The response of the industrial system to the interrelationship approaching to carbon neutrality of carbon sources and sinks from carbon metabolism: Coal chemical case study

The response of industrial systems to carbon neutrality may derive from the carbon metabolism as well as the interrelationship between carbon sources and sinks and may lead to the change of structure and function of the system. In order to understand the response and adaptation to carbon neutrality, a framework of Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) combined with Eco-efficiency is proposed to assess the interaction among carbon sources and sinks and to measure the economic cost of the environmental impact of the new coal chemical in-dustrial system. The result shows that the indirect interaction and mutualism relationship of carbon sources and sinks can sequester carbon sources and improve carbon utilization efficiency. The external environment, coal gasification and low-temperature methanol washing are key carbon sources with high control degree should be modified with priority. Under the same output value, the energy consumption and carbon emission of coal-to -natural gas are relatively high, with the values of 349.48 GJ and 68.359 t CO2-eq, respectively. Coal-to-diesel and coal-to-ethylene glycol has higher sustainable level and their Eco-efficiency values of 12 and 0.07 are almost twice of the others. This study may provide theoretical support for low-carbon development and achieving carbon neutrality in the coal chemical industry.

Automated summary

This study proposes a framework of Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) combined with Eco-efficiency to assess the interaction among carbon sources and sinks and measure the economic cost of the environmental impact of the new coal chemical industrial system. The results show that the indirect interaction and mutualism relationship of carbon sources and sinks can improve carbon utilization efficiency. Coal gasification and low-temperature methanol washing are key carbon sources with high control degree that should be modified with priority.