The "Chongqing Model" for VOCs Control
In recent years, various levels of Chinese governments have implemented various measures for the prevention and control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pollution and reduction. Among them, the measures in Guangzhou City, Shanghai City and Chongqing City have achieved relatively significant results. This article introduces and analyzes the VOCs pollution prevention and control work in Chongqing City, hoping to provide reference and inspiration for other cities to carry out similar work.
Chongqing leads the country in VOCs pollution control
In recent years, Chongqing has achieved considerable success in air pollution prevention and control. Since 2006, the comprehensive air pollution index in the urban area has been less than 3.0, and Chongqing has withdrawn from the list of heavily polluted cities nationwide. In 2016, the number of days with good air quality in the urban area reached 301, an increase of 9 days compared to 292 in 2015.
These achievements are inseparable from Chongqing's active efforts in air pollution control and VOCs pollution control. As early as 2010, Chongqing launched the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Joint Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in Chongqing to Improve Regional Air Quality", which designated VOCs as one of the key pollutants for joint prevention and control in the city for the first time; subsequently, in 2011 and 2013, the "Chongqing 'Twelfth Five-Year' Ecological Construction and Environmental Protection Plan" and the "Chongqing 'Blue Sky Action' Implementation Plan (2013-2017)" were respectively formulated. In December 2013, Chongqing also issued the "Implementation Opinions on Implementing the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan", proposing to strengthen VOCs pollution control.
The "Chongqing Ecological Civilization Construction 'Twelfth Five-Year' Plan" proposed to implement total emission control for VOCs in key industries and complete the comprehensive treatment of organic waste gas in petrochemical enterprises and the treatment of 345 industries such as automotive painting, printing and packaging, organic chemicals, automotive repair and 4S stores by 2020. Pilot programs for pollution discharge fees for volatile organic compounds will be carried out in a timely manner.
In the implementation process, Chongqing has decomposed the key tasks of air pollution prevention and control to 38 district and county governments and 17 municipal departments each year, and has determined schedules, task books and roadmaps.
For VOCs pollution control, Chongqing not only divided the control tasks to districts or enterprises, but also proposed to build online monitoring for VOCs at key enterprises and issued and implemented the VOCs emission standards for key industries such as automotive and motorcycle parts production, automotive and motorcycle repair, printing and packaging, and organic chemicals. This is rare nationwide. Chongqing's VOCs pollution prevention and control is leading the country.
From 2013 to 2016, Chongqing carried out VOCs treatment projects for 56 enterprises in industries such as transportation equipment manufacturing, raw material drug manufacturing, printing and packaging, and chemical industry, and carried out "leak detection and repair" technology transformation in the petrochemical industry. From 2014 to 2016, oil vapor recovery treatment was completed for gas stations, oil depots, oil tankers and oil product terminals in the city.
Environmental supervision covers all townships
The effectiveness of Chongqing's VOCs emission reduction work is attributed to its implementation of the grassroots environmental supervision system.
In 2015, Chongqing invested 180 million yuan to establish environmental protection institutions in 1,017 townships and streets across the city, increasing the number of full-time and part-time environmental protection officers from 169 in 2012 to the current 2,498. This measure made up for the shortcomings of grassroots environmental supervision and law enforcement. Chongqing thus became a pilot for coordinated urban-rural environmental protection in the country.
According to statistics from the Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau, in 2016, the city completed VOCs treatment for 40 enterprises and will complete the treatment of 261 enterprises in the urban area and Hechuan District in two years. The director of the Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau's Atmospheric Department, Xiang Ting, introduced that Chongqing will carry out VOCs treatment in accordance with the "five categories, three stages, five links". "Five categories" refer to automotive and motorcycle整车 production， automotive and motorcycle parts production， printing and packaging production， automotive repair services， and other production categories； "Three stages" refer to completing a batch of pilot treatment within the region， achieving short-term effectiveness through strengthened management measures， and achieving overall effectiveness through the completion of the treatment tasks as a whole. The "five links" refer to the raw material and auxiliary material link, the process upgrading link, the end-of-pipe emission treatment link, the online monitoring and supervision link, and the equipment compliance operation and maintenance link, ensuring clean production, advanced technology, and compliance with emissions standards.
In addition, Chongqing has implemented differentiated environmental policies in the five functional areas and strictly enforced the industrial prohibition investment list. 256 heavily polluting enterprises were closed and relocated. The urban functional core area and expansion area basically achieved "four no's" (no steel mills, coal-fired power plants, chemical plants, and coal-fired boilers), promoting industrial structure adjustment, significantly reducing pollutant emissions, and creating space for urban development.
After various strict control measures, Chongqing exceeded the national target for total emission reduction in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period and its progress ranked among the top in the country.
Exploring new ideas for air pollution control
Although Chongqing has achieved some results in VOCs prevention and control in the early stage, there are still some difficulties in VOCs governance. Chongqing is still exploring new ideas to strengthen VOCs control.
In terms of air pollution control, due to the regional and geographical conditions of Chongqing, it has brought great difficulties to Chongqing. In general, there are three aspects.
First, starting from 2013 in the urban area and from 2016 in other districts and counties, the country's newly promulgated "Ambient Air Quality Standards" (GB3095-2012) was implemented. The new standards add fine particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) to the original three indicators of inhalable particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Although VOCs are not included in the new standards, as a precursor substance for PM2.5 and ozone, its emission concentration has a significant impact. This has inadvertently increased the difficulty of controlling VOCs.
Second, Chongqing is located in the hilly and low mountain area at the edge of the Sichuan Basin. The urban area is located in the trough between the "Two Rivers" (Yangtze River and Jialing River) and the "Four Mountains" (Jinyun Mountain, Zhongliang Mountain, Tongluoshan, and Mingyue Mountain). The annual average wind speed is only 1.2 meters per second, and the geographical and meteorological conditions are not conducive to the diffusion of atmospheric pollutants. The group development model increases the difficulty of centralized air pollution control. To achieve good air quality, Chongqing needs to make more efforts than other cities.
Third, regional and complex pollution changes have increased the control difficulty. Currently, the problems of urban dust pollution, coal smoke pollution, and vehicle exhaust pollution are being solved, while the haze problem caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone pollution urgently needs to be addressed. While controlling traditional primary pollutants, it is necessary to shift to a coordinated control of primary and secondary pollutants, and the management objects should shift from industrial enterprises to all pollution sources in society. This puts forward more stringent requirements for pollution source analysis, emission source list, pollutant emission control strategies, and comprehensive environmental policies.
Taking all these factors into account, Chongqing must do a good job in air pollution control and cannot follow the traditional air pollution control thinking. It must explore a new path.
Therefore, Chongqing is concentrating on controlling the existing three pollutants (inhalable particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide), adding new measures, controlling the increase, and making a determined effort to carry out multi-pollutant coordinated control (PM2.5, volatile organic compounds, ammonia), giving equal emphasis to primary and secondary pollution control, and strengthening multi-pollutant source comprehensive management. At the same time, it strengthens air pollution joint prevention and control in the urban area and district and county urban areas, implements large-scale projects, conducts concentrated large-scale clean-ups, conducts large-scale collaborations, and strictly enforces large-scale law enforcement, achieving synchronized actions, urban and rural synchronization, and pollution reduction synchronization, to ensure that air quality improves year by year.
