Sustainable\nEnergy Strategies Enable the Green Transition\nof China’s Copper Tube Industry

Copper tube (CT) is an indispensable material for space\ncooling.\nHowever, under the urgent requirements of cooling-related emission\nreduction, the environmental impacts and effective emission reduction\nstrategies associated with CT manufacturing have not been investigated.\nThis study quantified the environmental impacts of China’s\nCT manufacturing and further explored the emission reduction potentials.\nKey findings are (1) almost all of the considered types of the environmental\nimpacts of CT manufacturing are from electricity use, with melting\nas the largest contributing process. The gate-to-gate carbon emission\nintensities of inner-grooved CT, coiled CT, and straight CT are 1018,\n747, and 499 kg CO<sub>2</sub> eq, respectively. (2) The cumulative\ncarbon emissions of China’s CT manufacturing from 2022 to 2050\nwill reach 47.5 Mt CO<sub>2</sub> eq in baseline scenario, of which\n50% from inner-grooved CT is due to its increasing use in air conditioners.\n(3) About 27 Mt CO<sub>2</sub> of the cumulative carbon emissions\nof CT manufacturing can be reduced, with 60% contributed by sustainable\nenergy strategies (incl., energy efficiency improvement, energy substitution,\nand electricity transition). Accordingly, the impacts of other environmental\nissues will also be decreased by 14%–66%. This study provides\nan important scientific basis for the green transition of the CT industry.