Local air pollutant emission reduction and ancillary carbon benefits of SO2 control policies: Application of AIM/CGE model to China

While a great deal of literature has been published in recent years on the ancillary benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation (e.g., reductions in local air pollution), less attention has been focused on the climate benefits of local air pollution strategies themselves. Local air pollution is, however, a more immediate issue now faced by developing countries. This study assesses the impacts on local air pollutant emission reduction and ancillary CO₂ emission reduction of SO₂ control policies in China, such as a sulphur tax, SO₂ total emissions control (TEC), and improvement of energy efficiency, based on the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM)/Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) country model. The simulation period is from 1997 to 2020. Major conclusions include the following: an SO₂ emission cap will help to control SO₂ emissions, but will result in a large GDP loss; the role of a SO₂ emission tax at the present level is very limited; and an ancillary carbon reduction benefit can be achieved through the introduction of SO₂ control policies in China.     

Development of an energy-emission model using fuzzy sets

In searching for cost-efficient strategies to reduce emissions from energy conversion, most western countries use energy-emission models. In these models, the whole energy conversion chain and possible future options for energy supply and emission reduction are mapped into a network of energy flows. Total discounted cost of energy supply and emission reduction is minimized under the restriction of maximum allowed emissions of SO₂, NO _x , or CO₂. The present paper extends one of these models to allow for fuzzy parameters. Such an extension appears to be useful when the data situation is weak. In this paper, a fuzzy linear program is developed, which has been applied to an energy-emission model of Lithuania.     

A model for long-term global air quality prediction and development of efficient control strategies in Turkey

This paper presents an environmental model which differentiates fuel consumption by sectoral use and allows for the reduction of emissions by coupling different emission control technologies to energy conversion and end-use activities. The model can be coupled to any energy model for forecasting air pollutant emissions and developing efficient emission control strategies. An energy-economy module has been integrated into the model and an equilibrium solution for the three-component model is obtained by utility maximization. Effects of emission limits on energy activities and on macroeconomical variables are investigated by restricting total pollutant emissions to the standards of the European Community. Numerical results are presented in the form of long-term forecasts focusing on the pollutants SO₂ and NO_x. Emission control measures, implied from the model results, are discussed revealing an efficient emission control strategy.     

Cost-effective sulphur emission reduction under uncertainty

The problem of reducing SO₂ emissions in Europe is considered. The costs of reduction are assumed to be uncertain and are modeled by a set of possible scenarios. A mean-variance model of the problem is formulated and a specialized computational procedure is developed. The approach is applied to the trans-boundary air pollution model with real-world data.     

A scavenging model analysis around a large coal-fired power plant in New Delhi with a particular reference to the scavenging action of the monsoonal rains

There have been reports in the recent past about the problem of SO₂ pollution over India. Some of them have even stated that corrosion of the Acropolis in Athens is now matched by the corrosion of the Taj Mahal in Agra. Mathematical models and experimental analyses have been undertaken to address the problem of SO₂ pollution over selected Metropolitan cities in India.An important feature revealed from these model studies is that most urban air quality models in India grossly over predict ambient SO₂ levels during the monsoon period. This is because washout calculation are not featured in these models. In this paper we have tried to demonstrate the efficacy of the southwest monsoon rains to a scavenge a soluble pollutant like SO₂ from an urban environment. India in general does not face the acid rain threat yet. However, results of rainwater analyses show that low pH of precipitation does occur at isolated pockets downwind of major industries and power plants. In this paper we have determined the extent of acidic deposition in the near field of a large coal-fired power plant in Delhi. SO₂ concentration profiles, with and without washout calculations have been shown. Probable periods of the year and the areas within the meteroplition regions of Delhi which could be worst affected by acid impaction have been identified on the basis of the model simulations with mean climatological data. Model computations show that maximum pollution is brought in to the city from this power plant during the month of October. The hourly GLC often exceeds 1000 μg m^-3 which is quite a close to the federal standard of 1100 μg m^-3; likewise the acid deposition flux is greatest during the month of August and is of the order of 50 μg m^-2 s^-1 at a downwind distance of 1 km.The nature of the washout coefficient during the monsoon pre and post monsoon periods in relation to the relative importance of the atmospheric variables concerned has been investigated. The role of individual monsoonal showers to scavenge SO₂ has been discussed.This is perhaps the first work of its kind from India wherein representative washout coefficients have calculated and subsequently featured as washout effects in an urban air pollution model. Results show that this parameter could be as high as 16.03 × 10^-5 s^-1 during August and as low as 1.1 × 10^-6s^-1 in April.     

Proportional and excess-of-loss reinsurance under investment gains

On the assumption that investment fund follows the logarithm-normal distribution, the paper derives the forms of proportional and excess-of-loss reinsurance contracts which make the convex combination of the insurer’s rate of return v₁ and the reinsurer’s rate of return v₂ exceeds R at the probability of f. In the whole paper, the premium takes the expectation principle.     

Survey of mathematical programming models in air pollution management

This paper surveys the current state of the literature in management science/operations research approaches to air pollution management. After introducing suitable background we provide some of the institutional and legal framework needed to understand the continuing regulatory efforts in United States. Attention is then turned to mathematical programming models ranging from fairly simple deterministic linear programs to quite sophisticated stochastic models which have appeared in the literature dealing with these topics. This is followed by extensions reflecting some of the work we have undertaken in association with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, a regulatory agency in Texas. Application and potential use of models is the central theme of this survey. Issues for future research are presented at the end and an extensive list of publications is provided in the references at the end of the article.Principal air quality issues of local, national, and international concern are listed below in increasing order of difficulty based on the number of different types of pollutants and problems in quantification of the risks the pollutants pose:

• 1.1. Stratospheric ozone depletion: one relatively easily controllable class of trace gases - ozone depleting chemicals, or ODCs, principally chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) — with relatively well quantified risks;
• 2.2. Criteria pollutants: six common pollutants — ozone (O₃), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), lead (Pb), and particulate matter less than 10 microns in size (PM10) — regulated since 1970 in the U.S. and presenting relatively well quantified risks;
• 3.3. Acid precipitation: two relatively easily controllable classes of trace gases — oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and oxides of sulfur (SO_x) with relatively well quantified risks;
• 4.4. Global warming/climate change: a few difficult to control trace gases — principally carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and CFCs — with highly uncertain risks;
• 5.5. Toxics or HAPS (hazardous air pollutants): hundreds of types of gaseous chemicals and particles with uncertain risks;
• 6.6. Somewhat dated, but nevertheless useful, is the following reference: Glossary on Air Pollution (Copenhagen, World Health Organization, 1980).

     

Carbon capture and storage and transboundary pollution: A differential game approach

We study the strategic behavior of two countries facing transboundary CO₂ pollution under a differential game setting. In our model, the reduction of CO₂ concentration occurs through the carbon capture and storage process, rather than through the adoption of cleaner technologies. Furthermore, we first provide the explicit short-run dynamics for this dynamic game with symmetric open-loop and a special Markovian Nash strategy. Then, we compare these strategies at the games’ steady states and along some balanced growth paths. Our results show that if the initial level of CO₂ is relatively high, state dependent emissions reductions can lead to higher overall environmental quality, hence, feedback strategy leads to less social waste.     

A multiple criteria decision making approach for electricity planning in Spain: economic versus environmental objectives

Growing social concern about the environmental impact of economic development has drawn attention to the need to integrate environmental criteria into energy decision-making problems. This has made electricity planning issues more complex given the multiplicity of objectives and decision-makers involved in the decision making process. This paper proposes a methodology that combines several multi-criteria methods to address electricity planning problems within a realistic context. The method is applied to an electricity planning exercise in Spain with a planning horizon set for the year 2030. The model includes the following objectives: (1) total cost; (2) C0₂; (3) SO₂; and (4) NO _x emissions as well as the amount of radioactive waste produced. An efficient social compromise between these conflicting objectives is obtained, which shows the advantages of using this model for policy-making purposes.     

Financial valuation of investments in future power generation technologies: nuclear fusion and CCS in an emissions trading system

This paper outlines a model approach for the financial valuation of future power generation technologies, such as nuclear fusion or carbon capture and storage (CCS) under an emissions trading regime. Since on imperfect markets, interdependencies between decisions inhibit the isolated valuation of an investment, we use simultaneous calculation of optimal production, sales and investment programs; these are subject to the constraints and conditions characteristic for investments in low- and zero-carbon technologies such as fusion and CCS. Duality theory allows to derive, identify and economically interpret the determinants for the price ceiling as (corrected) net present values. Sensitivity analysis shows how changes in the technical specification or environmental policies affect the maximum payable price. Particularly, tradable permits have several effects on low-carbon investments and do not always encourage CO ₂ abatement. While a zero-emissions technology like fusion always profits from a tightened emissions trading scheme, for low-carbon technology like CCS—in particular cases—this may even be counterproductive from an economic as well as an environmental point of view.     

Unified account of gas pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions: Chinese transportation 1978–2004

To facilitate the aggregation of both quantity and quality of waste emissions, the concept of chemical exergy combining the first and second laws of thermodynamics is introduced for a unified account of gas pollutants and greenhouse gases, by a case study for the Chinese transportation system 1978–2004 with main gas pollutants of NO, SO₂, CO and main greenhouse gases of CO₂ and CH₄. With chemical exergy emission factors concretely estimated, the total emission as well as emission intensity by exergy of the overall transportation system and of its four modes of highways, railways, waterways and civil aviation are accounted in full detail and compared with those by the conventionally prevailing metrics of mass, with essential implications for environmental policy making.     

The representations ofU q(SO4) andU q(SO3,1)

Summary We have considered here the (unitary) irreducible representations of theq-deformed algebraU _q(SO₄) and of theq-deformed Lorentz algebraU _q(SO_3,1). Both of them contain, as subalgebra, the algebraU _q(SO₃) which is shown to be isomorphic to the Fairlie-Odesskii algebra. As the list of pairwise nonequivalent irreps of theU _q(SO_3,1) demonstrates, the set of the parameters, which characterize such irreps is somewhat reduced (due to periodicity properties of the function w(z)=[z]_q) in comparison with that of theq=1 (classical) case. From another side, the list of unitary irreps of theU _q(SO_3,1) contains the strange series which has no classical counterpart (disappears at q=1).Published in Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika. Vol. 95, No. 2, pp. 251–257, May, 1993.     

Optimal input substitution of a firm facing an environmental constraint

In this paper we consider the dynamic behavior of a firm subject to environmental regulation. As a social planner the government wants to reduce the level of pollution. To reach that aim it can, among others, set an upper limit on polluting emissions of the firm. The paper determines how this policy instrument influences the firm's decisions concerning investments, abatement efforts, and the choice whether to leave some capacity unused or not. The abatement process is modeled as input substitution rather than end-of-pipe. Using standard control theory in determining the firm's optimal dynamic investment decisions it turns out that it is always optimal to approach a long run optimal level of capital. In some cases, this equilibrium is reached within finite time, but usually it will be approached asymptotically. Different scenarios are considered, ranging from attractive clean input to unattractive clean input, and from a mild emission limit to a very tight one. It is shown that for large capital stocks and/or when marginal cash flow per unit of emissions is larger for the dirty input than for the clean input, it can be optimal to actually leave some production capacity unused. Also, since the convex installation costs suggest to spread investments over time, it can happen that investment in productive capital is positive although capacity remains unused.     

Economic value of greenhouse gases and nitrogen surpluses: Society vs farmers’ valuation

Livestock supply must challenge the growth of final demand in the developing countries. This challenge has to take into account its ecological effects since the dairy and livestock sectors are clearly pointed out as human activities which contribute significantly to environmental deterioration. Therefore, livestock activity models have to include desirable and undesirable outputs simultaneously. Using this perspective, we implement a Data Envelopment Analysis model to evaluate shadow prices of outputs under contradictory objectives between the society and the farmers. We show that farmers are able to reduce pollution significantly if society accepts to balance farmers’ opportunity cost. Finally, we observe that initial levels of the CO₂ tax implemented in European countries are in line with farmers’ valuation while the current level of the CO₂ tax tends to reach the value of pollution targeted by the society.     

Full multiplicativity of gamma factors for SO2?+1 × GL n

In this paper we prove the full multiplicativity (in both variables) of gamma factors for generic representations of SO_2ℓ+1 × GL _n . These gamma factors are initially defined as proportionality factors of local functional equations, derived from a corresponding global theory of certain Rankin-Selberg integrals which interpolate standardL-functions for SO_2ℓ+1 × GL _n .     

Real hypersurfaces in the complex quadric with commuting Ricci tensor

We introduce the notion of commuting Ricci tensor for real hypersurfaces in the complex quadric Q^m = SO_m+2/SO_mSO₂. It is shown that the commuting Ricci tensor gives that the unit normal vector field N becomes A-principal or A-isotropic. Then according to each case, we give a complete classification of Hopf real hypersurfaces in Q^m = SO_m+2/SO_mSO₂ with commuting Ricci tensor.     

Achieving maximum chromatic index in multigraphs

Let G be a multigraph with maximum degree Δ and maximum edge multiplicity μ. Vizing’s Theorem says that the chromatic index of G is at most Δ+μ. If G is bipartite its chromatic index is well known to be exactly Δ. Otherwise G contains an odd cycle and, by a theorem of Goldberg, its chromatic index is at most , where g_o denotes odd-girth. Here we prove that a connected G achieves Goldberg’s upper bound if and only if G=μC_go and (g_o−1)∣2(μ−1). The question of whether or not G achieves Vizing’s upper bound is NP-hard for μ=1, but for μ≥2 we have reason to believe that this may be answerable in polynomial time. We prove that, with the exception of μK₃, every connected G with μ≥2 which achieves Vizing’s upper bound must contain a specific dense subgraph on five vertices. Additionally, if Δ≤μ², we prove that G must contain K₅, so G must be nonplanar. These results regarding Vizing’s upper bound extend work by Kierstead, whose proof technique influences us greatly here.     

Connected subgroups of SO(2, n) acting irreducibly on ?2,n

We classify all connected subgroups of SO(2, n) that act irreducibly on ℝ^{2, n} . Apart from SO ₀(2, n) itself these are U(1, n/2), SU(1, n/2), if n even, S ¹ · SO(1, n/2) if n even and n ≥ 2, and SO ₀(1, 2) for n = 3. Our proof is based on the Karpelevich Theorem and uses the classification of totally geodesic submanifolds of complex hyperbolic space and of the Lie ball. As an application we obtain a list of possible irreducible holonomy groups of Lorentzian conformal structures, namely SO ₀(2, n), SU(1, n), and SO ₀(1, 2).     

Mathematical modeling on the effect of equivalence ratio in emission characteristics of compression ignition engine with hydrogen substitution

The investigation presented in this paper concerns on the computational simulation of emissions characteristics in compression ignition engine with hydrogen substitution. Combustion process has been modeled based on Equilibrium Constants Method (ECM) with MATLAB program to calculate the mole fractions of 18 combustion products when hydrogen is burnt along with diesel fuel at variable equivalence ratios. It can be observed that hydrogen substitution causes significant increase in NH₃, H₂, atom H emissions during rich combustion and OH, NO₂, HNO₃ emissions during lean combustion. As the equivalence ratio increases during rich combustion, mole fractions of HCN, CH₄, CO and atom C decreases with increment of hydrogen substitution. N₂, atom N and CO₂ emissions decrease whereas no significant changes in O₂, NO, O₃ and atom O emissions throughout all equivalence ratios as hydrogen is added to the combustion.     

Thermally driven acoustic oscillations, part V: Gas-liquid oscillations

Thermally driven gas oscillations are considered which drive a liquid column at the cold open end. The frequency of the oscillations is lowered by the inertia of the liquid and the Stokes boundary layer is thick. Optimal conditions for thermal driving in the gas occur at correspondingly big tube radii. Experiments conducted inN ₂ confirm the theoretically calculated stability limits. With hot air driving a water column, a low critical temperature ratio for the oscillations of about 1.5 was observed.