Treatment of electric vehicle battery waste in China: A review of existing policies

This paper reviews existing policies for supporting the treatment of electric vehicle (EV) battery waste in China, and identifies some of their major shortcomings that policy makers may like to consider while making policy decisions. The shortcomings of existing policies identified in this paper include: 1) no clear provisions for historical and orphan batteries; 2) no target for battery collection; 3) unclear definition of the scope of authority among various central and local agencies involved in the regulation of waste battery treatment; 4) unclear requirements for data auditing and verification for tracking the entire life cycle of EV batteries; 5) limited consideration of the challenges to ensure stakeholder cooperation; and 6) no explicit specification of the mechanisms for financing waste battery treatment. This paper also makes some practical policy suggestions for overcoming these shortcomings

An Experimental Method of Distribution Behavior of Hydrophobically Associated Polymer AP-P4 in Three-Phase Systems

A novel experimental method has been established for the first time to evaluate the distribution behavior of water soluble hydrophobically associated polymer AP-P4 in the oil-water-solid three-phase systems, based on the static adsorption principle. Suitable analysis method has been selected to measure the concentration of polymer in every phase. The enrichment of polymer has been observed between the oil-aqueous interlayer. The distribution coefficient of AP-P4 is obtained along with the variation of concentration and total salinity. The experimental method is helpful to reveal the property of polymer solution and has potential usage in predicting the adsorption and retention in polymer flooding and the wastewater dealing of polymer flooding

Measurements and Factors That Influence the Carbon Capability of Urban Residents in China

Due to the rapid growth in residential energy consumption, there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions from the consumer side, which requires improvements in the carbon capability of urban residents. In this study, previous investigations of carbon capability were analyzed and classified into four dimensions: carbon knowledge capability, carbon motivation capability, carbon behavior capability, and carbon management capability. According to grounded theory, a quantitative research model was constructed of the carbon capability of urban residents in Jiangsu, which was used to conduct a questionnaire survey. SPSS 19.0 and LatentGOLD were employed to process the questionnaire data and the carbon capability of the residents was evaluated. The results showed that the residents of Jiangsu Province could be divided into six groups based on their different carbon capabilities, where these six major groups accounted for 28.19%, 21.21%, 18.33%, 15.84%, 9.88%, and 6.55% of the total sample. Gender, age, occupation, and educational level had significant effects on the carbon capabilities of residents, whereas the annual household income and household population had no significant effects. According to the characteristics of each cluster based on the four carbon capability dimensions, the six clusters were designated as “balanced steady cluster”, “self-restraint cluster”, “fully backward cluster”, “comprehensive leading cluster”, “slightly cognitive cluster”, and “restrain others cluster”. Quantitative analysis showed that 61.93% of the residents of Jiangsu reached the qualified rate for the carbon capability but the excellent rate was only 15.84%. Relevant policy implications are suggested based on these conclusions

The Evolution and Effect Evaluation of Photovoltaic Industry Policy in China

The large scale of China’s photovoltaic (PV) industry and the great policy support by the Chinese government make it necessary to scientifically evaluate PV industry policy. This study designed an evaluation framework for China’s PV industry policy from four dimensions (policy measure, policy type, policy strength, and policy issuing department) to categorize and quantify China’s 307 PV industry policies from 1994 to 2016. Furthermore, the historical evolution and realistic effect of the policies on the PV industry in China were examined. The results show that, currently, grid support, operation specification, and operation supervision are the main policy measures, while a low-level notice is the main type of policy. The policy issued strength is generally low. The enforcement strength of regional policy presents descending trend from the northern to the southern provinces, and a similar trend from coastal provinces to inland provinces. The policy for grid support, operation specification, and technical specification has had the best effect. The most effective policy types are the sector-specific notices and announcements, and the best policy-issuing department is the National Energy Administration. In terms of policy strength, the policy for grid support, operation specification, and operation supervision has had a positive correlation with the development of the industry, although it did not achieve its desired effect

Who Has Higher Willingness to Pay for Occupational Safety and Health?—Views from Groups with Different Public Identities and Differences in Attention

Background: Occupational safety and health issues are closely associated with the wellbeing and survival of every worker and family, as well as of society as a whole. It is a type of typical public issue and requires cooperative governance among different governing subjects. Methods: According to the questionnaire investigation on 2179 subjects with different identities, the research explored the willingness to pay (WTP) for occupational safety and health and the degree of attention, with different identities, through the difference analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The research studied the relationship between public attention and WTP through the methods of cross-analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Results: (1) The public show a disregard attitude to occupational safety and health. (2) The public expect the government to fund and solve occupational safety and health problems rather than for themselves to pay directly. (3) Over 50% of questionnaire respondents defined occupational safety and health problems as being classified into two categories, namely, “no attention—government payment” or “no attention—refusal of individual payment”, according to the analysis. (4) The level of attention paid to occupational safety and health can significantly predict the individual income WTP, item WTP, subject WTP, and event WTP. Conclusions: This research aimed to outline the implications for the governance of occupational safety and health

Innovative Application of the Public–Private Partnership Model to the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in China

The electric vehicle charging infrastructure is in the initial development period in China, where there is an imbalanced supply and demand structure, an increasingly mature institutional environment, and an imperfect support system. The infrastructure is important for supplying energy to electric vehicles, and it needs to be provided in a reasonable manner with a moderately advanced layout. Due to large-scale investment, unclear financing rights and responsibilities, a single participant, interlinked risks, and other factors, “absence” and “dislocation” of the charging infrastructure coexist. The public–private partnership (PPP) model is an effective supply path for the infrastructure. Thus, introducing the PPP model into the charging infrastructure can leverage social capital, eases the burden on local finance, enhances the level of project management and profitability, and reduces construction and operation risks. For the participant level of PPP projects in the charging infrastructure, the present study elucidates the support mechanisms required by the government, social capital, and intermediaries in order to construct an effective charging infrastructure in China

Low Purchase Willingness for Battery Electric Vehicles: Analysis and Simulation Based on the Fault Tree Model

Purchase intention is the key to popularizing battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and to developing the industry. This study combines classical theoretical and qualitative research, and applies fault tree analysis (FTA) methods to study factors that hinder BEV purchase, and identify the logical relationship between top fault events and basic events, by calculating minimal cut sets and minimal path sets. Activity based classification analysis was used to investigate the key basic event and key event combination (i.e., minimal cut sets) that hinders purchase intention, with the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method verified by Monte Carlo simulation. The results indicate (1) there were 26 minimal cut sets and 18 minimal path sets in the fault tree model, and the fault tree was defined by four key event combinations and five key basic events; and (2) by reducing key events’ failure probability, the probability of fault tree cumulative occurrence was reduced from 0.86021 to 0.57406 over 100,000 Monte Carlo simulations, i.e., the willingness to purchase BEVs was significantly increased. Thus, the proposed FTA method was feasible and effective for addressing low purchase intentions. Consequently, some policy implications are suggested

Characterization of Bacterial Community Structure in a Drinking Water Distribution System during an Occurrence of Red Water▿

The role of bacteria in the occasional emergence of red water, which has been documented worldwide, has yet to be determined. To better understand the mechanisms that drive occurrences of red water, the bacterial community composition and the relative abundance of several functional bacterial groups in a water distribution system of Beijing during a large-scale red water event were determined using several molecular methods. Individual clone libraries of the 16S rRNA gene were constructed for three red water samples and one sample of normal water. Beta-, Alpha-, and Gammaproteobacteria comprised the major bacterial communities in both red water and normal water samples, in agreement with previous reports. A high percentage of red water clones (25.2 to 57.1%) were affiliated with or closely related to a diverse array of iron-oxidizing bacteria, including the neutrophilic microaerobic genera Gallionella and Sideroxydans, the acidophilic species Acidothiobacillus ferrooxidans, and the anaerobic denitrifying Thermomonas bacteria. The genus Gallionella comprised 18.7 to 28.6% of all clones in the three red water libraries. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the 16S rRNA gene copy concentration of Gallionella spp. was between (4.1 ± 0.9) × 107 (mean ± standard deviation) and (1.6 ± 0.3) × 108 per liter in red water, accounting for 13.1% ± 2.9% to 17.2% ± 3.6% of the total Bacteria spp. in these samples. By comparison, the percentages of Gallionella spp. in the normal water samples were 0.1% or lower (below the limit of detection), suggesting an important role of Gallionella spp. in the formation of red water

A Comprehensive Model of the Relationship between Miners’ Work Commitment, Cultural Emotion and Unemployment Risk Perception

The psychological health and work commitment of miners are prerequisites to ensuring their sustainable safety behavior, and it is also significant to the sustainable development of coal mines in China. In this context, we conducted a questionnaire survey among coal miners of state-owned coal enterprises to explore the relationships between cultural emotion, unemployment risk perception, Big Five personality traits, and work commitment. The results reveal that (1) cultural emotion and its three dimensions played a significant positive role in promoting work commitment. (2) Unemployment risk perception, policy unemployment risk perception, and individual differential unemployment risk perception had a negative moderating effect. (3) Moreover, work commitment was associated with differences in personality characteristics except for agreeableness. This research is of important theoretical value and practical significance, as it can guide Chinese coal miners to increase their work commitment and thereby improve safety in production