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 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS  
 

VOL. 66, 2018 

A publication of 

 

The Italian Association 
of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors: Songying Zhao, Yougang Sun, Ye Zhou 
Copyright © 2018, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 

ISBN 978-88-95608-63-1; ISSN 2283-9216 

Study on Construction and Application of Circular Economy 

Evaluation Index System in Petrochemical Industry 

Junhua Wanga,b 

aCollege of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astroautics, Nanjing 211106, China 
bCollege of Business Administration, Henan Institute of Economics and Trade, Zhengzhou 450018, China 

13526669107@163.com 

Petrochemical industry is the focus of circular economy construction, circular economy evaluation index 

system is an important task.This article briefly introduced the circular economy and circular economy 

evaluation system, clarified the construction of chemical enterprises circular economy evaluation system 

principles.Using analytic hierarchy process, given the weight of the index system.The article selects 24 

quantitative indicators from the aspects of resource utilization, resource recycling and waste disposal and 

disposal, and objectively, accurately and effectively determines the weight of indicators,and evaluate and 

analyze the development of circular economy in petrochemical industry from 2014 to 2017 in our country. 

1. Introduction 

Petroleum is an important strategic material and energy resource, and also an important chemical raw 

material. It is called "industrial blood" and "black gold", playing an important role in today's economy and 

society. The circular economy of petroleum industry is a development mode based on the continuous circular 

utilization of petroleum resources and their living resources and environments with the features of the low 

consumption and high utilization of natural resources and the low emission of wastes. The outstanding 

problem of sustainable development in today's society is the contradiction between "development" and 

"resource environment". The development of circular economy is an important measure of China to implement 

the scientific concept of development and construct environment-friendly and resource-saving enterprises, and 

it is an objective need to guarantee the sustainable development of petrochemical enterprises. Under the 

environment of increasing shortage of resources and energy, vigorously adjusting industrial structure and 

promoting transformation and upgrading, it’s an arduous task of chemical groups to further develop circular 

economy.  

At present, the research of circular economy evaluation index system in petrochemical industry is mainly in 

qualitative analysis, which cannot reflect the development level of circular economy in chemical industry. 

Therefore, in order to promote the development of circular economy in chemical industry, a more targeted and 

quantifiable index system should be adopted (Zhang, 2018). Thus, this study sets up a quantifiable circular 

economy evaluation index system in petrochemical industry, in order to carry out a quantitative evaluation of 

the development level of the circular economy in petrochemical industry. 

1.1 Brief introduction of circular economy and its evaluation index system 

Circular economy is the abbreviation of  closing materials cycle economy, that is to say, in the large system of 

human, natural resources and science and technology, the materials and energy are used with a step-by-step 

and closing circulation manner in the whole process of resource input, enterprise production, product 

consumption and abandonment, so as to continuously improve the utilization efficiency of resources, and 

transform the traditional development relying on the linear increase of net consumption of resources into an 

economic operation mode relying on ecological resource circulation, as shown in Figure 1 (Yang et al., 2012). 

Circular economy is divided into three levels: inter-enterprise circulation; regional circulation, which mainly 

refers to the industrial park circulation; and social circulation, which mainly refers to the circulation between 

                                

 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1866238 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Wang J., 2018, Study on construction and application of circular economy evaluation index system in petrochemical 
industry, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 66, 1423-1428  DOI:10.3303/CET1866238   

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enterprises and society (Thomas et al., 2018). The generally considered evaluation methods for judging 

circulation at each level is shown in Table 1: 

 

To reduce

Resources

Product

Waste

Recycle

Reuse

 

Figure 1: The basic mode of circular economy 

Table 1: The evaluation methods of circular economy cycle  

Evaluation method Concept 

Life cycle method Evaluate the environmental impact of each phase of the product life cycle 

Cleaner Production Audit 
method 

In accordance with certain procedures and standards, to investigate and 
diagnose the service and production process, find out the reasons of high 
pollution, high consumption and low efficiency, put forward plans to 
reduce consumption and efficiency, and then choose a set of improved 
production technology to promote corporate clean production 

Material flow analysis method Quantitatively estimate material flows in society 

 

The index system of circular economy is the theoretical basis for formulating the development goal and plan of 

circular economy, and it is also a quantitative evaluation tool for assessing the effect of circular economy. The 

development goal of circular economy is to achieve the balance between environmental protection and 

economic development on the basis of making full use of resources and energy and reducing pollution 

emission to the maximum extent (Xiao, 2013; Guneet et al., 2017). 

1.2 Principle of circular economy evaluation index system in petrochemical industry 

According to the theories and objectives of circular economy development, the following principles should be 

followed in establishing circular economic evaluation index system of petroleum industry: systematicness, 

scientificalness, operability and cohesion (Wang et al., 2017, Ju Ran., 2016).  

2. Construction of Recycling Economy Index System in Petrochemical Industry 

2.1 Selection and construction of evaluation index 

According to the target size, this study divides the circular economic evaluation index system into target level, 

criterion level and index level. The actual value, the reference value or the set reference value of the index, 

and the determined weight need to be taken into account during the evaluation (Yin et al., 2016). The 

corresponding index system is detailed in Figure 2. In the index system, 24 quantitative indexes, such as total 

energy consumption, crude oil processing amount, coal consumption, resource consumption for industrial 

output value of ten thousand yuan in petrochemical industry, standard rate of discharge of waste and rate of 

change in final disposal of industrial wastes, are selected from three aspects of resource utilization, resource 

recycling reuse and waste discharge and disposal, serving quantitative evaluation indexes of recycling 

economy in petrochemical industry. The evaluation index system is divided into positive indexes and reverse 

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indexes. Among them, the energy consumption index and pollutant index are reverse indexes, and the smaller 

the value is, the better it is to meet the requirement of circular economy. The others are positive indexes, and 

the larger the value is, the more it conforms to the requirements of circular economy. 

Comprehensive Evaluation of Circular 

Economy in Petrochemical Industry A

Resource 

Output 

Indicator B1

Resource 

consumption 

index B2

Resource 

recycling 

index B3

Waste 

discharge 

index B4 

C1 C2 C3 C4

Target level

Indicator 

layer

Guidelines 

layer

 

Figure 2: The framework of Circular economy index system in etrochemical industry 

2.2 Determination of weight of evaluation index 

In the large system of evaluation index, the subsystem or element of each level has different importance to the 

whole system, so when describing the change characteristics of the composite system of evaluation index 

system, it is necessary to determine the importance degree of different indexes relative to the evaluation index 

system, that’s, to determine the weight of the evaluation index system. Among the many methods, this paper 

adopts the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) (Andrea, 2017), which is widely used at present. See Figure 3 for 

the solution process of AHP.  

Modify the judgment 
matrix

Construct 
judgment 

matrix

Find the 
eigenvectors 

of P

Find the 
largest 

eigenvalue of 
P.

Consistency 
check

ResultsSatisfied

Modify

Not satisfied

 

Figure 3: The Process of Analytic Hierarchy   

2.3 Comprehensive evaluation index 

The general evaluation model of multi-index comprehensive evaluation method is the index scoring method 

based on weighted average. This method combines the single index evaluation value (dimensionless result) of 

multiple indexes into one (or several) comprehensive evaluation value by means of weighted average. It has 

the advantages of conciseness, intuition, clear conclusion and strong maneuverability. The calculation formula 

is: 

1

n

i i

i

P W P


 
 

(1) 

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Where, P is comprehensive evaluation value for the evaluated object and ranges from 0 to 1; Pi is the 

evaluation score of the ith index of the evaluated object; Wi is the weighted value of the ith index of the 

evaluated object; n is the number of indexes of the evaluated object (Yao et al., 2010. Wang et al., 2013). 

Therefore, by referring to domestic and international data and grade division of clean production evaluation 

system for high energy consumption industries, the five-level circular economy standard is designed, as 

shown in Table 2. 

Table 2: Comprehensive evaluation index of circular economy development enterprises 

Circular economy 
development level 

Circular Economy 
Development Index 

Comment 

The first level P＞0.9 Circular economy has a high level of development 

second level 0.8＜P≤0.9 Circular economy has a less high level of development 

The third level 0.7＜P≤0.8 Circular economy development is in general 

The fourth level 0.6＜P≤0.7 Circular economy development level is low 

Fifth level P≤0.6 Circular economy development level is very low 

3. Applied Research on Recycling Economy Index System in Petrochemical Industry 

The circular economy evaluation index system of petrochemical industry established in the above is used to 

evaluate the development of the circular economy in China's petrochemical industry from 2014 to 2017. 

3.1 Data source processing 

Due to the lack of data on the consumption of water resources in the petrochemical industry, the consumption 

of water resources and the repetition rate of industrial water in the petrochemical industry are eliminated in the 

evaluation process, and gasoline, diesel, ethylene, benzene and plastic resins are selected as key products. 

The energy consumption data and "three wastes" emission data of petrochemical industry all come from 

China Statistical Yearbook. The industrial output value, industrial added value and key product output of 

petrochemical industry come from China Economic Yearbook and China Chemical Industry Yearbook. The 

ratio index is calculated according to the calculation method of AHP. See Table 3 for data processing results. 

3.2 Data analysis 

According to the quantitative indexes of resource utilization and "three wastes" emission, from 2014 to 2017, 

the solid waste emission has been controlled, but the resource consumption and waste water and waste gas 

emission of the petrochemical industry have increased year by year, which poses a great threat to resources, 

as well as causes serious pollution to the atmosphere and water resources. It’s necessary to vigorously 

develop circular economy. This proves that the contradiction between environmental pollution and resource 

constraint determines the urgency of developing circular economy in petrochemical industry and demonstrates 

the rationality of the index system. In terms of resource utilization, although the total energy consumption, 

crude oil, coal, natural gas and electric power are all increasing, the industrial output value per unit energy 

source is also increased and the resource utilization efficiency is enhanced. The energy consumption per ten 

thousand yuan of output value in the petrochemical industry is reduced and the energy consumed for per ten 

thousand yuan of industrial output value is also reduced. Generally speaking, since 2014, the energy 

consumption of the petrochemical industry has been increased, but the energy use efficiency has also been 

improved. In the aspect of resource recovery and reuse, both the level of waste recovery and the level of 

resource recycle have been improved. The recovery rate of sulfur dioxide is increasing, which indicates that 

the pollution control level of sulfur dioxide in petrochemical industry is improving. The recovery rate of smoke 

and dust doesn’t change obviously, and the pollution control has not been improved. The wastewater 

discharge compliance rate and the recovery rate of solid wastes have been improved. The comprehensive 

utilization, the comprehensive utilization rate, and the resource utilization rate of solid wastes, the output value 

of comprehensive utilization products of "three wastes" and the recycling utilization rate of resources have all 

been improved year by year. In the aspect of waste discharge and disposal, the discharge amount of solid 

wastes and solid waste with the industrial added value of ten thousand yuan decreases year by year, the 

discharge amount of waste gas and waste water and the discharge amount of waste gas and waste water with 

the industrial added value of ten thousand yuan increases year by year. Pollution of the atmosphere and water 

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resources should not be ignored. The rate of change in the final disposal of industrial waste is very unstable. 

In 2014 and 2016, the rate of change in the final disposal of industrial wastes was negative, the final discharge 

amount of wastes is reduced, and the degree of environmental pollution is reduced; the rate of change in the 

final disposal of industrial wastes in 2015 was significantly higher than that in other four years, with significant 

increases in waste emissions and pollution level. 

 

Table 3: Evaluation of circular economy in petrochemical industry 

T
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Specific indicators 2014 2015 2016 2017 

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Total energy consumption (10,000 tons of 

standard coal) 
7898.3 8784.3 9112.4 12229.3 

Crude oil processing capacity (10,000 tons) 20093 21930 22587 26983 

Coal consumption (10,000 tons) 8533.1 9890.2 16382.1 17839.4 

Natural gas consumption (100 million cubic 

meters) 
15.39 15.49 19.37 20.47 

Electricity consumption (100 million kilowatt 

hours) 
267.38 332.93 427.2 438.9 

Resource 

utilization 

efficiency 

Resource productivity (RMB / tonne crude oil) 2192.3 2912.4 3011.7 3290.6 

Resource 

consumption 

intensity 

Petrochemical industry yuan industrial output 

value of resource consumption 

(Tons of crude oil / million) 

4.98 4.98 4.11 4.97 

Unit petrol production crude oil consumption 5.98 5.37 5.33 5.19 

Unit Diesel Production Crude Oil Consumption 2.69 2.62 2.89 2.94 

Unit Ethylene production Crude oil consumption 45.33 43.65 47.23 40.16 

Unit benzene production Crude oil consumption 121.45 127.43 131.48 130.57 

Unit plastic resin production Crude oil 

consumption 
17.48 18.31 18.99 19.32 

R
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 o

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re

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Sulfur dioxide recovery (%) 51.44 59.38 58.29 61.02 

Soot recovery rate (%) 89.03 91.38 89.03 99.47 

Dust recovery rate (%) 61.22 62.99 69.03 68.29 

Wastewater discharge compliance rate (%) 99.19 101.28 95.48 96.72 

Solid waste recovery rate (%) 67.34 67.39 69.11 71.35 

E
s
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e

 

re
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li
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g
 Comprehensive utilization of solid waste 

(10,000 tons) 
98.32 99.19 102.22 101.49 

Solid waste comprehensive utilization rate (%) 76.32 87.98 76.39 72.38 

Solid waste recycling rate (%) 67.44 77.92 87.23 76.61 

W
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 Exhaust emissions (100 million standard cubic 

meters) 
5.41 5.92 6.11 6.97 

Sulfur dioxide emissions (10,000 tons) 55.98 58.98 59.48 61.86 

Industrial dust emissions (10,000 tons) 0.283 0.078 0.029 0.097 

W
a

s
te

 d
is

p
o
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Industrial waste final disposal change rate (%) -12.66 32.89 -1.39 19.37 

4. Conclusion 

The petrochemical industry is an intensive industry with energy, water resources and resource consumption. It 

is also the most promising, most qualified and most urgent industry that needs to develop a recycling 

economy.This article is in accordance with the requirements of circular economy development, using circular 

economy development principles and theories as a guide, and according to the current situation of circular 

economy in our country, constructed a circular economy evaluation index system for the petrochemical 

industry. The article selects 24 quantitative indicators from the aspects of resource utilization, resource 

recycling and waste disposal and disposal, and objectively, accurately and effectively determines the weight of 

1427



indicators,and evaluate and analyze the development of circular economy in petrochemical industry from 2014 

to 2017 in our country. 

Acknowledgments 

This work is supported by the high school youth backbone teacher training program project of henan province 

in 2016: "Internet +" background of large-scale shopping center e-commerce innovation development model 

research (project number: 2016GGJS-246); Social science fund major project of Jiangsu province: Research 

on jiangsu manufacturing transformation and upgrading and Internet new economic integration development 

path (project number: 16ZD008). 

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