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Environmental benefits evaluation of coal-to-electricity project in Beijing, China

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Abstract

The coal-to-electricity project (CTEP) using electricity instead of coal for heating is a significant measure to cope with climate change and air pollution in China. After years of development, the CTEP has been implemented on a large scale of areas in Beijing. An evaluation model is proposed in this paper to analyze the environmental benefits and assist in determining whether the CTEP should be continued. Firstly, the heating system and framework of this paper are introduced. We also analyzed the feasibility of CTEP, illuminating how electric heating benefits the environment. Secondly, the evaluations models of CTEP are built, including reduction of coal, pollutant emission, and overall benefit. Finally, based on the models results are obtained and discussed and prove environmental benefits of CTEP. It is calculated that 18 kg of coal per unit heating area can be saved in the CTEP, which effectively reduces 98% of PM2.5, 95% of SO2, 44% of NOX, and 81% of CO2 emissions. The CTEP has increasing contribution to the reductions of atmospheric pollutants. The considerable environmental benefits demonstrate the significance of the CTEP in the north of China, which also facilitate its future development in areas outside of Beijing.

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Funding

This work is supported partially by Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (L172036), Joint Funds of the Equipment Pre-Research and Ministry of Education (6141A020225), Par-Eu Scholars Program, Science and Technology Beijing 100 Leading Talent Training Project, Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project (Z161100002616039), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016JQ01, 2017ZZD02), and the NCEPU “Double First-Class” Graduate Talent Cultivation Program.

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Author notes

  1. Zexi Chen and Delong Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zexi Chen, Delong Zhang, Haoran Jiang, Weiwei Liu, Tianhua Liu, Youzhe Zheng & Meicheng Li

  2. State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company, Beijing, 100031, China

    Zexi Chen

  3. School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Yan Zhang

Authors
  1. Zexi Chen
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  2. Delong Zhang
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  3. Haoran Jiang
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  4. Weiwei Liu
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  5. Tianhua Liu
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  6. Youzhe Zheng
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  7. Yan Zhang
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  8. Meicheng Li
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Correspondence to Yan Zhang.

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Chen, Z., Zhang, D., Jiang, H. et al. Environmental benefits evaluation of coal-to-electricity project in Beijing, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 40244–40252 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09825-7

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