• Energy Research

Pakistan is a resource-constrained country facing severe power shortages. To address the power demand-supply gap, Pakistan has increased its use of fossil fuel energy sources for power generation. To support a lower carbon power supply Pakistan needs renewable energy sources such as hydropower. However, most of the water for irrigation and power generation in the country is derived from a watershed in a disputed territory shared between India and Pakistan. Construction of hydroelectric dams over transboundary rivers have led to concerns regarding their ecological impacts. In this paper, we evaluated the sustainability of the Bursar Hydroelectric Project, proposed on such a transboundary river. Emergy analysis was used to holistically determine the change in the intrinsic value of the local ecosystem both before and after the construction of the dam. The results show that the project would increase the qualitative value of outputs derived from the local ecosystem. However, it would also extract and stock significant resources thus decreasing the overall sustainability of the system. In conclusion, the construction of the subject dam has negative consequences for unrestricted flow of water, sediments and biomass downstream. Policy makers can use this study to design mitigation measures for ecological conservation.

Abstract Waste management is a serious challenge across many resource constrained countries of the world leading to environmental issues such as pollution and high rates of soil occupation, health issues induced by poor hygienic conditions, and financial problems linked to the high costs associated to waste management, which have high impacts on municipal budget. In this study we determined the environmental impact of different waste disposal scenarios in a major city of Pakistan. Existing studies on the subject of waste management in Pakistan fail to account for the environmental burden of waste processing technologies. To counter this, in this paper we used Emergy based accounting procedures to obtain a donor or nature based perspective for environmental footprinting. Three scenarios were considered for the analysis consisting of the current practice of open dumping as Scenario A; sanitary landfilling with composting and material recycling as Scenario B and incineration with composting and recycling as Scenario C. Results were presented in the form of Emergy based input-output tables as well as greenhouse gas emissions as measured in kg CO2 equivalent (kCO2eq/t) per tonne of waste. Scenario A was the worst option due to its high emissions and lack of any useful output. Scenario B was identified as the best alternative as it resulted in similar amount of net emissions as Scenario C but with relatively lower stress on the environment as indicated by the Emergy indicators. In view of the subject city’s resource constraints we recommend inducing waste reduction and minimization practices through public awareness campaigns. Resource contributions from the civic society are also suggested for erecting the necessary waste disposal infrastructure. The results and suggestions presented herein need to be highlighted in a timely manner in order to resolve environmental and public health risks posed by the current practices.

Sustainable food production is a key concern across countries in South Asia. Most assessments of sustainable agriculture in this region focus on the availability and affordability of resource inputs. However, studies accounting for environmental footprint of agricultural activities in South Asian countries are limited in the existing literature. This paper analyzed the environmental impact of energy utilization in agriculture in India and Pakistan. More specifically, the study analyzes the trends of fuel and electricity consumption for crop production in these countries during a ten-year period between the years 2002 and 2011. Life cycle impact assessment categories including global warming potential, human toxicity, acidification and eutrophication were used to holistically analyze the end-user impact of energy consumption. Results indicated an increase in these impacts for both countries during the study period. On a per hectare basis, the assessed impacts were relatively greater in India than in Pakistan during the study period. The main reason behind larger impacts in India was its significantly greater use of coal for electricity generation. Overall, this study showed that further electrification of agriculture will not necessarily lead to cleaner environment in these countries. Due to high population growth rates, energy consumption for agriculture is expected to grow in these countries in the future. Unless cleaner sources of electricity are used, further energy intensification in agriculture will be detrimental to ecosystem and human health, which in turn will be counterproductive for sustainable agriculture.

Abstract In this study we used the metafrontier function to analyze carbon dioxide emissions in relation to environmental production technology in China. We, comprehensively, estimated and decomposed total factor carbon productivity in 36 sectors of Chinese industry in the years between 2003 and 2015. Moreover, industry differences and dynamic evolution of total factor carbon productivity were analyzed in order to reveal sources of growth in total factor carbon productivity. The industrial sectors were classified into four groups according to the dual criteria of carbon emissions and technology. The results are as follows: (1) From 2003 to 2015, the total factor carbon productivity of industry in China increased by 5.93%. During 2004 and 2009, extensive expansion of heavy industry caused decline in total factor carbon productivity. After 2010, the transformation of economic development patterns and the substantial increase in green investment have led to a rapid increase in total factor carbon productivity in China. (2) The difference in total factor carbon productivity among sectors is significant. Low-carbon and high-technology industry is the technology leader. (3) Decomposition analysis reveals that technology innovation gradually plays a dominant role in total factor carbon productivity growth of China's industry. Technical efficiency of the high-carbon industries makes the total factor carbon productivity increase. The gap between the low-tech industry and the high-carbon industry with the metafrontier technology continues to expand.

This study was meant to determine environmental aspects of hospital waste management scenarios using a life cycle analysis approach. The survey for this study was conducted at the largest hospital in a major city of Pakistan. The hospital was thoroughly analyzed from November 2014 to January 2015 to quantify its wastes by category. The functional unit of the study was selected as 1 tonne of disposable solid hospital waste. System boundaries included transportation of hospital solid waste and its treatment and disposal by landfilling, incineration, composting, and material recycling methods. These methods were evaluated based on their greenhouse gas emissions. Landfilling and incineration turned out to be the worst final disposal alternatives, whereas composting and material recovery displayed savings in emissions. An integrated system (composting, incineration, and material recycling) was found as the best solution among the evaluated scenarios. This study can be used by policymakers for the formulation of an integrated hospital waste management plan.This study deals with environmental aspects of hospital waste management scenarios. It is an increasing area of concern in many developing and resource-constrained countries of the world. The life cycle analysis (LCA) approach is a useful tool for estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from different waste management activities. There is a shortage of information in existing literature regarding LCA of hospital wastes. To the best knowledge of the authors this work is the first attempt at quantifying the environmental footprint of hospital waste in Pakistan.

Abstract In China, rapid development of electric vehicles resulted in large consumption of lead and lead products such as lead acid batteries (LABs). Recycling LABs is one option to mitigate natural resource depletion and corresponding environmental issues. However, few studies have been conducted to measure the operation of LABs recycling industry. Consequently, it is necessary to initiate such a study so that key barriers on promoting this industry can be identified. Under such a circumstance, this study proposes an emergy-based evaluation framework to evaluate one LABs recycling firm in Yunnan so that the emissions’ impact on human health and ecosystem from this firm can be quantified. A set of emergy-based indicators are established to evaluate the sustainability of this recycling firm. The results show that the investigated system had a higher emergy efficiency compared with that primary ore exploitation system. However, the extremely low values of emergy indicators indicate that this recycling system could not achieve sustainable development goals due to its heavy dependence on nonrenewable resources. Based upon such results and local realities, policy suggestions are raised in order to improve the overall sustainability of such a recycling system.

Different types of direct-placement dental materials are used for the restoration of structure, function and aesthetics of teeth. The aim of this research investigation is to determine, through a comparative cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment, the environmental impacts of three direct-placement dental restorative materials (DRMs) and their associated packaging.Three direct-placement dental materials; dental amalgam, resin-based composite (RBC) and glass polyalkenoate cements (GIC) are assessed using primary data from a manufacturer (SDI Limited, Australia). The functional unit consisted of 'one dental restoration' of each restorative system under investigation: 1.14 g of dental amalgam; 0.25 g of RBC (plus the adhesive = 0.10 g); and 0.54 g of GIC. The system boundary per restoration included the raw materials and their associated packaging materials for each DRM together with the processing steps for both the materials and packaging. The environmental impacts were assessed using an Egalitarian approach under the ReCiPe method using Umberto software and the Ecoinvent database. Nine different impact categories were used to compare the environmental performance of these materials.Dental amalgam had the highest impact across most of the categories, but RBC had the highest Global Warming Potential. The highest sources of the environmental impacts for each restorative material were: Amalgam, derived from material use; RBC, derived from energy use in processing material and packaging material; GIC, derived from material and energy use for packaging.Less intensive energy sources or more sustainable packaging materials can potentially reduce the impacts associated with RBC and GIC thus making them suitable alternatives to dental amalgam.

This paper deals with an analysis of waste management practices in the fast-growing city of Gujranwala with 2.6 million inhabitants, with a fast growing middle income group of 56%, and an urbanization rate of 3.49% per annum. This city is like many other cities in the developing world, characterised by hardly any waste management infrastructure. The study comprises: (1) an inventory of current waste flows, per income group as well as per season, (2) an inventory of waste management shortcomings, (3)) a what-if analysis on the carbon footprint of three waste treatment techniques. The inventory of current waste flows is based on a comprehensive site study involving 776 samples in total. The waste management shortcomings have been qualitatively analysed by Wasteaware model, which deals with physical aspects (public health, environmental control, resource management) as well as governance factors (user & provider inclusivity, financial stability, institutions & policies). The what-if analysis of the carbon footprint has been based on an LCA-based tool. The findings of this study are that: (1) the optimum choice of waste treatment scenario differs for the seasons, (2) the high and middle income groups have nearly half of the share of the waste (3) the Wasteaware system appears to be a powerful tool to communicate the weak spots and to make stakeholders aware of the opportunities for improvement. The novelty of this paper is that it focused on the impact of household income groups in combination with seasonal differences while comparing different waste disposal scenarios.