An official with MEP told the media today MEP has formulated four new national emission standards of air pollutants and together with AQSIQ,promulgated them, for the purposes of implementing the State Council “Action Plan against Atmospheric Pollution” and pushing for industrial transition and upgrading through development and revision of emission standards for key industries. The four standards are “Emission standard of air pollutants for boiler (GB 13271-2014)”, “Standard for pollution control on the municipal solid waste incineration (GB 18485-2014)”, “Emission standards of pollutants for stannum, antimony and mercury industries (GB 30770 -2014)”, and “Limits and measurement methods for exhaust pollutants from diesel engines of non-road mobile machinery (CHINA Ⅲ，Ⅳ) (GB 20891-2014)”. Enforcement of those standards may help substantially cut down PM, NOx and SO2 pollution, promote industrial technological advances and improvement of ambient air quality, and effectively prevent and control environmental risks caused by municipal solid waste incineration, according to the source.

The numerous industrial boilersthroughout our country are mainly located in densely populated residential quarters and industrial areas and have significant impact on local ambient air quality, said the official. The updated “Emission standard of air pollutants for boiler”has added the emission limits for nitrogen oxides, as well as mercury and mercury compounds from coal-fired boilers, set particular emission limits of air pollutants, deleted articlesaboutsetting varied emission limits for different functional zones while considering boiler capacity, as well as about the concentration limits for initial emission of soot from coal-fired boilers, raised the bar for control of all pollutants, and in the meantime, specified that the environmental impact statement,once approved, shall apply, even if its environmental requirements are tougher than national or local emission standards. The new standards will help reduce particulate matters by 660,000 t and sulfur dioxide by 3.14 mil. t.

The municipal solid waste incineration scale has grown rapidly over the recent years, the number and processing capacity of incineration plants have been on the increase, and technical advances have been realized in this industry. Meanwhile, the requirements for environmental management have been increasingly higher, and the environmentalawareness of the public has been raised, so ongoing standards can no longer fully meet the environmental requirements. The updated standards have extended the application scope, identified carbon monoxide as an indicator for operating conditions as well as an indicator for pollution control, defined the online monitoring requirements for soot emission as well as the emission requirements for start-up and halting of incineration kilns and for emergencies, and set tougher requirements for pollution control. Among others, the emission limit for dioxins is set at 0.1ngTEQ/m3, the toughest in the world. The new standards will help reduce the nitrogen oxides from solid waste incineration by 25%, the sulfur dioxide by 62%, and the dioxins by 90%.

Stannum, antimony, and mercury industries are energy-and resource-intensive, and highly polluting non-ferrous metal industries. They are sources of not only conventional environmental pollutants, but also toxic and hazardous pollutants including heavy metals, which endanger public health and environmental safety. The emission limits of air pollutants for new enterprises set by the updated “Emission standards of pollutants for stannum, antimony and mercury industries (GB 30770 -2014)”are approximate to those of developed countries, with special emission limits reaching international leading level or advanced level. The existing enterprises, after applying and attaining the emission limits for new enterprises as required by the new standards, will be able to cut down annual emission of SO2 by 41%, of CODCr by 47%, and of NH3-N by 57%, and of each of the heavy metals by over 65%, according to this official.

With increasinglypressing pollution by non-road mobile sources, it is imperative to raise the bar for pollution control by non-road mobile machinery, and alleviate the pressure from growing population and use of such machinery, added the official. Compared with the stage II standard, the “Limits and measurement methods for exhaust pollutants from diesel engines of non-road mobile machinery (CHINA Ⅲ，Ⅳ) (GB 20891-2014)” have set tougher emission limits, improved the measurement methods further, added the emission limit for diesel engines above 560kW as well as the measurement requirements for precious metals, and revised the technical specifications for reference diesel used for measurement. After enforcement of the updated standard, the gaseous pollutant emission level of diesel engines used for non-road mobile machinery will be cut down further. The nitrogen oxidesemitted from per engine attaining national Stage III standard will be reduced by 30% to 45%, and the particulate matters emitted from per engine attaining national Stage IV standard will be reduced by 50% to 94%.

Twenty out of the 25 major emission standards required by the “Action Plan against Atmospheric Pollution” for setting special emission limits of air pollutants had been promulgated by now, including all of the standards with regard tothermal power, iron and steel, boiler, and cement industries and some in respect of the non-ferrous metal, and chemical industries, according to the source. Substantial efforts will be made to advance the development of emission standards of air pollutants from non-ferrous metal recycling, petrochemical, and chemical industries, and strive to promulgate all of the 25 standards within the year.

(This English version is for your reference only.In case any discrepancy exists between the Chinese and English context, the Chinese version shall prevail.)