Recently, a seminar on air pollution prevention and control sponsored by the Foreign Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Environmental Protection was held in Hangzhou.
VOCs are the key to controlling air pollution.
According to national requirements, during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the emission of volatile organic compounds shall be included in the total control index.
As a new thing, volatile organic compound sewage charges are still in the exploratory stage in the country.
At present, the complex air pollution situation in my country is severe, and the concentration of PM2.5 remains high. In the first half of 2015, in 338 cities across the country, the number of days with ozone as the primary pollutant accounted for 13.4% of the number of days with air pollution exceeding the standard, second only to PM2.5 and PM10.
Different from the definition of volatile organic compounds in foreign countries, the definition of volatile organic compounds in my country is relatively broad, that is, “organic compounds that can participate in atmospheric photochemical reactions are called volatile organic compounds”.
“The emission sources of volatile organic compounds are complex, with various emission forms and various substances, so management is difficult and has not been listed as a conventional pollution control factor for a long time.” Ma Yongliang, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, said that people are concerned about emissions. Insufficient knowledge of characteristics and origins.
In 2013, the country’s “Ten Atmospheric Regulations” clearly put forward the comprehensive rectification requirements for key industries for the control of volatile organic compounds. The 13th Five-Year Plan includes volatile organic compounds as binding emission reduction targets for key industries and key regions. Charging for volatile organic compound emissions is a common practice in developed countries, which can effectively curb emissions and improve air quality.
According to the statistics of the environmental protection department, in the past year, 15 provinces and cities in China have issued detailed rules for charging volatile organic compounds, and about 40 cities have promulgated and implemented management and remediation plans.
In terms of the range of charges, from July this year, Zhejiang has made it clear that the two major industries of petrochemical industry and packaging and printing will be the pilots for levying volatile organic compound sewage charges. Beijing, Shanghai, and Shandong have added furniture manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, electronics, paint and ink, and shipbuilding industries on the basis of pilot projects.
Regarding the charging standards, the state will devolve the formulation of specific rules to the provinces and cities. The collection standards of the seven provinces and cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong are all more than twice the national minimum standard. Among them, Beijing and Shanghai implement differentiated charges, while in Zhejiang it is 3,600 yuan per pollution equivalent, which will be increased to 4,800 yuan per pollution equivalent in 2018.
“The proposal of volatile organic pollutant discharge fee can promote enterprises to reduce emissions, improve pollution control technology, and improve the quality of people’s lives and ecological environment.” Ma Yongliang said.
The industry expects that the control of volatile organic compounds can become another “nugget belt” for atmospheric control after desulfurization and denitrification. In fact, the management of volatile organic compound pollution charges still faces a series of problems.
Emissions accounting is difficult to operate. “The key to volatile organic compound pollution charges is how to calculate the emissions.” Luan Zhiqiang, deputy secretary-general of the Waste Gas Purification Committee of the China Environmental Protection Industry Association and researcher at the Chemical Defense Research Institute, introduced that the original calculation method is generally too complicated in various places. Industry associations, enterprise strength, or learning from foreign calculation methods, it is a top priority to develop calculation methods suitable for my country’s national conditions.
In his view, the petrochemical and packaging and printing industries have solved the problem of “how to calculate emissions” and become the first two industries to be piloted. “The formulation of local standards and technical guidelines for volatile organic compounds, the promotion of advanced technologies for volatile organic pollution control, and the establishment of a volatile organic compound emission detection and monitoring system are the current directions for improving volatile organic compound pollution charges.” Luan Zhiqiang said.
The range of charges is yet to be determined. According to Hao Zhengping, a researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Eco-Environmental Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the range of volatile organic compounds charges needs to be further clarified. In the field of environmental protection, most of the sewage charges need to be implemented in the collection of specific pollution factors. At present, there are many domestic volatile organic pollutant discharge charges for benzene, toluene and xylene. However, according to the regulations, if benzene, toluene and xylene in volatile organic compounds have been charged for sewage discharge, they should be deducted from the emission of volatile organic compounds.
The market potential has spawned hundreds of billions of industries, and volatile organic compounds are charged for sewage. It seems that “the drunkard’s meaning is not only in wine”.
According to the research results of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, the annual emission of volatile organic compounds in my country is about 31 million tons. According to the current charging standards, the market scale of the environmental protection industry will far exceed the traditional air pollutant market, which is a blue ocean to be explored.
“The introduction and implementation of volatile organic compound control policies, standards and programs in various places will give birth to a huge market for governance, monitoring (testing) and third-party services.” said Wang Jiade, a professor and doctoral supervisor of Zhejiang University of Technology, taking 200 cities and regions across the country. It is calculated that the market share of volatile organic compounds treatment in the past three years will reach 180 billion yuan.
Volatile organic compound pollution charges have brought new markets and reshuffled existing industries. “Sewage charges will inevitably increase the production cost of enterprises and force enterprises to transform and upgrade. But we oppose enterprises’ blind investment and follow-up transformation.” Zhang Fujian, director of the Science and Technology and Cooperation Division of the Environmental Protection Department of Zhejiang Province, said that the development of volatile organic pollutant discharge charges, It will force out backward enterprises and readjust the industrial structure.
My country’s existing volatile organic pollutant discharge charges adopt the “enterprise declaration – environmental protection form review” model, which encourages enterprises to conduct independent investigation and accounting, and environmental protection departments no longer conduct specific accounting and determination of pollutant emissions, emphasizing the declaration responsibility of enterprises. If the enterprise does not have the accounting ability, the environmental protection department will assist in the accounting.
Experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that through the volatile organic compound emission accounting mechanism, the production and emission of volatile organic compounds in the petrochemical and packaging and printing industries will be carefully controlled, which will lay a solid foundation for the emission reduction of volatile organic compounds during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period.
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