Not only for the sake of more "crystal days," but also for a large number of enterprises investing heavily in equipment and adjusting processes to meet industry | key | adjustments

The six key industries in Shanghai are the main force in promoting intelligent, green, and integrated development. While playing a demonstrative role in high-quality development, they also play a decisive role in Shanghai's continuously optimized ecological environment.

The latest source analysis data released by the Shanghai Department of Ecology and Environment shows that 97.4% of sulfur dioxide emissions in Shanghai last year came from industrial sources, 96.3% of nitrogen oxides came from motor vehicles and industrial sources, and 63.1% of volatile organic compounds came from industrial sources and motor vehicles.

Recently, according to the approval of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the cumulative emission reductions of four key pollutants in Shanghai last year, namely nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, chemical oxygen demand, and ammonia nitrogen, were 11596.59 tons, 6683.75 tons, 20197.9 tons, and 1904.54 tons, respectively, achieving 89%, 67%, 125%, and 163% of the emission reduction targets for the 14th Five Year Plan. The chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen indicators have met the emission reduction targets of the 14th Five Year Plan ahead of schedule.

Continuously reducing pollution emissions and making "crystal days" appear more frequently. In June this year, the monthly average concentration of PM2.5 in Shanghai was 26 micrograms/cubic meter, and 76.7% of the days had excellent air quality.

Three tricks to continuously reduce pollution emissions

The emission reduction effect is pleasing, and precise tracing and efficient targeted targeting are prerequisites.

The person in charge of the Atmospheric and Ecological Environment Department of the Shanghai Ecological Environment Bureau stated that since the 13th Five Year Plan, companies have made contributions to the three major "main battlefields" for controlling pollutant emissions in Shanghai.

One is to comprehensively ban dispersed coal combustion and strictly control coal pollution. Shanghai has completed the replacement of clean energy for more than 5000 small and medium-sized coal-fired boilers, 4246 commercial tea boilers, more than 300 industrial furnaces, and 25 centralized heating boilers.

The second is to strictly enforce industrial energy conservation and environmental protection access, strengthen deep governance of key industries, and increase efforts in industrial structure adjustment. Thousands of industrial structure adjustment projects have been completed, and stricter requirements have been put forward for key industries such as steel, petrochemical, cement, non-ferrous metals, and chemical industry. Special emission limits for atmospheric pollutants under national emission standards have been implemented.

The third is to promote the green development of transportation, build an integrated and synchronous governance system of "vehicle oil road", and to eliminate old vehicles and non road mobile machinery, a large number of enterprises have paid high costs.

The continuous significant reduction of multiple major pollutants also requires the "sword of Damocles" that constantly hangs over polluters - Shanghai's first pilot pollution permit system in the country. As of now, over 38000 polluting enterprises in Shanghai have been included in the management of pollutant discharge permits, achieving full coverage of pollutant discharge permit management.

The pollution discharge permit is equivalent to a "contract", indicating the types, concentrations, total amounts, emission methods, and destinations of pollutants that the enterprise is allowed to discharge each year, and requiring the enterprise to make commitments. A group of enterprises that cannot meet the conditions for issuing pollutant discharge permits or have not implemented the requirements for discharging pollutants according to the permits have been gradually phased out.

By tightening the requirements for total pollution emission control, Shanghai is forcing enterprises to increase pollution control efforts and achieve the goal of improving environmental quality.

At the end of last year, in response to the poor atmospheric diffusion conditions in winter, Shanghai requested 320 key polluting units to reduce monthly emissions by 30% on the basis of the annual average from November to February of the following year. This winter prevention management requirement is included in the pollution discharge permit, and through tracking, evaluation, and regulatory supervision, the annual emission reduction targets will be implemented in place.

Forming a closed loop of value recognition for energy conservation and emission reduction

If polluting enterprises only reduce emissions to meet the requirements, the overall emission reduction effect in Shanghai will not achieve the current results. More and more enterprises are demonstrating a high sense of social responsibility, demonstrating courage, wisdom, and foresight.

This year, Shanghai Huayi Energy and Chemical Co., Ltd. voluntarily shut down a 200000 ton old methanol plant, which can reduce emissions of 3.44 tons of nitrogen oxides and 12.09 tons of volatile organic compounds in one year.

Tang Yanguo, Manager of the Safety and Environmental Protection Department of Shanghai Huayi Energy and Chemical Co., Ltd., said that although this device can continue to operate after upgrading and renovating, from the perspective of the company's overall strategic development, this "disconnection" is more necessary. It is to exchange current high investment for longer and healthier development in the future.

Within SAIC GM Cadillac's factory, even the paint cleaning agents used by Regal reflect the company's foresight in environmental investment - using more expensive all water-based cleaning agents instead of semi water-based ones can reduce volatile organic compound emissions by more than half.

"When we built the factory more than a decade ago, we invested 200 million yuan in equipment for robot spraying, making painting more efficient and environmentally friendly." Wang Hong, Senior Manager of Environmental Technology at SAIC General Motors, said that to this day, this is still a leading technology in the industry. Another manifestation of advanced environmental awareness is the coating waste gas treatment facilities in the factory. The spray room waste gas is purified using zeolite rotary concentration and high-temperature oxidation incineration technology, with a removal efficiency of 90% to 95% for volatile organic compounds.

Proactively taking on more environmental responsibilities cannot rely solely on enterprises to promote their style. In Shanghai, more and more environmental pioneers have gained full recognition and motivation from society due to their courage to innovate and contribute, forming a value recognition loop for energy conservation and emission reduction.

Last year, Huayi Energy Chemical invested 19.3 million yuan to build a new reclaimed water reuse project. After being put into operation, it saved an average of 400 cubic meters of industrial water per hour, reduced the discharge of clean wastewater into the Huangpu River by 450 cubic meters, and reduced the annual discharge of chemical oxygen demand by 78.84 tons and ammonia nitrogen by 3.942 tons. While investing heavily in environmental protection, the enterprise saved a large amount of water intake and drainage costs.

Recently, the sales of Buick GL8 have increased significantly, and the green attributes of the product are a key bonus. Even though its exhaust emissions are required to comply with stricter national standard Type I test emission limits, many pollutant emissions are still far below the limits, such as carbon monoxide below the limit of 35.9% and nitrogen dioxide below the limit of 87.8%.

"The investment and operation costs of self pressurization are much higher than the standard emissions, but we feel it is worth it," Wang Hong said. With the continuous improvement of social environmental awareness, the requirements for standard emissions will continue to be adjusted and stricter. Instead of passively adapting to the standards and carrying out environmental protection and energy-saving renovations time and time again, it is better to "once and for all". After running a "marathon", the overall cost is actually lower.