Water embodied in traded commodities is important for water sustainability management. This study provides insight into China's water footprint and virtual water trade using three specific water named Green, Blue and Grey. A multi-region input-output analysis at national and sectoral analysis levels from the years 1995 to 2009 is conducted. The evolution and position of China's virtual water trade across a global supply chain are explored through cluster analysis. The results show that China represented 11.2% of the global water footprint in 1995 and 13.6% in 2009. The green virtual water is the largest of China's exports and imports. In general, China is a net exporter of virtual water during this time period. China mainly imports virtual water from the USA, India and Brazil, and mainly exports virtual water to the USA, Japan and Germany. The agriculture sector and the food sector represent the sectors with both the largest import and export virtual water quantities. China's global virtual water trade network has been relatively stable from 1995 to 2009. China has especially close relationships with the USA, Indonesia, India, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. Trade relations, resource endowment and supply-demand relationships may play key roles in China's global virtual water footprint network rather than geographical location. Finally, policy implications are proposed for China's long term sustainable water management and for global supply chain management in general.
A comprehensive evaluation model
of economy-resource-environment
was established based on life cycle assessment combined with the monetization
method. Three indicators including relative economic benefit, nonrenewable
resource saving benefit, and pollution mitigation benefit considering
the reference of the petroleum-based jet fuel process were proposed
herein. Two cases of biomass-based jet fuel from biomass gasification
and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (Bio-FTJ) were comprehensively
evaluated (Bio-FTJ-1: steam for heat supply; Bio-FTJ-2: steam for
power generation). The results show that the comprehensive performances
of the two processes are better than that of the traditional process.
Thus, the wastage of nonrenewable resources is significantly prevented,
and the pollutant emissions are moderately reduced; nonetheless, the
production costs increase. Compared to Bio-FTJ-1, Bio-FTJ-2 could
achieve greater benefits in saving nonrenewable resources and emit
less CO2 and other pollutants due to the significant reduction
of consumption of external power input. According to the sensitivity
analysis, the comprehensive performances of Bio-FTJ-1 and Bio-FTJ-2
are found to be the most sensitive to electricity consumption and
stalk consumption, respectively. Based on the sensitivity analysis
of raw material price, the comprehensive performances of the two processes
are the most sensitive to the price of crude oil. The results of this
study indicate that the reduction of the consumption of stalks and
electricity in Bio-FTJ processes should significantly improve the
comprehensive performance.
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