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China’s industrial regions have been plagued by severe air pollution in recent decades and the situation has received worldwide attention thanks to photos of Beijing and other smog-blanketed Chinese cities. More than just an eyesore, China’s smog has created a public health crisis that has led the Chinese government to declare war on air pollution.\u00a0Air pollution contributes to cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and emphysema, among other illnesses and in China specifically, causes about 1.6 million people to die prematurely each year. This accounts for more than a quarter of annual deaths that can be attributed to air pollution.<\/p>\n
Driven by this public health emergency and a desire to rely on its large supplies of coal, China has plans to substantially expand its production of synthetic natural gas (SNG). Around 40 SNG plants have been approved or are currently under construction in the country. In addition, as part of the Paris climate agreements, China has committed to peaking its CO2<\/sub> emissions by 2030 or sooner.<\/p>\n SNG is a fuel derived from coal that is relatively free of conventional air pollutants. For China, this fuel source represents a trade-off. Using SNG instead of coal could improve air quality and public health by reducing illness and premature mortalities due to air pollution, but it would also markedly increase CO2<\/sub> emissions, because creating synthetic natural gas from coal produces more CO2 <\/sub>than burning the coal directly.<\/p>\n Given China\u2019s plans to produce SNG, the new study [1] examined possible ways for China to maximize improvements in air quality while minimizing the additional CO2<\/sub> emitted from the production and use of this fuel source. Yue Qin, a former participant of the Young Scientists Summer Program<\/a> (2016), along with Fabian Wagner and other colleagues at IIASA developed a sophisticated modeling approach to estimate both health outcomes and carbon emissions under various SNG-use scenarios.\u00a0Their goal was to determine whether the Chinese government might have options for optimizing deployment of SNG to minimize the climate penalty, while maximizing the health benefits of reduced air pollution.<\/p>\n The study examined the impact of switching from coal to SNG in three broad areas: electricity production, industry, and residential use. They found that switching to SNG in industry and electricity production would have little impact on smog-related deaths and cause a major increase in CO2 <\/sub>emissions. However, the results also showed that switching from coal to SNG for residential uses, such as heating and cooking, would substantially reduce deaths due to air pollution and increase emissions of\u00a0CO2<\/sub> to a lesser extent than the alternative.\u00a0The smaller environmental impact of using SNG in the residential sector results because residential coal combustion in small stoves is inherently inefficient and has uncontrolled emissions of air pollutants.\u00a0Coal combustion in the power and industrial sectors on the other hand, is more efficient and pollution control devices reduce emissions of health damaging air pollutants, thus reducing the benefits of switching to SNG.<\/p>\n
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