The Psychological Process of Residents' Acceptance of Local Shale Gas Exploitation in China

Technical, Economical, and Environmental Performance Assessment of an Improved Triethylene Glycol Dehydration Process for Shale Gas

We proposed an optimized triethylene glycol (TEG) dehydration approach in this work, with the aim of overcoming the drawbacks of traditional TEG dehydration method for shale gas processing and providing a more efficient, simplified, energy-saving, economical, and environmentally friendly technology dedicated for shale gas exploration. The proposed improved TEG dehydration method has less equipment and is convenient for modularization, which is of great significance and convenience to applications in the shale gas dehydration station. Additionally, it has some remarkable improvements on process optimization as well as the rational utilization of utilities. To evaluate the performance of this improved method, thermodynamics and economy were assessed in this study. The results proved that the new proposed method was an applicable and efficient technology. Moreover, in comparison to the conventional TEG dehydration method, the new method is more energy saving and economical. The energy-saving amount is especially high with a large feed capacity, and it reaches up to about 3000 MJ/h when the feed gas flowrate is 210 MMscfd. The capital cost (CapEx) and operation cost (OpEx) of the new proposed dehydration method are significantly lower, which represent only 56.9 and 47.8% those of the conventional method, respectively. Besides, sensitive analysis of the key parameters influencing system performance was performed to explore the energy-saving potential and to maximize the economic benefit. Additionally, an environmental assessment through a field-emission test was conducted, and the results showed that the new method exhibited superior environmental performance.

Visitor's Willingness to Pay for National Park Entrance Fees in China: Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Method

China has been making efforts in nature conservation by developing a new national park system. Setting a fee-based entrance policy for the newly established national parks can be challenging without information on visitors' willingness to pay (WTP). Thus, this study aims to evaluate visitors' WTP entrance fees with a dataset of 1215 visitors collected in China's planned Qinling National Park (QNP). Using the double bounded dichotomous choice format of the contingent valuation method, we obtained the mean WTP for the entrance fee of QNP of 200 yuan. Visitors' demand becomes relatively inelastic at the recommended entrance fee of 160 yuan when the expected ticket revenue will reach its maximum of 13.8 billion yuan. Our study also indicates that visitors' WTP is significantly influenced by their gender difference, education level, income, number of trips to natural attractions, duration of stay, the intention of a future visit, and concern about commercial exploitation. Our empirical study provides insights into developing effective pricing policies and appropriate marketing strategies for China's new national park system.

Explaining Local Residents' Attitudes toward Shale Gas Exploitation: The Mediating Roles of Risk and Benefit Perceptions

Using Fishbein's multi-attribute model, this paper proposes that the impact of socio-demographic and psychosocial factors on local residents' overall attitude toward shale gas exploitation (SGE) is mediated by their risk and benefit perceptions. The proposition has been validated with the generalized structural equation modeling approach with a cross-sectional dataset of 825 residents from China's Fuling shale gas field. Results indicate that the influence of benefit perception on residents' overall attitude outweighs that of risk perception. Moreover, residents' perceived fairness, affective feeling, and trust in regulatory agencies have positive influences on their overall attitude, primarily via their risk and benefit perceptions, in decreasing order of influences. Finally, we also find that residents' attitudes have been significantly influenced by their socio-demographic factors, including age, residential area, and political ideology. Thus, our study extends the literature with theoretical and empirical models by exploring the influences factors of local residents' attitudes toward SGE, and results from our empirical survey provide insight into policy design to promote the acceptance of SGE.