VOCs governance has become the most obvious weakness in the field of air governance, which is mainly manifested in four "not in place"

"Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors of PM2.5 and ozone pollution. The 14th Five Year Plan outlines the need to promote the coordinated control of PM2.5 and ozone, and proposes the task goal of accelerating the comprehensive control of volatile organic compounds emissions, and reducing the total amount of volatile organic compounds emissions by more than 10%. The blue sky defense war under the new situation urgently needs to comprehensively strengthen the comprehensive control of VOCs."
On the morning of November 4, at the 11th Volatile Organic Pollutants (VOCs) Emission Reduction and Control Conference, Zhang Dawei, Deputy Director of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said.

It is understood that in January and October this year, the national ozone concentration increased by 6.4% year on year, which is the only pollutant among the six pollutants under routine monitoring that does not decrease but increases. Moreover, due to the long-term high temperature, drought and other adverse conditions, the ozone concentration in many provinces and cities has reached new historical highs.
"Compared with our traditional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, soot and nitrogen oxides, VOCs treatment has its own characteristics. The current work foundation is still weak, and it has become the most obvious weakness in the field of atmospheric environment treatment." Zhang Dawei pointed out.
Four "Inadequate" VOCs Governance
Zhang Dawei introduced that at present, VOCs governance is mainly manifested in four "not in place", that is, source control is not in place, pollution governance is not in place, standardized management is not in place, and regulatory capacity is not in place.
Source control is not in place. At present, the source substitution measures for raw and auxiliary materials such as low VOCs content coatings, inks, adhesives and cleaning agents are obviously insufficient. According to statistics, the proportion of water-based, powder and other low VOCs content coatings used in industrial coatings in China is less than 20%, far lower than the level of 40-60% in developed countries in Europe and the United States.
Pollution control is not in place. The late start of China's VOCs governance market, low access threshold, and poor regulatory capacity have led to the uneven quality of pollution control facilities, coping with and ineffective governance. First, unorganized emissions are alarming. A large number of enterprises have not taken effective control measures against the unorganized emission of VOCs, and have not implemented the requirements of laws, regulations and standards for sealing, collection and treatment. The problems of small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly prominent. Storage tanks, loading and unloading, open liquid level, process escape and other problems are common. The research shows that the unorganized emission accounts for more than 60% of China's industrial VOCs emissions. Second, simple and inefficient facilities are rampant. At present, the field of VOCs governance is full of a large number of simple and inefficient facilities such as low-temperature plasma, photocatalysis and photo oxidation, and the emission reduction effect is about zero. In some areas, the utilization rate is even more than 80%. Third, the equipment for efficient governance is virtually non-existent. Due to non-standard design, mismatched systems, inadequate airtightness, incomplete collection and other reasons, some enterprises have greatly reduced their pollution control effect even if they use efficient treatment technologies.
The standard management is not in place. First, the management system is not perfect. For example, some enterprises that adopt activated carbon adsorption process will not replace the adsorption materials for a long time. Second, the operating procedures are incomplete. If the operating temperature of some enterprises adopting combustion and condensation treatment technology fails to meet the design requirements, the design requires that the combustion temperature be more than 800 degrees, the actual operating temperature is 500-600 degrees, and the design condensation temperature is 20 degrees below zero, which may actually be more than 0 degrees. The enterprises carrying out LDAR testing did not operate according to the procedures, or even practiced fraud, and the leakage detection rate was far lower than the actual. Third, the sense of responsibility is weak. Some efficient governance facilities, such as RTO, which are monitored by PLC system, have no data storage card installed in the control module, which makes it impossible to view the historical operation and the opening records of emergency bypass control valve, etc. There is a loophole in evading supervision.
The supervision ability is not in place. First, the quality of self monitoring is not high, because the point setting is unreasonable, the sampling method is not standardized, and the monitoring period is not representative, which leads to the general low quality of monitoring of enterprises; Second, the detection equipment is not complete. Some key enterprises do not provide automatic monitoring facilities as required. The VOCs emission related industrial parks and industrial clusters lack effective monitoring traceability and early warning measures. Many environmental protection law enforcement departments at the grass-roots level do not provide convenient detection equipment. As a result, there is no way to timely detect and deal with the problem of illegal emissions and releases in the VOCs field.
The next step will further improve the scientificity, pertinence and effectiveness of VOCs governance
In view of the above problems, in recent years, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has taken effective measures to steadily promote the comprehensive treatment of VOCs.
"Since 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has carried out supervision and assistance for air quality improvement in key regions in summer for three consecutive years, promoting the continuous improvement of VOCs governance in key industries and the continuous strengthening of monitoring and supervision capabilities." Zhang Dawei said that the next step will be to further improve the scientificity, pertinence and effectiveness of VOCs governance, highlight classified management, implement policies separately, and further promote petrochemical, chemical, industrial painting, packaging and printing Comprehensive treatment of VOCs in key industries such as oil storage, transportation and marketing has promoted breakthroughs in key regions such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, surrounding regions, and the Yangtze River Delta.
The main measures are as follows:
First, comprehensively strengthen source substitution. Accelerate the R&D, innovation and upgrading of low VOCs raw and auxiliary materials, products, and production processes, focus on the promotion of industrial coating industries such as automobile manufacturing, automobile maintenance, wood furniture manufacturing, automobile parts, engineering machinery, steel structures, packaging and printing industries, and electronic industries, fundamentally reduce the generation of VOCs, and enable the majority of VOCs related SMEs and industrial clusters to get rid of the "double dilemma" of governance and supervision from the source.
Second, comprehensively strengthen emission control. First, strengthen the supervision of unorganized emissions. Focusing on storage tanks, loading and unloading, VOCs containing organic wastewater, dynamic and static sealing points, and technological processes, unorganized emissions shall be investigated, and those failing to meet the requirements of relevant emission standards shall be rectified. Measures such as equipment and site sealing, process improvement, and effective collection and treatment of waste gas shall be taken by classification to effectively reduce unorganized emissions. The second is to build appropriate and efficient pollution control facilities. For single low temperature plasma, photocatalysis, photo oxidation and non water soluble VOCs waste gas, simple low efficiency treatment facilities such as single spray absorption are used and cannot meet the standard stably, comprehensive cleaning and treatment are carried out. According to the concentration, composition, air volume and production conditions of waste gas, appropriate treatment technologies are recommended to accelerate the upgrading and transformation. For example, there are about 10000 sets of efficient combustion facilities nationwide, with an annual increase of about 1000 sets. The increase and speed will be further accelerated. Third, implement comprehensive governance of parks and clusters. For industrial parks and industrial clusters, establish industry benchmarks, formulate remediation plans, and guide the overall upgrading; We will strengthen unified management, strengthen resource sharing, and implement centralized governance. Carry out monitoring and evaluation of the park and establish an information sharing platform. Qualified "Green Island" projects such as centralized painting center, centralized recovery and disposal center of organic solvent and centralized regeneration base of activated carbon are planned and constructed as a whole.
Third, comprehensively strengthen monitoring and control. First, revise the list of key pollutant discharge units, and urge the installation of automatic monitoring facilities at the main drain outlets of key sources related to VOCs emissions. The second is to improve the detection capability of enterprises, and encourage enterprises to equip portable VOCs detection instruments, infrared cameras, etc. The third is to urge enterprises to standardize management, encourage the installation of central control systems, record the key parameters of production, pollution emissions, and the operation of VOCs control facilities such as temperature and differential pressure, and properly preserve historical data.
Fourth, comprehensively strengthen supervision and law enforcement. First, strengthen law enforcement and supervision. Focusing on the overall standard discharge, we will seriously investigate and deal with such major illegal acts as illegal discharge, excessive discharge and fraud, so as to form an effective deterrent. Second, strengthen remote supervision and assistance. Put the operation management specifications into the positive list of supervision and law enforcement, conduct more remote supervision and less on-site inspection. Third, punish the disorder of winning the bid at a low price. Publicly publish the list of governance units with poor traceability governance effect, weak technical service ability and low operation management level, and implement joint punishment.
Fifth, comprehensively strengthen technological innovation. At present, environmental protection technology innovation and industrial development face many new opportunities and broad market space. Taking full advantage of the rapid development of VOCs governance industry, we will vigorously promote the production and application of high-end industries and major technical supporting equipment involving VOCs mainstream control technology, cultivate leading enterprises with driving capacity, and provide strong scientific and technological support for VOCs comprehensive governance.
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