Addressing the efficiency of the core ecological industrial chain: A DEA approach

摘要

The stability of the core ecological industry chain plays a critical role to optimize the ecological industry chain (EIC) network. Vast majority of existing studies paid close attention to the design of nodes in terms of economic and environmental improvements. By contrast, the optimization of core industrial chain is largely overlooked. A novel methodology is proposed in this study to assist the core ecological industry chain design where resources, economy and environment are set as the constraints. Ecological industry chain efficiency is evaluated by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) where constraint conditions gradually superimposed into the core ecological industry chain. This methodology is validated through an empirical case study. Results showed that the relative efficiency of the core ecological industry chain consisted of Chlorine Alkali Plant-Alumina Plant-Electrolytic Aluminum Plant-Aluminum Deep Processing Plant is close to 1. This core ecological industry chain achieved the coordinated development among economic, energy and environment. It belongs to the typical value-added design of EIC. The relative efficiency of the core ecological industry chains consisted of Lime Plant-Calcium Carbide Plant Polyvinyl Chloride Plant and Chlorine Alkali Plant- Polyvinyl Chloride Plant-Density Board Plant is 0.8690 and 0.7956, respectively. These core ecological industry chains can be further improved by means of continuous optimization design, i.e., introducing key fill chain links to rearrange the upstream and downstream enterprises. These findings provide useful references for the EIPs development and related policy making. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.