Institute of Sustainable Design and Manufacturing , Dalian University of Technology , Dalian 116024 , China.
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering , University of Minnesota , St. Paul , Minnesota 55108 , United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2019 Oct 1;53(19):11294-11301. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b02973. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
China has recently implemented broad strategies aimed at achieving a circular economy by providing subsidies for the remanufacture industry and setting a target of 15% increase in energy efficiency in industrial production across sectors, among other strategies. Here, we examine the environmental implications of these policies in the context of engine remanufacture, using an environmental computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Results indicate that both the subsidy policy and energy efficiency improvement target can contribute to economic growth and emission reductions, but the subsidy policy is estimated to have far greater impacts. The implementation of both can reinforce each other, generating higher economic and environmental benefits than the sum of each occurrence alone. Another major finding from our model is that an additional remanufactured engine only displaces 0.42 (90% confidence interval from 0.32 to 0.47) of a new engine (comprised of new parts), mainly because the lower prices of remanufactured engines lead to greater consumption. This ratio is much lower than the 1:1 perfect displacement commonly assumed in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. Overall, our study suggests that the subsidizing of engine remanufacture in China can help promote the industry, improve overall economic welfare, and contribute to environmental targets. Our study also contributes to the estimation of more realistic product displacement ratios in LCA.
中国最近实施了广泛的战略，通过为再制造行业提供补贴和设定各行业工业生产能源效率提高 15%的目标，旨在实现循环经济。在这里，我们使用环境可计算一般均衡 (CGE) 模型，研究了这些政策在发动机再制造方面的环境影响。结果表明，补贴政策和能源效率提高目标都可以促进经济增长和减排，但补贴政策的影响估计要大得多。同时实施这两项政策可以相互加强，产生比单独实施每项政策更高的经济和环境效益。我们模型的另一个主要发现是，额外的再制造发动机仅替代了 0.42（90%置信区间为 0.32 至 0.47）新发动机（由新部件组成），主要是因为再制造发动机的较低价格导致了更大的消费。这一比例远低于生命周期评估 (LCA) 研究中通常假设的 1:1 完美替代率。总体而言，我们的研究表明，在中国对发动机再制造进行补贴可以帮助促进该行业的发展，提高整体经济福利，并有助于实现环境目标。我们的研究还为 LCA 中更现实的产品替代率估计做出了贡献。
