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Emergy accounting on natural graphite and spherical graphite.

YANG Qing1,2, GENG Yong3*, SUN Lun4,5, LIU Zhe6, DONG Hui-juan3, YU Xiao-man7, LÜ Xiao-rong2,8#br#   

  1. (1 Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China; 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3 School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200240, China; 4 Department of Environment Systems, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwashi, Chiba 277-8563, Japan; 5 National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan; 6School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H4R2, Canada; 7 National Engineering Laboratory for High Efficiency Utilization of Soil and Fertilizer, College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China; 8 Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, China).
  • Online:2017-09-10 Published:2017-09-10

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Abstract: Currently, resource shortage is a global issue. The low resource prices have resulted in extensive consumption and overexploitation in order to meet with the demand of economic development. Firstly, this study applied emergy analysis to calculate the emergy values of natural graphite and spherical graphite. The results show that the emergy values were 1.73E+17 for natural graphite in 2015 and 2.18E+17 sej·t-1 for spherical graphite in 2010, respectively. According to the corresponding exchange rates between US dollar and RMB, the Emdollars of the natural graphite in 2015 and spherical graphite in 2010 were around 130000 and 160000 ￥·t-1, respectively. Meanwhile, their corresponding market prices were only 4500 and 14000-18000 ￥·t-1, respectively. This means that their market prices were far lower than their emergy values. In addition, the emergy values of ecosystem contribution, ecological loss, and damage to human health from spherical graphite production system were also evaluated in this paper. The results show that the emergy value of ecosystem contribution was 1.74E+13 sej·t-1, while the emergy value of ecosystem service loss was 2.06E+15 sej·t-1 (much larger than the former one), and the largest damage to human health was dust in this system. This study provides valuable suggestions for preparing appropriate prices of graphite products, normalizing graphite trade and ensuring that graphite industry is moving toward sustainable development.

Key words: fertilization management, organic fertilizer, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community, pyrosequencing, lime concretion black soil