Jiangsu Iron Fist Controls Qi, Protects Blue Sky and White Clouds

Since the State Council issued the "Ten Measures for Air Pollution Prevention and Control" in 2013, our province has continuously increased its efforts in preventing and controlling air pollution. In 2016, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the province was 51 micrograms per cubic meter, a decrease of 30.1% compared to 2013; The proportion of days with excellent urban air quality was 70.2%, an increase of 9.9 percentage points from 2013. Although the air quality in Jiangsu continues to improve, the pressure on air pollution prevention and control has only increased, especially with the increasingly prominent problem of ozone pollution. The proportion of days with ozone as the primary pollutant has increased from 9.4% in 2013 to 36.3% in 2016.

The formation mechanism of ozone pollution is relatively complex, among which VOCs are important precursors. Reducing the total VOC emissions has become a key link in atmospheric governance. During the central environmental protection inspection period, the inspection team clearly pointed out the problem of increasing ozone concentration in some areas of our province year by year. The "Rectification Plan for Implementing the Feedback of the Central Third Environmental Protection Inspection Group in Jiangsu Province" specifies the implementation of a total control system for volatile organic compounds and a significant reduction in the total emissions of volatile organic compounds in the petrochemical and chemical industries.

To this end, our province has successively issued policies and standards such as VOC pollution control plans for key industries and VOC emission standards for surface coating (automotive manufacturing industry). Especially at the end of last year, the provincial party committee and government issued a special action plan for "two reductions, six treatments, and three improvements". Among the "six treatments", "one treatment" is to treat VOCs, and a special implementation plan for VOC treatment was formulated. Within this year, our province will reduce the total VOC emissions of key industries by 10%. By 2020, nearly 10000 VOC remediation projects will be implemented, reducing VOC emissions by over 20% and key industries by over 30%.

In order to implement the requirements of the central environmental inspection and rectification, various regions have taken action one after another. The environmental protection and safety supervision departments of Changzhou Binjiang Economic Development Zone have selected 19 enterprises in the park to carry out pilot projects for volatile organic compound leakage detection and repair technology. All of them passed the acceptance review in May last year, with a total of over 180000 sealed points tested and a leakage rate of about 6 ‰. The one-time repair and retest pass rate is over 90%, reducing volatile organic compound emissions by about 55 tons per year.

Controlling VOCs from the source, Dongfang International Container (Lianyungang) Co., Ltd. located in Lianyungang Economic and Technological Development Zone has been using oil-based paint production lines since its establishment in 2005, resulting in high emissions of volatile organic compounds and environmental complaints caused by unpleasant odors. The person in charge of the enterprise told reporters that since the implementation of the "263" special action, the enterprise has self raised 35 million yuan to carry out the "oil to water" work, and has now completely stopped using oil-based paint to produce containers. After switching to water-based paint, enterprises can reduce volatile organic compound emissions by 5600 tons per year, contributing 4.7% of the volatile organic compound emissions reduction to Lianyungang City. In addition, the company's container production is expected to increase revenue by 10 million yuan annually.

Liu Xiaolei, Director of the Atmospheric Environment Management Department of the Provincial Environmental Protection Department, introduced that our province will implement 4288 key atmospheric control projects this year, including 2821 VOC control projects, focusing on the combination of "one replacement, three treatments, and two strengthening". Vigorously promote the substitution of low VOC raw materials in key industries. Control industrial VOCs, mobile source VOCs, and non-point source VOCs, establish leak detection and repair systems in all chemical industrial parks, promote 50000 new energy vehicles (standard vehicles) within the year, upgrade non road mobile machinery emission standards from National II to National III, and use low sulfur oil or shore power systems during ship berthing from 2018. Focus on promoting oil and gas recovery and treatment of oil terminals along the Yangtze River and the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal. Strengthen the research on the formation mechanism of ozone pollution and the implementation of VOC pollution prevention and control policies and measures, formulate VOC pollution prevention and control management measures, and strictly implement the VOC pollution discharge fee policy.

Although our province has many VOC control projects this year with great efforts, the situation of ozone pollution prevention and control is still severe, "Liu Xiaolei said frankly." Ozone pollution control is a more complex process than PM2.5 control. We hope that the public can participate widely in air pollution prevention and control, supervise the completion of control projects, and work together to protect the blue sky and white clouds.