Harvard-China Project Summer Program 2020

Through the 2020 Summer School (two weeks) organized by the Tsinghua University School of Environment, students will attend lectures delivered by professors from U.S., European and Chinese universities.  Lecture topics include environmental issues, innovative and creative thinking skills, and Chinese culture. Students will also participate in a three-day field trip to Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

2020 Research Assistantships (six weeks)

Faculty Supervisor: Professor Deyi HOUhou
University: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Department: School of Environment

Project Topic: Source apportionment of potentially toxic elements in agricultural soil: the impact of anthropogenic activities and policy implications

Description: China has an extensive agricultural land degradation issue due to pollution, with 19.4% of its agricultural land being contaminated. Agricultural soil is a long-term sink for potentially toxic elements (PTEs) including cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn). These PTEs enter agro-systems through both natural and anthropogenic sources, the latter of which have raised particular concern (e.g. atmospheric deposition, irrigation, fertilization, waste disposal, etc.). In this sense, it is imperative to distinguish the potential sources of PTEs in order to control the risks associated with agricultural soil contamination successfully. This project aims at combing stable isotope analysis, mineralogical assessment and other key determinants in multivariate statistical analysis to quantitatively apportion contaminants to anthropogenic sources. The results of this project could be very helpful for risk management of contaminated agricultural soils, with the wider implications to policy makers to be assessed.

The student will be part of a project that identifies and investigates the sources of anthropogenic soil contamination through isotopic, mineralogical and multivariate statistical analyses. The results will be assessed in the context of policy instruments for the sustainable risk management of contaminated agricultural soils.

Faculty Bio: Prof. Hou is an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, U.K. His research interests include: green and sustainable remediation technologies for the clean-up of contaminated soil and groundwater; regional distribution of soil and groundwater pollutants; reduction of Pb, As, and Hg pollution; risk control and remediation optimization strategies; sustainability assessment for environmental remediation; linking contaminated site remediation with public participation; and environmental behavior, policy, and management.

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Faculty Supervisor: Professor Ye WUwu
University: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Department: School of Environment

Project Topic: Customer and climate benefits of electric vehicles: insights from individual travel patterns in an East-Asia megacity

Description: Electrification of transportation is expected to play a critical role in limiting global temperature rise within 2°C as agreed in the COP-21 Paris Climate Agreement. The potential climate benefits from electrification of personal road transportation will depend on how broadly electric vehicles (EVs) are accepted, how those that are accepted are actually used, and how the electricity provided to those vehicles is generated. All three of these factors vary considerably by geographical region. This heterogeneity raises the need for in-depth understanding of individual driving needs and electrification strategies.

The student research assistant will be part of a project that applies an integrated assessment model, based on individual driving profiles in an East-Asia megacity (big data) acquired using on-board GPS, to assess customer savings and greenhouse gas emission mitigation from electric vehicle adoption. The results could help precisely quantify the climate benefits from EV adoption, with consideration of personal driving demands, regional economic features, and power system carbon intensity.

Faculty Bio: Prof. Wu is a Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University. He is also the Deputy Director of the State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex. Prof. Wu received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Tsinghua University. His research areas include: evaluation of life-cycle energy and environmental impacts of advanced vehicle technologies and alternative transportation fuels; analysis of characteristics of vehicular emissions and development of control planning of vehicle emission pollution; and development of urban and national transportation database and inventory on energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria air pollutants.

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Faculty Supervisor: Professor Xi LUlu
University: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Department: School of Environment

Project Topic: Roadmap and strategies for commercial Carbon Capture and Storage: Comparative Study between the United States and China

Description: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an emerging and important technology with large scale emission reduction potential, including capture engineering, CO2 transportation and storage. It is necessary to accelerate the deployment and commercial viability of CCS globally, and advocate for CCS as a crucial component in a portfolio of mitigation technologies for meeting climate change targets. China and the United States, as the largest CO2 emitters, are world’s leaders when it comes to CCS research and development. To deeply reduce committed emissions, the two countries need to consider CCS but will take different routes and strategies. The purpose of this program is to investigate the CCS project status and estimate the potential to capture CO2 for industrial applications and compare the incentives and regulatory framework in order to accelerate the development and commercial deployment of CCS. The program will examine the following research issues:

  1. Based on existing long-term energy scenarios, an energy scenario analysis is used to estimate the amount of CO2 emissions that could potentially be reduced by CCS. In order to assess the possible environmental impacts of CCS, a prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of different CCS technology roadmaps is performed
  2. Building the CCS tech-economic frameworks and guidelines, especially providing baselines for the costing and comparison of CCS technologies, has contributed to improving CCS cost estimates. The aim of the economic assessment is to provide information for technology selection and related investments as well as the policy assessments.
  3. The United States Congress approved a tax credit for CO2 utilization and storage known as 45Q tax credit to stimulate innovation and the use of CCS. Econometric model is built to estimate the climate and economic benefits of 45Q tax credit. 
  4. In the absence of national political and regulatory support, the real options model is applied to investigate the potential incentive mechanisms and strategies required to trigger investment large-scale CCS project in China.
  5. An Integrated Assessment is approached to analyze and compare the effects of policy mechanisms, such as initial investment subsidy, electricity tariff subsidy, CO2 utilization subsidy and 45Q tax credit on ensuring CCS deployment scales up at the rate.

Based on the results, it provides an in-depth discussion of potential strategies and measures needed to bridge the gap in CCS project at a commercial scale for these two countries. Therefore, the participants have access to the strategic and innovative research across the full CCS chain as well as the thorough and rigorous treatment of basic econometric methods for policy evaluation and decision-making. As a result, this program provides related knowledge and skills in the economics, policy and accounting of climate change management.

Faculty Bio: Prof. Lu is an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard-China Project. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. His research focuses on the technical, economic, and environmental dimensions of low- or zero- carbon energy sources as a means to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air pollutants.

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