People's Daily: good use of coal can also keep the blue sky

Update: 2021-02-10 Views: 1546

China is rich in coal, poor in oil and less in gas. Taiyuan's practice reminds people that clean and efficient use of coal can also greatly reduce pollution emissions and achieve a win-win situation of economic development and environmental protection

Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, was once a famous polluted city in China. Among the key monitoring cities of air quality, the degree of pollution was once among the best.

The author recently learned from an interview with the supervision team of the State Council in Shanxi that through the elimination of all small coal-fired boilers with a steam capacity of 10 tons / hour or less and the adoption of new coal-fired boiler emission reduction technologies, Taiyuan's air quality has been greatly improved. The latest ranking has dropped to No. 17 and withdrew from the embarrassing "top ten". According to statistics, in the first five months of this year, the number of excellent days above grade II air quality in Taiyuan reached 81, with an excellent rate of 53.6%, an increase of 13 days year-on-year.

"Taiyuan's ranking still has the potential to decline significantly!" Li Jiangang, deputy chief engineer of Taiyuan thermal power company, introduced that after the commissioning of Taiyuan Swire heating project, which is about to be completed, it can replace 401 municipal internal combustion coal boilers to provide 50% central heating services for Taiyuan, greatly improve heating efficiency and significantly reduce pollution emissions. The coal-fired boiler burns directly at the coal pit mouth to produce hot steam, which is transported to the urban area of Taiyuan with a distance of 37 kilometers through the pipeline, which not only reduces the cost of long-distance coal transportation, but also allows the pollutants produced by the boiler to be absorbed in the outer suburbs with large environmental capacity.

In addition, Taiyuan has developed coal-fired generating units that can meet or even lower than the emission standards of gas-fired generating units, and has successfully carried out pilot and demonstration. It will be popularized and applied in the city in the future, and the air quality is expected to be further improved.

Taiyuan's practice reminds people that clean and efficient use of coal can also greatly reduce pollution emissions and achieve a win-win situation of economic development and environmental protection. Coal is not a natural "big polluter". It depends on whether you can use it and use it well. In Australia and other countries, more than 95% of power generation is provided by high-efficiency coal-fired generator sets, which has no adverse impact on air quality.

As a natural gas producing area, Taiyuan is not without clean natural gas. However, it is estimated that if natural gas is used to replace coal for heating, the use cost of the former is three times that of the latter. After comprehensive consideration, Taiyuan still chooses to use coal for heating.

Although there are natural gas sources, clean coal is preferred. Taiyuan's move may inspire some domestic cities keen on "changing coal to gas". In order to control haze, many domestic cities are ready to replace coal with gas and oil. For some cities with resources and financial resources, this alternative road may be feasible; However, for some cities lacking resources and funds, it may not be an optimal scheme. Replacing coal with gas and oil will help improve the ambient air quality, but the economic affordability of the government and the public should also be considered.

China's energy structure is "rich in coal, poor in oil and less gas". Coal is China's dominant and leading energy, which is difficult to change in the next few decades. "Coal is a treasure. The key is to make good use of it." Clean and efficient use of coal can also reduce air pollution and keep the blue sky and white clouds while maintaining energy security and ensuring economic and social development.

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