Production efficiency and cost reduction potential of biodiesel fuel plants using waste cooking oil in Japan.

Biodiesel fuel (BDF) is a potentially carbon-neutral fuel that could play a potentially important role in preventing global warming. However, its high production cost poses a challenge for many BDF producers. To establish an efficient method for BDF production and increase its cost competitiveness, the production efficiencies of 35 BDF plants in Japan, which produce BDF from waste cooking oil, were evaluated.

Production efficiency of animal feed obtained from food waste in Japan.

Converting food waste into animal feed is highly useful for tackling the problem of food waste, which is particularly severe in developed countries. This study quantified the inefficiencies in converting food waste into animal feed and identified the sources of inefficiencies through a data envelopment analysis (DEA) of the monthly input-output data of two food waste-based animal feed producers in Japan. Our empirical analysis revealed that the producers of animal feed obtained from food waste (especially those treating food waste from retail and service industries) demonstrated inefficiencies in production technology and scale; moreover, expanding the production scale and improving the quality of food waste could enhance production efficiency.

Determinants of technical inefficiency in China's coal-fired power plants and policy recommendations for CO mitigation.

This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and CO emission reduction potential of 1270 coal-fired power plants in 28 Chinese provinces and municipalities. The large dataset used in the study includes 727 combined heat and power (CHP) plants and 543 thermal power plants. Results show an average TE score of 0.