| Our country comprises a large agricultural area with an abundant resource of straw.A variety of usable active components and a large amount of thermal energy are contained in straws.Therefore,the effective,economic,and safe use of this resource is favorable for sustainable development of agriculture.This study adopts life-cycle assessment(LCA)and life-cycle cost(LCC)theories and considers the resource utilization of grain crop straw in our country as study subject to analyze the environmental and economic effects of the entire process of utilizing straw.This study aims to effectively avoid the secondary pollution or pollution transfer and the confusion to decision makers caused by complex and contradicting environmental and economic information.From the integrated perspective of environment and economy,the key questions in the process of enterprise resource utilization of straws,such as environmental damage and economical efficiency,are answered.First,this study adopts the grass-crop ratio to evaluate the output by time of straw resource within the period of 2005-2014 and the spatial distribution of the year 2014 to comprehend the condition of the growth of grain crop straw in.Second,data on the burning points of grain crop straw between 2007 and 2014 are extracted to clarify the current situation of the burning of grain crop straw.The thermal anomaly data and the agricultural land data collected by the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are adopted and combined with the political map of our country and the satellite remote sensing monitoring data of fire points collected by the Environmental Supervising Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.Factor and cluster analyses are adopted to analyze the temporal and spatial distributions of pollutant discharge from the resource utilization of straw.A category of environmental effect in accordance with the resource utilization of straw is constructed.Third,an integrated analysis model of local life-cycle environment and economy is established to propose a practical and profitable project of green resource utilization of the grain crop straw from the perspective of environment protection and economy.This model can be employed to amend the shortcomings of the current domestic and foreign parallel assessments between environment and economy;to efficiently associate estimated and actual costs,environmental effect and environmental cost,ecological effect and ecological restoration cost,and the effect on population health and population health cost;to realize a combination of list,environmental effect,and financial cost;and to scientifically and systematically analyze the quantitative relationship between the main microscopic variables and the direct/indirect influences of overall environment and economy on the entire life cycle of straws.An LCA assessment model suitable for the condition of our nation is constructed by employing key pollutant characteristic substitution method.This model quantifies internal economic load by using LCC.The quantitative results of the LCA analysis,namely,the greenhouse gas emission,SO2,NOx,particles,heavy metal,land use,and health effects during the entire process of utilizing grain crop straw,are combined with the quantified environmental emission cost,land ecological restoration cost,and health economic cost to comprehensively investigate the economic aspect of the resource utilization of grain crop straw.Finally,an integrated quantitative analysis of the effect of the entire utilization process on the environment and economy is conducted using the constructed integrated assessment model.The main conclusions are shown as follows:(1)Controlling crop straw open burning would help to reduce haze event.Approximately 0.01%,0.05%,0.01,and 1.24%of national greenhouse gases,nitrogen oxides,sulfur dioxide,and particulate matter emissions were generated from grain crop straw open burning in 2014.The particulate matter,which is a main contributor on the formation of haze event,presents a relatively high proportion to the national particulate matter emissions.(2)The environmental burden of corn straw resource utilization was quantified via an updated life cycle assessment approach.Results showed that the net environmental burden for straw resource utilization from low to high orders are corn straw feed,power generation,cellulosic ethanol,returning to field,composting,biogas.In the case of the use of corn straw-based products as substitute for petrochemical and agricultural feedstocks,the environmental burden for straw resource utilization from low to high orders are corn straw power generation,feed,cellulosic ethanol,returning to field,composting,and biogas.(3)The economic burden of corn straw resource utilization was quantified via life cycle costing.Results showed that the net economic burden for straw resource utilization from low to high orders are corn straw composting(126.67 yuan/t),feed(179.99 yuan/t),returned to the field(220.73 yuan/t),power generation(317.78 yuan/t),biogas production(522.03 yuan/t),and cellulose ethanol(604.56 yuan/t).In the case of the use of corn straw-based products as substitute for petrochemical and agricultural feedstocks,the econoomic burden for straw resource utilization from low to high orders are Corn straw returned to field-1978.87(yuan/t),power generation(-482.72 yuan/t),composting(-403.72 yuan/t),cellulose ethanol(-214.35 yuan/t),biogas(17.78/t),and feed(178.98 yuan/t).(4)The results of integrated life cycle assessment and life cycle costing showed that the use of corn straw-based products as substitute for petrochemical and agricultural feedstocks provides significant overall environmental and economic potentials.The total economic burden for straw resource utilization from low to high orders are straw returning(-2614.77 Yuan/t),composting(-555.98 Yuan/t),electricity(-489.01Yuan/t),cellulosic ethanol(-248.76 Yuan/t),incineration(9.43 Yuan/t),biogas(55.46 Yuan/t),and feed(176.25 Yuan/t).The scenarios of straw return to field and straw composting exhibited relatively lower integrated burden,and thereby should give priority to develop.(5)Key factors(i.e.,process and substance)analysis of life cycle environmental cost was conducted in this study.Results showed that the environmental cost can be reduced via the improvement of resource utilization technology.(6)The results of integrated life cycle assessment and life cycle costing showed that government incentives for environmental policy are an efficient way to reduce pollutants of straw utilization industry for the stages with high environmental burden and low economic benefit. |
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