VOCs pollution control in the petrochemical industry becomes a key focus. Five aspects of measures may help solve the problem.

The control of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) has always been a difficult issue in the pollution control of the petrochemical industry. On April 21st, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Director Tian Weiyong answered the questions raised by reporters and stated that the Ministry of Environmental Protection will take five measures to solve the problem of VOCs control.

In April, when the Minister of Environmental Protection Chen Jining led a team to conduct on-site research at Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Branch (referred to as Yanshan Petrochemical), he found that the enterprise did not effectively control VOCs. Tian Weiyong introduced that the problems existing in the control of VOCs at Yanshan Petrochemical included defects in the process design of the three sets of water washing and pulp removal in the rubber workshop, and the re-entry of VOCs into the system for recycling and reuse had not been effectively eliminated, resulting in secondary pollution due to another volatilization.

Currently, this system has been renovated under the personal intervention and organization of Sinopec, and the problems have been better resolved.

Tian Weiyong stated that the problem of VOCs control has always been a prominent issue in the petrochemical industry, and this incident exposed one aspect of the entire problem.

Tian Weiyong introduced that there are two major difficulties in VOCs control. The first is that the workload of supervising VOCs is large. For example, the various leakage points at Yanshan Petrochemical add up to approximately 800,000, and it is very difficult to identify them one by one. The second is that VOCs involve many industries, including spraying, packaging, printing industries, and even some agricultural sources can also produce VOCs.

Regarding the related issues of VOCs control, Tian Weiyong stated that the Ministry of Environmental Protection will take five measures.

First, strengthen source control and limit the raw materials used by various enterprises, that is, use raw materials with low VOCs. This should be done through overall control.

Second, proceed from points to areas. First, control and manage the industries with large VOCs emissions, such as petrochemicals, organic chemicals, and packaging and printing.

Third, focus on key points. Start controlling and managing from the sealing points of equipment, storage, loading and unloading, and other key parts.

Fourth, improve law enforcement level and efficiency. Provide environmental supervision personnel with some portable law enforcement instruments, change the previous "smelling" supervision method, and strengthen control.

Fifth, increase information disclosure. Make supervision data public to the public and encourage public participation to form a positive cycle of supervision and being supervised.