Jinglan Hong

Shandong University | SDU · School of Environmental Science and Engineering

The commitment to waste management has gained increasing momentum as global waste generation continues to skyrocket and threaten the environment. However, detailed assessments and clear insights remain absent to address the global waste utilization conundrum. This study evaluated the impact-oriented energy, carbon, and water (ECW) footprints of thr...

Water scarcity has been a critical constraint limiting China’s food security and sustainable development. Previous research mostly focused on water consumption and neglected the water quality constraints on water usability. This study conducts a life cycle assessment-based water availability footprint analysis and footprint transfer evaluation of t...

Ecosystems provide benefits to human well-being, but highly concentrated human activities also cause environmental pressure. Previous studies focused only on one aspect: either ecosystem services (ESs) or ecosystem damage (ED). To provide comprehensive view of ecosystem status in the selected study area, an integrated ecosystem performance analytic...

Lead and zinc are indispensable nonferrous metals in the current industrialized society because of their position as raw materials for various industrial products. However, the massive environmental burden imposed by the activities of the lead–zinc industry will trigger potential social impacts. This study systematically evaluated the environmental...

Chloromethanes (CMS), as major chlorine-consuming products and upstream raw material for emerging industries, play an irreplaceable role in the chemical industry and impose non-negligible environmental pressure during production. This study adopted the cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment approach to quantify the environmental performance of CMS pr...

The ecosystem currently suffers from water-, energy-, and food-scarcity as well as climate change caused by population growth and industrialization progress. To analyze these four challenges, the integrated consideration from environmental and economic perspectives are highly needed. This study constructed an environmental–economic coupled water, e...

Nickel is a critical metal for global low-carbon energy transition, but its production processes require massive energy inputs and emit large amounts of pollutants. This study constructed life cycle inventories of the mainstream electrolytic nickel production chains in China at the industrial level and subsequently evaluated their environmental per...

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a mild chemical synthetic oxidant, which has gained wide importance in industrial and research fields. However, systematic assessment of its environmental performance during H2O2 production is limited worldwide. In this regard, a life cycle assessment was conducted to quantify the environmental impacts of H2O2 produced b...

The high-value utilization of coke oven gas (COG) has been widely investigated because of abundant resource shortage and serious environmental pollution. Comparative environmental and economic analysis of various COG utilization routes (i.e., COG-to-methanol, COG-to-hydrogen, and COG-to-synthetic natural gas) in China was conducted to identify the...

The application potential and environmental benefits of ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems have become the focal points of decarbonization in the building sector. Synchronized and scientific analysis of GSHP systems' environmental and economic performance, however, remains lacking. This study analyzes the application prospects of GSHP systems v...

The Iron and Steel Industry (ISI) is a difficult-to-mitigate sector that has considerable contributions to energy consumption, water pollution, and CO2 emissions. Despite broad interest in energy consumption and CO2 emissions generated by steel production, there are few impact-oriented Water Footprint (WF) assessments of steel production. This stud...

Purpose Ground source heat pump (GSHP) utilizes shallow geothermal energy to meet the heating and cooling needs of buildings. It has drawn global attention owing to its environmental friendliness and high energy efficiency. China ranks second and first in terms of the installed capacity and energy use of GSHPs, respectively. This study aims to expl...

Developing a sustainable grain supply is essential, especially in China. However, most previous research adopted a static approach to assess the environmental impacts of grain production, and such an approach focuses only on the product supply chain. An integrated system dynamics and life cycle assessment model was employed in this study to estimat...

For the pressure of industrial activities on energy, carbon, and water, their sustainable management has been receiving increasing attention. This study conduct an impact-oriented environmental footprint assessment of one industrial activity (i.e., ceramic tile) under a life cycle assessment framework and energy-carbon-water nexus insight. Moreover...

The ammonia-synthesis industry has become a research hotspot, because its high energy consumption and CO2 emission exacerbate the current resource shortages and environmental pressures. However, the current research on life cycle assessment (LCA) of synthetic ammonia in China is limited. To fill gaps, this study analyzed the environmental performan...

Global water resources are under tremendous pressure influenced by population growth and economic development. Considering that the agricultural sector accounts for the largest consumption and that China is one of the major agricultural countries, this study conducted an impact-oriented water footprint analysis to quantify the environmental burdens...

With the increasing consumer demand and only 31% of the self-sufficiency rate, how to mitigate the supply safety of edible vegetable oil in an environmentally sustainable manner is a tremendous challenge for China. This study comprehensively qualified the potential environmental impact from the major edible vegetable oil production (i.e., soybean o...

Ambient air pollution is a global issue, which poses serious threat to humans and ecosystem. To address such a threat, air pollution damage needs be explored from the environmental and economic perspectives to achieve precise management aimed at the region and industry. Here, we analyze carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matters, and nitro...

As the largest consumer of rapeseed oil in the world, China should consider the environmental effect of rapeseed oil production. However, only a few improvement measures have been proposed. To fill this gap, this study analyzed the energy, carbon and water footprints of rapeseed oil production based on the International Organization for Standardiza...

Purpose In the booming electric vehicle market, the demand for refined cobalt is showing a blowout growth. China is the largest cobalt-refiner and cobalt-importer in the world. However, the life cycle inventory and potential environmental impact from cobalt refining in China have not been clearly illustrated. This paper builds a comprehensive inven...

Available water resource scarcity is a severe problem in China. Cotton production is coupled with substantial irrigation requirements and nutrient loss. Systematic analysis of water consumption and pollutant emissions in direct and indirect processes is a prerequisite to enhance the environmental performance of cotton production. This study conduct...

The irrational grain virtual water flow caused by spatial mismatch in water and available arable land threatens grain security in China. However, systematic and quantitative assessment of grain virtual water flow on environmental impacts has rarely been conducted. This study analyzes the flow patterns of China's interprovincial and international gr...

Increasingly stringent pollutant emission standards pose a new challenge to the control of air pollutants in China's iron and steel industry (ISI). This study quantified and compared the environmental and economic effects of three typical sintering flue gas ultra-low emission treatment technologies in China's ISI, namely, semi-dry flue gas desulfur...

Gold industry is essential for socioeconomic development while it brings water consumption and severe water pollution. There are few systematic evaluations of environmental impacts related to water generated by the whole life cycle of gold production. In this study, water availability and water degradation caused by gold refining are evaluated by u...

The agriculture sector is both a significant consumer of energy and water and a major source of environmental pollution and greenhouse gases. Soybean production ( Glycine max ) has experienced a fast growth and it is the fourth most widely cultivated crop, leading to serious environmental concerns. This study evaluates the energy, carbon, and water...

The growing demand for water, energy, and food caused by rapid population and economy growth, has posed severe challenges worldwide. Considering cereal is one of the vital foods and China is the principal cereal-producing country, this study selected cereal as the center and conducted energy and water footprint analysis of cereal production in Chin...

Concern toward air and water pollution is increasing worldwide due to their adverse impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Cities are the core of in policy design and implementation as they are basic administrative units. However, existing studies only conducted city-level carbon dioxide calculations at the inventory level and failed to reflect...

Geothermal energy is considerably encouraged by governments because it offers a low-carbon renewable option to satisfy the long-term heat demand. However, to date research on systematic and scientific evaluations of the environmental benefits of geothermal heating is limited. Therefore, compared with the traditional coal-fired heating system, the c...

Nowadays, agricultural production places an enormous burden on freshwater resources, and the environmental external cost caused by the restoration of water quality degradation has attracted great attention. Maize is regarded as one of the world's major food security crops, and China is the second-largest maize producer. Thus, this study conducts an...

Northern China suffers from serious air pollution especially in winter, much of which derives from solid fuel used for domestic heating in rural areas. In order to reduce pollution emissions in the heating season, the Chinese government has introduced a “coal-to-gas conversion” policy, promoting a switch to natural gas which is much cleaner than th...

Electrolytic manganese metal is widely used in various industrial fields, especially in the steel industry because of its characteristics. However, Electrolytic manganese metal production is one of the industries with high resource and energy consumption and substantial waste discharge. The study quantified the environmental performance of electrol...

Purpose Galvanized sheet is the most widely used coated steel plate globally in the industry of construction, automobile, electronics manufacturing, etc. Large amounts of resources and energy are used in galvanized sheet production, which likewise generates vast amounts of pollutant emissions. In the face of the rapid growth of the production and d...

The largest contributor to pollutant emissions is the sintering process in steel industry. Ultra-low emission policy for the Chinese steel industry states that emission concentrations of particulate matter, SO2 and NOx should not exceed 10, 35 and 50 mg/m³ respectively. The emission concentrations of the steel industry are the same as the ultra-low...

A large number of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are discarded daily after usage. Thus, plastic bottle recycling has elicited considerable attention in recent years. In this context, this study aims to quantify the environmental and economic impacts of blanket production from 100% recycled waste plastic bottles in China through a life cyc...

Continuous casting technology is extensively used in steel production. Refractory materials made from alumina–carbon (Al2O3–C) are integral to the continuous casting process to ensure high-quality steel product. However, the production of Al2O3–C refractory material itself is the source of a range of environmental problems. Life cycle assessment an...

Life cycle assessment of recycling rare earths from waste fluorescent powders was conducted, including the uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. Three scenarios were set in this study, namely, recycling with/without final disposal and waste fluorescent powders landfill. Recycling with final disposal presented lower environmental burden than that wi...

Purpose Ferronickel is irreplaceable in modern infrastructure construction because of its use in stainless steel production. This study explored the cost-combined environmental impacts of ferronickel production in China which is the largest producer and consumer of ferronickel in the world. Methods Life cycle impact assessment was combined with li...

Purpose A large portion of coal seam gas is directly wasted and emitted to the environment, especially China, which is the world’s largest global warming gas emitter and energy consumer. Such emissions place heavy pressure on the Chinese government to achieve its global carbon reduction goals. This study quantified the economic and environmental im...

Straw pulp in China, which is the world's largest producer of this material, suffers from water and energy shortages during its entire life cycle. However, limited systematic studies have focused on these issues, and decision makers need be provided with improvement methods for the environmental performance. Thus, an impact-oriented energy and carb...

With the rapid development of construction industry, consumption of concrete block has increased rapidly in China. As a kind of green building material and resource comprehensive utilization product, autoclaved aerated fly ash and concrete block have better performance in terms of heat preservation, sound insulation, and fire resistance. However, s...

Purpose China is currently facing water scarcity due to its large national population and rapid economic development. Lead is a typical non-ferrous metal. The lead industry is one of the top 10 water-consuming industries in China and suffers from the heavy burden of properly managing discharged wastewater containing heavy metals and organic polluta...

Water footprint (WF) is an indicator of the volume of freshwater resource consumption that incorporates direct and indirect water use. Global freshwater resources are prone to detriment due to water consumption in agriculture. Wheat production contributes considerably to the global water consumption burden. A life cycle assessment-based WF analysis...

As an important approach to recover solid waste, the recycling of waste polyester has drawn a growing level of public concern. This study aims to investigate the life cycle assessment and social cost of life cycle assessment of waste polyester recycling. The results show that the polyester recycling process itself has significant environmental impa...

Water consumption and pollution in wheat production, which are worth paying attention in agricultural countries and arid regions, need to be assessed systematically and comprehensively. China, one of the largest wheat-producing country in the world, should be concerned about this issue. Thus, an impact-oriented water footprint assessment of wheat p...

As an integral part of sponge city construction, permeable brick pavement can effectively alleviate the urban water issues such as urban waterlogging and groundwater resources shortage. The emergy accounting method is employed in this study to comprehensively evaluate the sustainable development capacity of the cement pavement and permeable brick p...

Systematic and scientific assessment of the key factors that lead to health and ecosystem burdens caused by combined water pollutants at a macro level remains lacking. This study aims thereby to determine the relationships among wastewater effluents, emissions, health and ecosystem impacts, national disease incidence, and economic burdens. A bottom...

Fertilizer application leads to energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, aiming to quantify the environmental impacts generated from brine-based potassium chloride fertilizer production, a life cycle assessment study was conducted. Additionally, uncertainty analysis based on Monte Carlo was conducted to improve the reli...

Although paper production demonstrates high energy and water sensitivity in their life cycles, only a few systematic analyses have focused on these issues. Therefore, an energy and carbon coupled water footprint analysis of five types of Kraft wood pulp-based paper (i.e., specialty-, art-, household-, light coated-, and tissue paper) is conducted i...

Purpose China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of refined and reclaimed copper because of the rapid economic and industrial development of this country. However, only a few studies have analyzed the environmental impact of China’s copper industry. The current study analyzes the life cycle environmental impact of copper production in Chi...

System fluctuations of eco-industrial symbiosis network (EISN) organization due to disturbance are very similar to the controller adjustment in the automatic control theory. Thus, a methodology is proposed in this study to assess the vulnerability of EISN based on the automatic control theory. The results show that the regulator plays a key role to...

China, as the world's largest crude steel producer, is suffering from water scarcity and pollution. However, only a few systematic analyses on the environmental burdens and improvements of China's crude steel production have been conducted. Therefore, it is important for research to be done how China's steel industry can be improved in environment...

To understand greenhouse gas (GHG) emission at the city level and establish effective measures to achieve carbon reduction, we conducted an inventory of GHG emission and its environmental and economic impacts on Jinan City by using a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) method. We quantified the GHG emission in Jinan in the past 11 years and evaluate...

Coal-to-olefin (CTO) projects, an energy strategy, are increasing in number in China but suffer from high consumption and pollution. In this study, a life cycle assessment is studied to determine whether oil field gas-assisted CTO systems have the potential to solve these problems. Oil-to-olefin is presented for comparison. Results showed that the...

Although water resource shortage is closely connected with coal-based electricity generation, relevant water footprint analyses remain limited. This study aims to address this limitation by conducting a water footprint analysis of coal-based electricity generation in China for the first time to inform decision-makers about how freshwater consumptio...

Gold production has significant environmental impacts on ecosystem and human health. China, as the largest gold production country in the world, deserves a special attention. This study assesses the environmental impacts of gold production in China by using life cycle assessment. Key factors contributing to the total environmental burden of gold pr...

Ceramic tiles are important building materials, but their production consumes large amounts of energy and raw materials and causes serious pollution. In this study, a cost combined life cycle assessment is conducted to quantify the environmental and economic impacts of ceramic tile production from cradle to gate and identify the key substances and...

The increasing antibiotic mycelial residues (AMRs) have brought significant threats to our ecosystems and public health. Aiming to quantify pollutants generated from AMRs management, evaluate corresponding environmental impacts, and identify the key factors related with AMRs management, a life cycle assessment approach was employed on analyzing AMR...

The environmental and economic impacts of three medical waste disposal scenarios (i.e., pyrolysis, steam sterilization, and chemical disinfection) were quantified via a cost-coupled life cycle assessment to quantify the effective technique for medical waste disposal. Results show that steam sterilization and chemical disinfection scenarios exhibit...

PurposeThe improper handling of industrial hazardous waste (IHW), which comprises large amounts of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, or irradiation substances, is a considerable threat to human health and the environment. This study aims to quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of IHW landfilling and incineration in China, to identify its key...

PurposeLead is one of the most commonly used metals in the past millennium because of its various properties. Moreover, lead is easy to extract and handle. However, the lead industry often encounters strong public opposition because of lead poisoning. This study analyzes the economic and environmental impacts of lead in China, which is the world’s...

It is critical to extend and broaden the eco-industrial chain (EIC) by introducing new projects so that the stability of EIC network can be enhanced. At present, there is lack of effective control for project selection to eco-industrial park (EIPs) in China. This has led to low compatibility level of enterprises with the overall EIC network. By int...

The life cycle of the environmental impact of recycling mercury (Hg)-containing waste was quantified via ReCiPe H method. Uncertainty analysis was conducted to determine the credibility of the study. Recycling 1 × 10⁴ tonnes Hg-containing waste with end-of-life disposal generated 0.63 CTUh, 62.33 CTUh, 3.47 × 10⁷ kg CO2 eq, and 5.44 × 10⁶ kg oil eq...

The heavy haze over China has recently become a persistent global environmental issue. Although the Chinese government has invested immense manpower, materials, and financial resources, efforts at controlling the said haze remain relatively ineffective. However, in the last few years, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions have been effectively controlled...

Life cycle assessment was carried out via ReCiPe H method to evaluate environmental impact of the hydrometallurgical zinc production chain in China. National statistical data and process-based life cycle inventory (LCI) were used to build a zinc production LCI at the macro level. To confirm the credibility of this study, an uncertainty analysis was...

A cost-combined life-cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental and economic burdens of a low impact development best management practice (LID-BMP) treatment train system in China. Results showed that climate change, human toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity and fossil depletion dominantly...

The life cycle assessment of tungsten carbide powder production was conducted in this study using the updated ReCiPe method with the consideration of China’s environmental, geographic, and exposed situation. Uncertainty analysis was applied based on Monte-Carlo simulation to evaluate the variation range of the results. The environmental burdens wer...