbine manufacturing sector in China has experienced development stages starting from scratch to mass production. During the 11th FYP period (2006–2010), the main goal of wind power policy in China is to promote the commercialization of wind power by large-scale deployment of wind farms. This goal has been realized to a great extent and now the cost of wind power generation is nearly comparable to coal-fired power generation in China. The industry policy, which devotes to mass production of domestic wind turbines, is also largely successful. The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview on wind turbine manufacturing sector in China. The policy evolution in different stages, achievements and challenges pertinent to the sector are addressed in the paper. Key findings are that the misleading industry policy, which provides strong incentive to blind entrance and “competition for scale and price” and restrains innovation as well, is the key obstacle for the sustainable development of the sector. Deficient technology standard and qualification system and the misplaced franchise bidding system also indulge vicious competition and oversupply. Creating a level playground for all turbine supplies, providing strong incentive to innovative manufacturers, establishing thorough and practicable standard and qualification system, and fine-tuning the directive of the franchise bidding system towards technology and service are the primary policy implications proposed by our study.

Although the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocate, through SDG 4 and SDG 10, equitable quality education and the reduction of inequalities within and between countries, respectively, few studies have examined how inequalities in regional sustainability influence higher education. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between regional sustainability and higher education in China using fixed-effects panel modelling. A systematic force framework showing how regional sustainability drives higher education was constructed from economic, social, and environmental perspectives, and the endogeneity in the process of how regional sustainability affects higher education was explored by introducing one-year lagged values as instrumental variables. Our results show that regional sustainability has a significant impact on higher educational attainment in China, with differing effects in the eastern, central, and western regions, respectively. In central China, economic sustainability plays a significant positive role in higher educational attainment; in the western region, economic and social sustainability have stronger positive effects, while environmental sustainability has significantly negative effects. In terms of policy implications, our findings can be used to support regional development policies to promote regional higher education.

Balancing economic growth and environmental pollution is essential for the sustainable development of Mainland China. To address this issue, this study applied an improved data envelopment analysis model to evaluate the environmental efficiency of 29 provinces in Mainland China from 2006 to 2016. The study divided the 29 provinces into two groups: the subtropical and tropical zones and the temperate zone. The study then compared the differences in environmental efficiency between the two groups. The results indicate that the overall environmental efficiency of the provinces in Mainland China increased significantly from 2006 to 2016; however, there remained significant potential for improvement. In particular, the environmental efficiency is significantly lower in the temperate zone compared with the subtropical and tropical zones. As Mainland China’s population is increasingly moving to coastal areas in the subtropical and tropical zones, each province should adopt targeted policy measures to improve its environmental efficiency based on its industrial and population conditions.

The output of municipal solid waste is growing rapidly, which has brought tremendous pressure to urban development. The supply chain of municipal solid waste (MSW) in China mainly contains three processes: collection, transportation, and disposal. The waste is sorted at the collection and disposed of according to the classification. However, it is mixed at the transportation stage. Mixed transportation remixes the separately collected waste, which seriously affects the disposal effect. The supply chain of MSW urgently needs to be redesigned to improve the MSW disposal effect. First of all, on the ground of the waste treatment situation, we redesigned the supply chain of MSW in China. Secondly, combined with the redesign of the MSW supply chain, this paper established the function allocation model for collection stations, making a collection station only gather one type of waste, and built the transportation path planning model for vehicles, reducing the impact of waste storage on residents. Finally, based on the data of Xuanwu District in Beijing, the supply chain redesigning practical example of incinerable waste was given. The supply chain redesigning model in this paper not only makes full use of the existing infrastructure but also improves the disposal effect of waste. The supply chain redesigning model has practical application value.