To reach the peak of carbon emission in China, the energy and power industry has the most arduous task and the heaviest responsibility. It should not only ensure efficient economic development, but also complete the arduous task of energy conservation and emission reduction. It is the main force in helping reach the peak of carbon emission. Taking the achievement of carbon peak in China’s power industry as the research object, this paper utilizes time series analyses to establish CO₂ emission prediction models for China and its power industry under two scenarios: with and without a carbon peak target. The paper analyzes the current status of achieving carbon peak in China’s power industry and puts a forward CO₂ emission reduction scheme for China and its power industry in the future. On this basis, countermeasures for China’s power industry to deal with carbon peak are explored.

In recent decades, with the rapid development of the inorganic synthesis and the increasing discharge of pollutants in the process of industrialization, hollow-structured metal oxides (HSMOs) have taken on a striking role in the field of environmental catalysis. This is all due to their unique structural characteristics compared to solid nanoparticles, such as high loading capacity, superior pore permeability, high specific surface area, abundant inner void space, and low density. Although the HSMOs with different morphologies have been reviewed and prospected in the aspect of synthesis strategies and potential applications, there has been no systematic review focusing on the structures and compositions design of HSMOs in the field of environmental catalysis so far. Therefore, this review will mainly focus on the component dependence and controllable structure of HSMOs in the catalytic elimination of different environmental pollutants, including the automobile and stationary source emissions, volatile organic compounds, greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances, and other potential pollutants. Moreover, we comprehensively reviewed the applications of the catalysts with hollow structure that are mainly composed of metal oxides such as CeO₂, MnO_x, CuO_x, Co₃O₄, ZrO₂, ZnO, Al₃O₄, In₂O₃, NiO, and Fe₃O₄ in automobile and stationary source emission control, volatile organic compounds emission control, and the conversion of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances. The structure–activity relationship is also briefly discussed. Finally, further challenges and development trends of HSMO catalysts in environmental catalysis are also prospected.

As a toxic pollutant, carbon monoxide (CO) usually causes harmful effects on human health. Therefore, the thermally catalytic oxidation of CO has received extensive attention in recent years. The CuO-based catalysts have been widely investigated due to their availability. In this study, a series of transition metal oxides (Fe₂O₃, Co₃O₄ and NiO) promoted CuO-based catalysts supported on the α-MnO₂ nanowire catalysts were prepared by the deposition precipitation method for catalytic CO oxidation reactions. The effects of the loaded transition metal type, the loading amount, and the calcination temperature on the catalytic performances were systematically investigated. Further catalyst characterization showed that the CuO/α-MnO₂ catalyst modified with 3 wt% Co₃O₄ and calcined at 400 °C performed the highest CO catalytic activity (T₉₀ = 75 °C) among the investigated catalysts. It was supposed that the loading of the Co₃O₄ dopant not only increased the content of oxygen vacancies in the catalyst but also increased the specific surface area and pore volume of the CuO/α-MnO₂ nanowire catalyst, which would further enhance the catalytic activity. The CuO/α-MnO₂ catalyst modified with 3 wt% NiO and calcined at 400 °C exhibited the highest surface adsorbed oxygen content and the best normalized reaction rate, but the specific surface area limited its activity. Therefore, the appropriate loading of the Co₃O₄ modifier could greatly enhance the activity of CuO/α-MnO₂. This research could provide a reference method for constructing efficient low-temperature CO oxidation catalysts.

In this work, a series of Cu₂O/S (S = α-MnO₂, CeO₂, ZSM-5, and Fe₂O₃) supported catalysts with a Cu₂O loading amount of 15% were prepared by the facile liquid-phase reduction deposition–precipitation strategy and investigated as CO oxidation catalysts. It was found that the Cu₂O/α-MnO₂ catalyst exhibits the best catalytic activity for CO oxidation. Additionally, a series of Cu₂O-CuO/α-MnO₂ heterojunctions with varied proportion of Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ were synthesized by further calcining the pristine Cu₂O/α-MnO₂ catalyst. The ratio of the Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ could be facilely regulated by controlling the calcination temperature. It is worth noting that the Cu₂O-CuO/α-MnO₂-260 catalyst displays the best catalytic performance. Moreover, the kinetic studies manifest that the apparent activation energy could be greatly reduced owing to the excellent redox property and the Cu₂O-CuO interface effect. Therefore, the Cu₂O-CuO heterojunction catalysts supported on α-MnO₂ nanotubes are believed to be the potential catalyst candidates for CO oxidation with advanced performance.

Accurate prediction of pollutant dispersion is vital to the energy industry. This study investigated the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of pollutant emission in a natural draft dry cooling tower (NDDCT) with flue gas injection. In order to predict the diffusion and distribution characteristics of the pollutant more accurately, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) was applied to predict the flow field and pollutant concentration field and compared with Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Unsteady Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (URANS). The relationship between pollutant concentration pulsation and velocity pulsation is emphatically analyzed. The results show that the flow field and concentration field simulated by RANS and URANS are very close, and the maximum value of LES is about 43 times that of RANS and URANS for the prediction of pollutant concentration in the inner shell of cooling tower. Pollutant concentration is closely related to local flow field velocity. RANS and URANS differ greatly from LES in flow field prediction, especially at the outlet and downwind of cooling tower. Compared with URANS, LES can simulate flow field pulsation with a smaller scale and higher frequency.

The development of clean energy leads to a significant increase in decommissioned wind turbine blades, which have become a new type of solid waste. Glass fiber, which is the main component of these blades, can be recycled through pyrolysis. However, the deficiencies in size and mechanical properties of recycled glass fibers preclude their further high-value utilization. This paper presents an innovative approach to the high-value utilization of recycled glass fibers as Si and Al sources for the synthesis of Si–Al MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves by the alkali fusion–hydrothermal method. The influences of the templating agent ratio, water ratio, pH, hydrothermal temperature, and hydrothermal time on the synthesis of molecular sieves during the hydrothermal synthesis process were investigated. The results show that the MCM-41 molecular sieve synthesized under optimal conditions exhibited a uniform mesoporous structure, with a specific surface area of 831 m² g⁻¹ and a uniform distribution of Si and Al elements. Additionally, it exhibits an adsorption capacity of 223 mg g⁻¹ for alkaline pollutant rhodamine B. This research provides a viable path for the high-value utilization of recycled glass fibers and establishes a novel synthesis approach for MCM-41 with excellent adsorption performance.