Material Flow Analysis of Dysprosium in the United States

Dysprosium (Dy) is increasingly being adopted in various clean energy products around the world, intriguing many nations’ interests in its availability. However, since data are inaccessible, crucial information about Dy supplies and demands across products and countries remains incomplete. To fill these knowledge gaps, we performed a dynamic bottom-up material flow analysis of Dy, taking the United States (1987–2018) as a case. The results show that the United States (US) domestic demands experienced a growing trend (by 45-fold) with fluctuation and several shifts among applications, primarily owing to technological advancement. A large imbalance (80 times) exists between domestic mineral supplies and market demands, resulting in significant import dependency, with the net import reliance of alloys, chemicals, finished products, and concentrates being 97, 44, 40, and 31%, respectively. Dy is mainly imported as finished products (55.7%) and alloys (43.2%), with concentrates (0.4%) and chemicals (0.7%) accounting for less than 2%. This import dependency may result from fragmentation of the US supply chains because of the stricter environmental regulations on upstream industries and reshoring of the downstream industries. These findings suggest that rare-earth mineral production in the US is about to restart, and it is important for industries to seek international collaboration to boost product competition

Green Design Evaluation of Electrical and Electronic Equipment Based on Knowledge Graph

Green design aims to minimize possible environmental impacts of products at the design stage, which is a significant measure to address environmental concerns, especially for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) containing various hazardous substances. Green design evaluation is increasingly needed for developing and comparing green design solutions. However, the existing studies on green design evaluation rarely cover all green design requirements, lack multidimensional analysis, and subjectively judge the importance of the green design index. This study applied knowledge graph (KG) to develop a green design evaluation method, with significant efforts in building a global EEE KG including green design requirements in standards, regulations, and certifications worldwide. We further employed a degree centrality algorithm to determine index weight, showing that toxic and harmful materials, energy efficiency and consumption, and environmental pollution have high weight values. Moreover, the green degree aggregating product performances in various aspects was developed to compare the green design levels of different street lamps in China, highlighting the great potential of technological advances for improving green design and the necessity of multidimensional analysis for identifying design hotspots. This study contributes to enhancing the efficiency, completeness, objectivity, and intelligence level of green design evaluation and provides a novel perspective for future research

Green Design Evaluation of Electrical and Electronic Equipment Based on Knowledge Graph

Green design aims to minimize possible environmental impacts of products at the design stage, which is a significant measure to address environmental concerns, especially for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) containing various hazardous substances. Green design evaluation is increasingly needed for developing and comparing green design solutions. However, the existing studies on green design evaluation rarely cover all green design requirements, lack multidimensional analysis, and subjectively judge the importance of the green design index. This study applied knowledge graph (KG) to develop a green design evaluation method, with significant efforts in building a global EEE KG including green design requirements in standards, regulations, and certifications worldwide. We further employed a degree centrality algorithm to determine index weight, showing that toxic and harmful materials, energy efficiency and consumption, and environmental pollution have high weight values. Moreover, the green degree aggregating product performances in various aspects was developed to compare the green design levels of different street lamps in China, highlighting the great potential of technological advances for improving green design and the necessity of multidimensional analysis for identifying design hotspots. This study contributes to enhancing the efficiency, completeness, objectivity, and intelligence level of green design evaluation and provides a novel perspective for future research

Planetary Boundaries for Forests and Their National Exceedance

Achieving forest sustainability is a declared sustainable development goal (SDG 15). Measuring the safe operating spaceplanetary boundariesof global forests is essential to determine global forest pressure and manage forests sustainably. Here, we quantify the forestry planetary boundary (FPB) and national forestry boundaries. Results show that, in 2015, the FPB was 7.1 billion m3 of forest stock increments. Global timber harvests account for 58.7% of the FPB. Timber harvests of 47 nations, mostly in Africa and Asia, have exceeded their national forestry boundaries. Their boundary-exceeding timber harvest is mainly driven by the final demand of developed nations (e.g., the United States and Japan) and emerging economies (e.g., India and China) through global supply chains. This study highlights the importance of the FPB in global forest management and trade-related policymaking. The findings can guide global and national forest harvesting activities and help promote international cooperation to mitigate global deforestation

Planetary Boundaries for Forests and Their National Exceedance

Achieving forest sustainability is a declared sustainable development goal (SDG 15). Measuring the safe operating spaceplanetary boundariesof global forests is essential to determine global forest pressure and manage forests sustainably. Here, we quantify the forestry planetary boundary (FPB) and national forestry boundaries. Results show that, in 2015, the FPB was 7.1 billion m3 of forest stock increments. Global timber harvests account for 58.7% of the FPB. Timber harvests of 47 nations, mostly in Africa and Asia, have exceeded their national forestry boundaries. Their boundary-exceeding timber harvest is mainly driven by the final demand of developed nations (e.g., the United States and Japan) and emerging economies (e.g., India and China) through global supply chains. This study highlights the importance of the FPB in global forest management and trade-related policymaking. The findings can guide global and national forest harvesting activities and help promote international cooperation to mitigate global deforestation

Methods Comparison Results

Methods Comparison Results of our manuscript "Advancing UN Comtrade for Physical Trade Flow Analysis: Addressing the Issue of Missing Values"</p