Economic-energy-industrial-environmental optimization (EEIEO) model for identification of optimal strategies - a case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

An economic-energy-industrial-environmental optimization (EEIEO) model is proposed for identification of optimal economic, industry, energy and environment strategies. The EEIEO model is applied to a real case of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, which is the important economic growth pole of northern China. The EEIEO model could fully consider the interaction between industrial, energy, urbanization and environment sector, and generate the optimized economic development, industrial restructuring, energy consumption and environment management schemes. This is first attempt to introduce economic, energy, industrial, urbanization and environmental sectors into an optimization framework, while sustainable energy and environment development pathways are explored through EEIEO model. The results suggest that: (i) the GDP of BTH region would increase about 73.80% over the planning horizon; (ii) the contribution of tertiary industry for BTH region's economic development would gradually increase from 54.00% in 2015 to 65.00% in 2030; (iii) the consumption of coal would decrease by 36%, and the natural gas would obviously increase by 97.70% over the planning horizon; and (iv) the SO₂, smoke and dust emissions and CO₂ would reduce by 30.20%, 35.30% and 4.50% from 2015 to 2030, respectively.