Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977

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Resources, Conservation and Recycling

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Energy-related GHG emissions of the textile industry in China

Beijia Huang a,b, , Juan Zhao a , Yong Geng c , Yihui Tian d , Ping Jiang e
a
College of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
b
Department of Environment and Low Carbon Science, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
c
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240,China
d
Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
e
Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As the sixth largest energy consuming industry sector in China, the textile industry is encountering great
Received 21 February 2016 challenges in reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Considering the existing studies have the limita-
Received in revised form 16 May 2016 tion of lacking updated data and include limited energy sources, this study will conduct a comprehensive
Accepted 17 June 2016
analysis of the GHG emissions in Chinas textile industry and analyze the emission characteristics. The
Available online 2 July 2016
results show that coal consumption is the main source of GHG emissions in Chinas textile industry. The
second largest GHG emission source is electricity consumption, which is primarily from the Eastern China,
Keywords:
Central China and Northern China Power Grids. A driving force factor analysis reveals that the order of
Textile industry
Greenhouse gas
intensity for the driving forces is the production scale, the energy intensity, the energy structure and the
Energy saving emission factors. In particular, the increasing scale of production is the main factor driving increasing
Scenario analysis GHG emissions; however, energy intensity reduction and energy structure optimization can effectively
reduce GHG emissions. This study also summarizes the main energy saving measures being used by the
textile industry in China. The measures used in the spinning, weaving and wetting processes are found
to have high energy saving potential and a short payback period. Scenario analysis indicates that under
the optimal technology application scenario, GHG emissions would be 34.3% less than emissions under
the baseline scenario in 2030. Furthermore, GHG emissions per unit output value would be 0.18 t/million
RMB, which approaches the advanced international level of 0.14 t/million RMB. Corresponding polices for
reducing GHG emission in the textile industry need to be considered based on the implications indicated
in this study.
2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction mately 56.3% of global production. The textile industry is also a

With the growing demand for textile products, global textile
production has increased rapidly in recent years. According to WTO
statistics, global textile production was approximately 140.84 mil-
lion tons in 2012, an increase of 25.7% compared with 2008 (Zhu
and Zhu, 2012). It is expected that global textile production will
continue to grow at a rate of approximately 6.5% in the near future
(Xu and Jiang, 2009). The textile industry is one of Chinas tra-
ditional pillar industries and has maintained rapid growth after
Chinas reform and opening. China is currently the worlds largest
textile production country (Chen and Fu, 2011), with total textile
production of 79.29 million tons in 2012, representing approxi-
Corresponding author at: College of Environment and Architecture, University
of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China.
E-mail address: ywhbjia@163.com (B. Huang).
high energy consumption sector in China, after the ferrous metal
smelting industry, the chemical manufacturing industry, the non-
metallic mineral manufacturing industry, the hydroelectric power
industry, the mining industry, petroleum processing and the cok-
ing industry. The twelfth ve-year GHG emission control program
issued by the State Council emphasizes GHG emission reduction in
the textile industry (Wang and Xu, 2011). Thus, it is highly neces-
sary to analyze the GHG emissions of the textile industry and to
seek potential energy saving measures.
There are a number of related studies concerning GHG emissions
in the textile industry, particularly focusing on specic products
and production processes. In terms of GHG emission accounting,
certain large cloth production companies such as Levi Strauss Co.
and Continental Clothing Co. have calculated the life cycle car-
bon footprint of shirts, jackets, T-shirts and other clothing styles
(Mahler et al., 2012; Norbert, 2009). Li et al. (2011) measured the
life cycle carbon footprint of black cotton products and indicated

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.06.013
0921-3449/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
70 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977
that the proportion of carbon emission raw materials is the highest
(64.54%), the carbon emissions resulted from wastewater discharge
and energy consumption account for 34.33%. Germanys Systain
International Environmental Consulting Firm calculated the life
cycle GHG emissions of three types of clothing for Germanys Otto
Group (BASF, 2009). Researchers have conducted inuence factor
analysis for GHG emissions in the textile industry. For instance,
Wang et al. (2011) established a factorization model of Chinas tex-
tile industry using the LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Division Index)
method. His results show that the expansion in industrial scale was
the main reason for the increase in GHG emissions from the textile
industry. Zhao (2012) analyzed the carbon footprint of the textile
supply chain and declared that electricity consumption and ther-
mal energy consumption are the main sources of GHG emissions.
Regarding the research on GHG emission reduction measures for
the textile industry, Li et al. (2013) mainly discussed the accounting
boundary setting methodology for the carbon footprint calculation.
Yao (2014) explored calculation methods for the carbon footprint
of cotton ber based on Publicly Available Specication (PAS) 2050
and proposed carbon emission reduction measures for textile pro-
duction at the raw materials stage. Zabaniotou and Andreou (2010)
analyzed energy consumption in the cotton ginning process of
Greek National textile and discussed the feasibility of applying
alternative energy options in the ginning process. Hong et al. (2010)
conducted an investigation regarding textile enterprises energy
consumption efciency, energy consumption structure and uti-
lization in Taiwan and proposed several energy saving strategies.
Bevilacqua et al. (2010) calculated the carbon footprint of a Merino
wool sweater based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) theory
and indicated that strengthening industry clusters could effec-
tively reduce the carbon footprint of textile products caused by
transportation. Ma and Lu (2015) estimated the factors inuencing
carbon emissions of the textile and garment industry and found the
main inuencing factor is the GDP of the textile industry and the
energy consumption per unit of GDP. M.H. Wang et al. (2015) and
Z.Z. Wang et al. (2015) calculated the CO2 emission of Chinas tex-
tile industrial. His results show that the carbon intensity of Chinas
textile industry is decreasing.
The literature review nds that there are several related stud-
ies concerning the carbon footprint calculation and GHG emission
reduction for the textile industry; however, most of them targeted
specic textile products or typical enterprises. Few studies have
been conducted to investigate the GHG emissions of the Chinas
textile industry. The only three studies calculating the GHG emis-
sion in Chinas textile industry (M.H. Wang et al., 2015; Z.Z. Wang
et al., 2015; Wang and Wu, 2011) have the limitation of lacking
updated data, and consider limited energy sources. In order to over-
come these research gaps, this study will conduct a comprehensive
analysis of the GHG emissions in Chinas textile industry and ana-
lyze its emission characteristics. Emission predictions will also be
conducted to foresee the GHG emission under an optimal technol-
ogy scenario in the near future. Suggestions for reducing the GHG
emissions of Chinas textile industry will be proposed based upon
our ndings.
2. Methodology
To calculate GHG emissions for the textile industry, it is criti-
cal to rst establish a dened boundary. The boundary denition
in our study refers to The Greenhouse Gas Protocol A Corpo-
rate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Bhatia and Ranganathan,
2004). In this report, GHG emissions are divided into direct emis-
sions and indirect emissions. Direct GHG emissions are from
sources owned or controlled by textile industry companies, termed
Scope 1 (see Table 1). The energy-related GHG emission sources and
the non-energy related GHG emissions of Scope 1 are emissions in
the industrial process caused by chemical reaction, such as nitrous
oxide (N2 O), methane (CH4 ) from the chemical treatment of chem-
ical products, and wastewater treatment. Because the non-energy
related GHG emissions contribute less than 1% of the total GHG
emissions, they are not included in our study (Tong et al., 2012).
Indirect GHG emissions are caused by company activities but
occur from sources owned or controlled by other companies in
the textile industry. Indirect emissions can be further divided into
Scope 2 and Scope 3. Scope 2 emissions are emissions from the
generation of purchased electricity, heat, steam and other energy
consumption. Scope 3 emissions are a consequence of textile indus-
try activities but occur from sources not owned or controlled by
textile industry companies (refer to Table 1). Because scope 3
carbon emission behavior is very different and the energy con-
sumption proportion is limited, our research solely considers the
energy-related GHG emissions of scope 1 and scope 2. Furthermore,
because of statistical data limitations, the indirect energy-related
GHG emissions of scope 2 solely include GHG emissions from pur-
chased electricity.
2.1. GHG emission calculation
2.1.1. Direct GHG emissions
The energy-related GHG emissions of the textile industry can
be estimated by referring to the IPCC national GHG inventory
guidelines(Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2006)
and the GHG protocol tool for energy consumption in China (Song
and Yang, 2011). Although the textile industrys energy-related
GHG emissions are generated in various chemical processes, the
carbon content of different fuels and materials are very different.
Therefore, the three types of GHG emissions, including carbon diox-
ide (CO2 ), methane (CH4 ) and nitrous oxide (N2 O), are investigated
by converting them into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2 e). The
carbon footprint of the textile industry is indicated by its global
warming potential (GWP), which means the global warming effect
from a per unit mass of certain GHG emissions in a xed period
(Reisinger et al., 2011). The total direct energy-related GHG emis-
sions within the textile industrys boundary are estimated based
upon energy consumption and emission factors (EF) (Tian et al.,
2013; Yue et al., 2015). The following equation presents the calcu-
lation method:
Ctotal-direct = Ei EFi Oi (1)
i
Where Ctotal-direct represents the total direct energy-related GHG
emissions (in million tons, t), subscript i represents energy fuel type
i; Ei represents the energy consumption (in million tons, t) of fuel
type i; EFi represents the Emission Factors (EF) of fuel type i; and
Oi represents the oxidation rate of fuel type i. According to China
Statistics Yearbook (NBS, 2015) and China Energy Statistics Year-
book (NBS, 20012015), there are eight types of energy resources
for the textile industry: coal, coke, crude oil, gasoline, kerosene,
diesel oil, fuel oil and natural gas. Their emission factors are shown
in Table 2 (Tian et al., 2013).
2.1.2. Indirect GHG emission
Indirect energy-related GHG emissions in Chinas textile indus-
try mainly originate from electricity consumption. Because of
different technology levels and energy structure mixes in different
periods and regions, the emission factors for electricity generation
change signicantly over time and across regions. In this study,
total energy-related GHG emissions are calculated by applying the
following equation:
Celectricity = EFke Pe Psk /Pstotal (2)
 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977 71

Table 1
Boundary denition and examples of energy-related GHG emissions.

Emission type Scope Denition Example

Direct Emissions Scope 1 Direct GHG emissions that occur from Emissions from combustion in owned
sources that are owned or controlled or controlled boilers, furnaces,
by companies within the textile vehicles, etc.; emissions from chemical
industry production in owned or controlled
process equipment
Indirect Emissions Scope 2 GHG emissions from the generation of Emissions occur at the facility where
purchased electricity, heat, steam, etc., purchased electricity, heat and steam
consumed by these companies are generated
Scope 3 Emissions as a consequence of the Emissions from the extraction and
activities of the textile industry but production of purchased materials;
occurring from sources not owned or transportation of purchased fuels; and
controlled by these companies use of sold products and services

Sources: The Greenhouse Gas ProtocolA Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Bhatia and Ranganathan, 2004)

Table 2
GHG emission factor of different energy sources.

Oxidation rate (%) EF (ton CO2 /ton) EF (g CH4 /ton) EF (g NO2 /ton) GHG EF (ton
CO2 e/ton)

Coal 100 2.01 209.8 31.36 2.02

Coke 100 3.04 284.35 42.65 3.06
Crude oil 100 3.07 125.45 25.09 3.08
Gasoline 100 2.99 129.21 25.84 3.00
Kerosene 100 3.10 129.21 25.84 3.11
Diesel oil 100 3.16 127.96 25.59 3.17
Fuel oil 100 3.24 125.45 25.09 3.25
Natural gas 100 21.8 389.3 38.9 21.86

Sources: GHG Protocol Tool for Energy Consumption in China (Song and Yang, 2011).

Where CElectricity represents the energy-related GHG emissions of ing force factor decomposition of energy-related GHG emissions
electricity consumption and k represents the region that receives for Chinas textile industry is provided as the following equation:
power supply from the state power grid. EFke represents the emis-   C
i Ei E
sion factor of GHG emissions from electricity generation, Pe denotes C= Ci = ( P) (3)
electricity power consumption in the textile industry, Psk denotes Ei E P
i i
the yield of textile products in region k and Pstotal denotes the total
yield of textile products in China. where C represents total energy-related carbon emissions; Ci rep-
Currently, there are six state power grids in China: the Northern resents carbon emissions from fuel i; E represents total energy
China Power Grid, the Northeast China Power Grid, the Northwest consumption; Ei represents the consumption of energy source i;
China Power Grid, the Central China Power Grid, the Eastern China P represents the consumption volume of textile products; Fi = Ci /Ei
Power Grid, and the Southern China Power Grid (Ma, 2012). The is the mean GHG emissions factor of energy source i, Si = Ei /E is the
state grid electricity emission factors refer to the GHG protocol tool share of energy source i in total energy consumption; and B = E/P is
for energy consumption in China (Song et al., 2013) and are listed the energy consumption per unit of textile products. Because the
in Table 3. textile industry mainly adopts electricity and coal as energy sources
The textile industrys electricity consumption can be collected in China, the driving force analysis involves carbon emissions from
from China Statistics Yearbook (NBS, 2015). The production quan- electricity and coal.
tity of textile products in the six power grid regions can be collected According to the LMDI method, the result of factor decomposi-
from Textile Industry Development Report (20002013) (NBS, tion can be expressed as follows:
2014).
C = C r C0 = C F + C S + C B + C P (4)

   
 Fi,r
CF L Ci,0 Ci,r ln , emission factor effect
2.2. Driving force factor analysis Fi,0
i

To further identify the key factors that inuence energy

   
consumption-related GHG emissions in Chinas textile industry  Si,r
CS L Ci,0 Ci,r ln , energy structure effect
and determine the relationship between the change in various Si,0
i
factors and the corresponding changes in GHG emission, a factor
decomposition analysis is employed (Guo, 2010; Wang et al., 2013).
This paper established the factor decomposition formula for the    B 
r
CB L Ci,0 Ci,r ln , energy intensity effect
energy consumption and related GHG emissions in Chinas textile B0
industry based on the Logarithmic mean division index method i

(LMDI). According to factor decomposition method theory, factors

inuencing energy-related GHG emissions include the following:    P 
r
production scale, energy structure, energy intensity, and energy CP L Ci,0 Ci,r ln , production scale effect
P0
GHG emissions (H.B. Sun, 2011; W.Q. Sun, 2011). Thus, the driv- i
72 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977

Table 3
GHG electricity emission factors for different power grid regions.

Region CO2 EF (ton CO2 /kwh) EF (g/kwh) EF (g/kwh) EF (ton CO2 /kwh)

2007 2009 2011 2007 2009 2011 2007 2009 2011 2007 2009 2011

Northeast China 1.14 1.11 1.14 12.53 12.24 11.85 17.50 16.98 17.35 1.14 1.11 1.14
Northwest China 0.86 0.82 0.81 9.28 8.81 8.65 13.36 12.72 12.69 0.87 0.82 0.82
Central China 0.76 0.65 0.70 8.30 7.08 7.23 11.86 9.90 10.45 0.77 0.65 0.71
Northern China 1.07 1.06 1.13 11.71 11.74 11.69 16.45 16.08 16.92 1.07 1.06 1.13
Eastern China 0.84 0.80 0.78 9.38 8.88 8.51 12.69 12.09 11.99 0.84 0.81 0.79
Southern China 0.74 0.67 0.67 8.83 7.59 7.18 11.08 10.00 10.04 0.74 0.67 0.67

Sources: Getting every ton of emissions right: An analysis of emission factors for purchased electricity in China (Song et al., 2013).

3.1.2. Indirect emissions

Ci,0 Ci,r
   , Ci,0 =/ Ci,r

L Ci,0 , Ci,r ln Ci,0 /Ci,r
Ci,0 , Ci,0 = Ci,r
where i represents the energy consumption type (coal/electricity);
r represents time of year, and 0 denotes the baseline year; and
C represents carbon emission change. CF represents the emis-
sion factor effect, CS represents the energy structure effect, CB
represents the energy intensity effect, and CP represents the pro-
duction scale effect. Fi,r represents the emission factor of energy i in
year r; Fi,0 represents the emission factor of energy i in the baseline
year; Ci,0 represents the carbon emissions of energy i in the base-
line year; Ci,r represents the carbon emissions of energy i in year
r; Si,r represents the consumption percentage of energy I from the
total energy consumption in year r; Si,0 represents the consump-
tion percentage of energy i from the total energy consumption in
the baseline year; Br represents the energy consumption per unit
textile product in year r; B0 represents the energy consumption
per unit textile product in the baseline year; Pr represents the con-
sumption volume of textile products in year r; and P0 represents
the consumption volume of textile products in the baseline year.
3. Results
3.1. GHG emissions
3.1.1. Total emissions
Fig. 1 shows the textile production quantity and GHG emis-
sions from Chinas textile industry during the period from 2000
to 2011. As shown, the production amount continually increased
from 2001 to 2011. However, yield stagnation appeared in 2008;
this is likely due to the structural adjustment of the textile indus-
try resulting from export restrictions from 2006 to 2007 (H.B. Sun,
2011; W.Q. Sun, 2011). In addition, textile production was inu-
enced by the global nancial crisis in 2008 (Zhang and Chen, 2011),
and the growth rate rebounded in 2009. Regarding the energy con-
sumption proportion, the results indicate that coal is the main
source of GHG emissions in Chinas textile industry, representing
approximately 80% of total emissions. The proportion of electricity
consumption was very low before 2006; however, the electricity
consumption rate has increased rapidly since then. Regarding total
GHG emissions, we nd that GHG emissions continued increasing
from 2001 to 2007 and have shown an obvious decreasing trend
since 2008. This observation is partly because of the stagnation
of textile production around 2008, and the increasing consump-
tion of electricity. Furthermore, energy conservation in the textile
industry has been promoted by the Chinese government since 2008
(Zhang, 2009; Zou, 2014). The production utilization rate has sig-
nicantly improved due to energy saving technology applications
such as waste heat recovery and energy saving control systems
(Energy Conservation Advanced Application Technology Guide in
Textile Industry, 2012) (UNIDO, 2012).
The GHG emissions from electricity consumption show a large
(5) difference in the six power grid regions of China. Fig. 2 shows the
indirect GHG emissions from electricity consumption in different
power grid areas in 2007, 2009 and 2011. As shown, the GHG
emissions from electricity consumption are primarily from the
Eastern China Power Grid, the Central China Power Grid and the
Northern China Power Grid. The GHG emissions from electric-
ity consumption from the Eastern China Power Grid represent
approximately 51% of the total GHG emissions. However, the
GHG emissions in the northwest, the Northeast, and southern
regions are very low and on a declining trend. The difference in
GHG emissions in power grid regions is directly related to the
textile industry distribution. Currently, the textile industry is
mainly distributed in East China, Central China, and North China.
Provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Anhui and Shandong
are highly centralized. In contrast, the textile industry is barely
distributed in Northwest, Northeast and Southern China (Gao,
2010; M.H. Wang et al., 2015; Z.Z. Wang et al., 2015).
To mitigate GHG emissions from electricity consumption in
Chinas textile industry, the GHG emission factors of each power
grid is supposed to be reduced (Gao, 2010; Cao, 2012). Currently,
the GHG emission factor in China is high because electricity
depends largely on coal consumption. According to annual oper-
ation report from each power grids (Annual operation report
from China Power Grid, 2014), more than 80% of the electricity in
Northern China power grid, East China power grid and Northeast
China power grid are from coal combustion, and the reliance rate
of coal in the other three power grids is around 60%. Less than 10%
of the electricity is from renewable energies (Fig. 3). If the means
of electricity generation can be transferred from coal combustion
to nuclear power and renewable energy, the GHG emission factor
can be expected to be reduced. Another option is to transfer the
textile industry to areas that depend on cleaner energy resources
such as the Northwest Power Grid which has higher reliance rate
of wind and nuclear power. A third option is to improve power
consumption efciency to ensure that the electricity consumption
per textile yield can be reduced and consequently reduce the GHG
emissions (ISO 14067, 2010).
3.1.3. GHG emission ows
To clearly present the GHG emission ow of the textile indus-
try, the ow chart method is applied in our study. he three main
energy consumption processes are spinning, weaving and wetting
(Hasanbeigi, 2010), and Energy Conservation Advanced Applica-
tion Technology Guide in the Textile Industry revealed that the
energy consumption rate of these three processes is 22%, 20% and
58%, respectively (Bai, 2012). Thus, the GHG emissions of the three
processes can be estimated as approximately 1332 million tons,
1211 million tons and 3512 million tons, respectively. Furthermore,
according to the division method in Chinas National Bureau of
Statistics (NSBC), the textile industrys downstream industries are
clothing, cotton textiles, wool textiles, ramie textiles, silk, knitwear,
 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977 73

9000 8000

8000 7000 Electricity

million ton
7000

million tons
6000 Natural gas
6000 Fuel oil
5000
5000 Diesel oil
4000

Texle producon
4000
GHG emission
Kerosene
3000
3000 Gasoline
2000 Coke
2000
1000 Coal
1000
Textile production
0 0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Fig. 1. Textile production and GHG emission (20002011).

Fig. 2. Indirect GHG emissions of textile industry in China.

textile exports and others (Lu, 2013). The GHG emissions of differ-
ent textile products are estimated based on the proportion of their
production quantity. Fig. 4 shows the nal result of the GHG emis-
sion ow. The width of each line indicates the quantity of the GHG
emissions.
As shown in Fig. 4, the wetting process generates the most GHG
emissions in the production process. Regarding the downstream
products, clothing and cotton textiles carry the most GHG emis-
sions in Chinas textile industry. With the appearance of new textile
products, such as new types of bers and functional textile mate-
rials, Chinas textile production is expected to maintain a growth
trend in the near future (Bai, 2012). Regarding the nal step of the
textile industry chain, recycling, our analysis nds that there is lim-
ited recycling activities in the textile industry in China. Luo et al.
(2013) reveals that there are more than 2400 million tons of waste
textiles each year in China, while the recycling rate is less than 30%.
Among which the majority is hidden salvaged for use again, and
very limited proportion of textile is really recycled through repro-
duction technologies. When looking at the countries with active
textile recycling action such as USA, Germany and Japan, the tex-
tile recycling system is operating more mature. For instance, the
Council for Textile Recycling in US is devoted to creating aware-
74 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977

100.00%
90.00% Coal power
80.00%
Water power
70.00%
60.00% New clear power
50.00%
40.00% Renewable energy
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
East China Central North China Northeast Northwest Southern
power grid China power grid power grid power grid power grid
power grid

Fig. 3. Electricity source of Chinas electricity.

Fig. 4. GHG emission ows of Chinas textile industry in 2011.

ness about keeping clothing, footwear and textile out of landlls 1500
(Council for Textile Recycling, 2014) (http://weardonaterecycle.
org/index.html). 1000
CO2 million tons

3.2. Driving force factors
According to the method introduced in section 2.2, the driving
force factors of GHG emissions for Chinas textile industry dur-
ing the 20062011 period is analyzed based on data including
the annual yield of Chinas textile industry, the energy structure,
the energy consumption quantity and GHG emission factors. The
results are shown in Fig. 5:
The result shows that the order of intensity for the driving forces
is the production scale effect CP , the energy intensity effect CB ,
the energy structure effect CS , and the emission factor effect CF .
The production scale effect CP has the most obvious positive effect
on carbon emissions; the energy intensity effect CB has a nega-
tive inuence effect. In comparison, the inuence of the emission
factor effect CF is very small because the GHG emission factors of
different energy sources are xed data. For instance, from 2010 to
2011, the production scale effect CP contributed 611.2% to GHG
emissions, the contribution rate of energy intensity effect CB was
215.9%, and the energy structure effect CS and the emission fac-
tor effect CF contributed 214.3% and 80.7%, respectively. As
shown in Fig. 5, the GHG emissions continued decreasing in most
years, excluding 20092010. The main cause of the GHG emission
500 C_P
C_S
0 C_F
2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011
C_B
-500 C_
-1000
-1500
Fig. 5. Decomposition results of GHG emission factors of Chinas textile industry
(20062011).
increase may be caused by the change of energy structure. If we
trace to Fig. 1, we can easily nd that the energy consumption quan-
tity of fuel oil and gasoline decreased from 2009 to 2010, while the
consumption rate of coal is increased.
Considering that textile production is expected to show an
increasing trend in the near future, the production scale is unlikely
to be contained. Instead, effective energy saving measures should
be promoted for increasing the energy intensity. Meanwhile, appli-
 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977
70%
60%
Emission reduction potential
50%
percentage
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Spinning Weaving Wetting
Fig. 6. Energy-saving of GHG reduction measures during the textile production
process.
cation of cleaner energy need to be encouraged both for direct
and indirect GHG emission energy sources in order to optimize the
energy structure.
4. Emission reduction predictions
4.1. Energy saving measures
The driving force factor analysis shows that reducing energy
intensity is one of the essential means to reducing GHG emissions
for the textile industry. Thus, it is necessary to nd the energy sav-
ing potential in the process and improve energy efciency (Ozturk,
2005; Kong et al., 2015). Based on research ndings from Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (Hasanbeigi, 2010), the main energy
saving measures and their payback period in the spinning, weaving,
and wetting processes are summarized in The emission reduction
potential of these energy saving measures is illustrated in Fig. 6.
The uctuation range is the extent of the general emission reduc-
tion potential, and the middle dot represents the average emission
reduction potential for a specic energy saving measure.
As shown, the energy saving measures with the highest poten-
tial are installing energy saving control systems in humidifying
systems, replacing mercury lamps with high pressure sodium
lamps and applying counter-current washing. The payback period
for the primary energy saving measures is close to within 3
years. Currently, certain energy saving measures such as speed
motor drives, heat recycling from ues and hot washing water
are frequently practiced in Chinas textile industry. However, most
measures listed in Table 3 have not yet been widely applied (Li et al.,
2011; Chou, 2014).
4.2. Scenario analysis
To estimate the potential energy savings and GHG emissions for
Chinas textile industry, two scenarios are designed in our study.
Due to data availability, the year 2012 was chosen as the baseline,
whereas the year 2030 was chosen as the nal year for scenario
analysis because Chinas economic development will reach a rel-
atively steady phase by then (Jiang and Hu, 2007; Juntueng et al.,
2014). A designed business-as-usual (BAU) scenario assumes that
energy consumption per unit output value will maintain the 2012
level. The optimal technology application scenario (OTA) assumes
that all of the technologies in Table 4 will be applied with the high-
est energy saving potential indicated in Fig. 5. Furthermore, the
energy saving technologies will have a high popularization rate in
the future.
For the BAU scenario, (1) the average growth rate of Chinas
textile production from 2000 to 2012 is approximately 10%. If
this growth rate is maintained, it can be predicted that the pro-
75
90000
80000
GHG emission(104tCO2e)
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
2015 2020 2025 2030
Business as usual scenario
Optimal technology application scenario
Fig. 7. Comparison of emission reduction between BAU scenario and OTA scenario.
duction quantity will be 9989.12 million tons, 16087.57 million
tons, 25909.19 million tons and 41727.01 million tons in 2015,
2020, 2025 and 2030, respectively. The corresponding output val-
ues in 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030 will be 7.3 108 million RMB,
1.2 109 million RMB,1.9 109 million RMB and 3.0 109 million
RMB, respectively. (2) The energy consumption per unit of output
value was 0.11 tce/million RMB in 2012, and we assume that the
energy consumption per unit output value will maintain its current
level through 2030. (3) Based on the previous two assumptions, the
GHG emissions under the BAU scenario in 2015, 2020, 2025 and
2030 can be calculated (refer to Table 4). For the OTA scenario, (1)
according to the National Key Energy-saving Technology Extension
Directory (2013) and China National Textile And Apparel Council
(2015), the extension rate of energy saving technologies in the tex-
tile industry in China is approximately 30% in 2015, assuming that
the application rate will rise to 45%, 65%, and 90% in 2020, 2025,
and 2030, respectively. (2) Referring to the Energy Saving Tech-
nology Guide for the Textile Industry energy consumption rate for
the spinning, weaving and wetting process is 22%, 20%, and 58%,
respectively. The original energy consumption for each technology
is further established as equal in each process. Furthermore, assume
that the energy saving potential of all of the technologies achieves
the highest level as indicated in Fig. 5. (3) Based on the previous
two assumptions, the energy savings for each technology can be
calculated. The results of the GHG emissions for 2015, 2020, 2025
and 2030 under the OTA scenario are shown in Table 5.
The comparison of GHG emissions under the two scenarios is
shown in Fig. 7:
Results show that GHG emissions are 82402.07 million tons in
2030 under the BAU scenario. GHG emissions under the OTA sce-
nario are 54160.87 million tons, 34.3% less than the GHG emissions
under the BAU scenario. From the perspective of GHG emissions per
unit output value, the quantity in 2030 under the OTA scenario will
be 0.18 t/million RMB, which nearly approaches the international
advanced level of 0.14 t/million RMB (Chen and Fu, 2011).
5. Conclusions and recommendations
The textile industry is one of Chinas traditional pillar indus-
tries and has maintained rapid growth after Chinas reform and
opening. Consequently, a detailed analysis on Chinese textile indus-
try is necessary so that the energy related GHG emission features
can be uncovered. After the GHG emissions calculation, the driving
force analysis and emission reduction scenario analysis, the main
conclusions are provided as follows. Corresponding GHG emission
reduction recommendations are also presented.
(1) Coal consumption is the main source of GHG emissions in
Chinas textile industry, representing 80% of the total GHG from
76 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977

Table 4
Energy saving measures in the production process.

Processes Energy saving measures Code Emission reduction potential Payback Period (Year)

Spinning Energy-efcient Spindle Oil A1 3%7%

Energy-efcient Control System for Humidication System A2 25%60% 23.5
Speed Motor Drives A3 7%60% <3
Optimum Air Compression System A4 1%3% 2.4
Heat Recovery from Flues and Hot Washing A5 2%3% <1

Weaving Strengthen Process Equipment Maintenance B1 2%30% <1

Speed Pump System Drives B2 20%50% 0.82.8
Multiple Pumps for Varying Loads B3 10%50% <1
Steam System Insulation Improvement B4 6%26% 0.3
Replace Mercury Lights with Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium Lights B5 50%60% 0.08

Wetting Counter-ow Current for Washing C1 41%62%

Mechanical De-watering or Contact Drying Before Stentering C4 13%50% 1.6
Use of Mixed Drying System C3 25%40% 0.20.3
Reduce Re-processing in Dyeing C2 10%12%
Speed Pump System Drives C5 14%49% <3

Sources: summarized from Energy-Efciency Improvement Opportunities for the Textile Industry (Hasanbeigi, 2010).

Table 5
GHG emissions of BAU and OTA scenarios.

2015 2020 2025 2030

Output valuem (million RMB) 7.30 106 1.20 107 1.90 107 3.00 107
GHG emissions under BAU scenario (million tons) 19726.40 31769.56 51165.19 82402.07
OTA Extension rate of energy saving technologies (%) 30 45 65 90
Sce- GHG reduction (million tons) 5260.44 13283.22 12664.57 28241.20
nario GHG emissions under nBT scenario (million tons) 14465.96 18486.34 38500.62 54160.87

primary energy resources. The second largest GHG emission
source is electricity consumption. The proportion of electric-
ity consumption by Chinas textile industry has obviously
increased since 2006. The textile industrys three largest elec-
tricity GHG emission sources are the Eastern China Power Grid,
the Central China Power Grid and the Northern China Power
Grid; of these, the Eastern China Power Grid has the high-
est proportion at 51%. Currently, the GHG emission factor in
Chinas Power Grids is high because electricity depends largely
on coal consumption. If the source of electricity power can be
transferred from coal to cleaner energy such as water power,
nuclear power and renewable energy, the GHG emission factor
can be expected to be reduced. Because the GHG emission cal-
culation in our analysis covers relatively comprehensive energy
sources, the CO2 emission is higher than that the results in other
researches such as Ma et al. (2011), M.H. Wang et al. (2015) and
Z.Z. Wang et al. (2015).
(2) A GHG emission ow analysis reveals that there are three main
energy consumption processes, namely spinning, weaving and
wetting. Clothing, cotton textiles and textile exports are found
to be the primary downstream items that are allocated high
GHG emissions. It is expected that with the increasing demand
for new types of textile products such as new bers and func-
tional textile materials, Chinas textile production will maintain
a high growth rate. We also found that textile recycling barely
exists in China currently. Considering textile have high reused
potential, recycling should be encouraged through legislation
establishment and market supporting in order to promote GHG
emission reduction.
(3) The driving force factor analysis reveals that the order of inten-
sity for the driving forces is the production scale, the energy
intensity, the energy structure and the emission factors. Effec-
tive energy saving measures should be promoted for increasing
the energy intensity. Meanwhile, application of cleaner energy
need to be encouraged both for direct and indirect GHG emis-
sion energy sources in order to optimize the energy structure.
(4) Analysis of the emission predictions nds that there is high
energy saving potential in the spinning, weaving and wetting
processes, and the payback period of the primary energy sav-
ing measures is within nearly 3 years. Our scenario analysis
reveals that if the extension rate of the energy saving mea-
sures in Table 3 can attain 90% in 2030, the GHG emissions will
be 34.3% less than the GHG emissions under the baseline sce-
nario. Furthermore, the GHG emissions per unit output value
in 2030 under the optimal technology application scenario is
0.18 t/million RMB, which nearly approaches the international
advanced level of 0.14 t/million RMB. While, the GHG emission
in the future will depend on the real popularization condition
of the energy saving technologies.
The analysis of the GHG emission characteristics and the discus-
sion of the energy saving scenarios instruct blueprint for reducing
GHG emission in Chinas textile industry. Corresponding polices
for the textile industry need to be considered based on the implica-
tions from this study. However, one limitation of this study is that
the GHG emission resulting from the manufacturing technologies
have not yet been considered. More comprehensive GHG emission
for the textile industry need to be carried out when GHG emission
factors during the complicated production process can be identied
in the future.
Acknowledgements
The research work of this paper was supported by a grant from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71403170,
71461137008; 71325006, 71402016), and Fudan Tyndall Centre of
Fudan University (FTC98503B09a). The advice for revisions from
Hao Han of Tsinghua University China Automotive Energy Research
Center is highly valued. The authors are responsible for the remain-
ing errors.
 B. Huang et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 119 (2017) 6977
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