Jiangsu Takes Strong Measures to Control Air Pollution, Volatile Organic Compounds Emissions in Key Industries to Be Reduced by Another 10% This Year
During the May Day holiday, Feng Biejie, a citizen of Nanjing, had her car repainted at a 4S auto dealership. Little did she know that this seemingly insignificant paint job was directly related to the blue sky. During an interview at the Volkswagen Auto Company in Nanjing, the reporter learned that the new paint workshop adopted the 2010 water-based no-intermediate-coat process, eliminating the intermediate-coat procedure and using environmentally friendly water-soluble paint. The VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emissions were less than 25 grams per cubic meter, reaching international advanced levels.
Since the State Council issued the "Air Ten-Year Plan" in 2013, Jiangsu Province has continuously intensified its efforts in air pollution prevention and control. In 2016, the average PM2.5 concentration in the province was 51 micrograms per cubic meter, a 30.1% decrease compared to 2013; the proportion of days with good air quality in cities was 70.2%, an increase of 9.9 percentage points compared to 2013. Although the air quality in Jiangsu Province has continued to improve, the pressure of air pollution prevention and control has not decreased but has increased, especially the problem of ozone pollution has become increasingly prominent. The proportion of days with ozone as the primary pollutant has risen from 9.4% in 2013 to 36.3% in 2016.
The formation mechanism of ozone pollution is relatively complex. Among them, VOCs are an important precursor substance. Reducing the total emissions of VOCs has become a key link in air pollution control. During the Central Environmental Protection Inspection, the inspection team clearly pointed out that some regions in Jiangsu Province had seen a year-on-year increase in ozone concentration. The "Jiangsu Province Implementation Plan for Feedback on the Central Third Environmental Protection Inspection" clearly stated that the total control system for volatile organic compounds would be implemented, and the total emissions of volatile organic compounds in the petrochemical and chemical industries would be significantly reduced.
Therefore, Jiangsu Province has successively introduced policies and standards such as the VOCs pollution control plan for key industries and the VOCs emission standards for surface coating (automobile manufacturing). Especially at the end of last year, the provincial Party Committee and the provincial government issued the "Two Reductions, Six Controls, Three Improvements" special action plan. "Six Controls" included "one control" of ozone, and a "VOCs Control Special Action Implementation Plan" was specially formulated. This year, Jiangsu Province will reduce the total VOCs emissions from key industries by 10%. By 2020, nearly 10,000 VOCs control projects will be implemented, reducing VOCs emissions by more than 20%, and the total VOCs emissions from key industries will be reduced by more than 30%.
To implement the requirements of the central environmental protection inspection, various regions have taken actions. The environmental protection and safety supervision departments of Changzhou Binjiang Economic Development Zone selected 19 enterprises in the park to carry out pilot projects for leak detection and repair technology of volatile organic compounds. All of them passed the acceptance review in May last year. A total of over 180,000 sealed points were detected, with a leakage rate of about 6‰. The one-time repair and retest pass rate was over 90%, reducing the annual VOCs emissions by approximately 55 tons.
From the source control of VOCs, Dongfangguo International Container (Lianyungang) Co., Ltd., located in the Economic Development Zone of Lianyungang City, has been using an oil-based paint production line since its establishment in 2005. The volatile organic compound emissions were large, and the odor caused frequent environmental complaints. The company's responsible person said, "Since the implementation of the '263' special action, the company has self-funded 35 million yuan to carry out the 'oil-to-water' work and has now completely stopped using oil-based paint for container production. After switching to water-based paint, the company can reduce VOCs emissions by 5,600 tons per year, contributing 4.7% of the volatile organic compound emission reduction in Lianyungang City. In addition, the company's container production is expected to increase revenue by 10 million yuan annually."
According to Liu Xiaolei, the director of the Atmospheric Environment Management Department of the Provincial Environmental Protection Department, Jiangsu Province will implement 4,288 key air pollution control projects this year, including 2,821 VOCs control projects, focusing on "one replacement, three treatments, two enhancements" as a "combination punch". It will vigorously promote the substitution of low-VOCs raw materials in key industries. Manage industrial VOCs, mobile source VOCs and surface source VOCs. All chemical industrial parks should establish leakage detection and repair systems. Within this year, 50,000 new energy vehicles (standard models) will be promoted. The emission standards for non-road mobile machinery will be upgraded from Class II to Class III. Starting from 2018, all ships will use low-sulfur oil or shore power systems during berthing. Focus on the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal sections to promote oil terminal oil vapor recovery and treatment renovations. Strengthen research on the formation mechanism of ozone pollution and the implementation of VOCs pollution prevention and control policies. Develop VOCs pollution prevention and control management measures and strictly implement the VOCs discharge fee policy.
"Although there are many VOCs governance projects in our province this year and the efforts are significant, the situation of ozone pollution prevention and control is still severe," Liu Xiaolei admitted. "Ozone pollution control is a more complex process than PM2.5 control. We hope that the public can widely participate in air pollution prevention and control, supervise the completion of the governance projects, and join hands to protect the blue sky and white clouds."
