Environmental Impacts of the Revised Emission Standard for Air Pollutants for Boilers during the Heating Season in Beijing, China

Tao Yue; Xiaoxi Zhang; Chenlong Wang; Penglai Zuo; Yali Tong; Jiajia Gao; Yifeng Xue; Li Tong; Kun Wang; Xiang Gao

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2018.02.0046

Environmental Impacts of the Revised Emission Standard for Air Pollutants for Boilers during the Heating Season in Beijing, China

Tao Yue¹^,2, Xiaoxi Zhang², Chenlong Wang², Penglai Zuo², Yali Tong², Jiajia Gao², Yifeng Xue³, Li Tong², Kun Wang ², Xiang Gao ¹

¹State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
²Department of Air Pollution Control, Beijing Municipal Institute of Labour Protection, Beijing 100054, China
³National Engineering Research Center of Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Beijing 100037, China

Received: February 5, 2018
Revised: May 2, 2018
Accepted: May 2, 2018
Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2018.02.0046

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Cite this article:
Yue, T., Zhang, X., Wang, C., Zuo, P., Tong, Y., Gao, J., Xue, Y., Tong, L., Wang, K. and Gao, X. (2018). Environmental Impacts of the Revised Emission Standard for Air Pollutants for Boilers during the Heating Season in Beijing, China. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 18: 2853-2864. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2018.02.0046

HIGHLIGHTS

The environmental impacts of the retrofits of industrial boilers were projected.
A comprehensive emission inventory for industrial boilers was established.
Scenario analysis and CMAQ model were used for the projection.
The ambient concentration of NO₂ reduced by 4.4% in IPC-1 and 3.7% in IPC-2.
The ambient concentration of PM_2.5 and SO₂ reduced by 7.1% and 9.5%, respectively.

ABSTRACT

Beijing, the capital of China, revised the emission standard for air pollutants for boilers in 2015. To promote fulfillment of the new standard, the “coal to gas project” and the “reward replaces subsidy policy for low-NO_x retrofits of boilers” were implemented recently, and the emission of pollutants from boilers has significantly changed as a result. In this study, a comprehensive unit-based emission inventory of multiple air pollutants, including PM₁₀, PM_2.5, CO, SO₂, NO_x, VOCs and NH₃, from both coal-fired and gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing in 2015 was established with data on annual activity and category-specific emission factors, and scenario analysis and the CMAQ model were used to forecast the environmental impacts of the revised standard during the heating season in Beijing. Our results showed that in 2015, the emissions of CO, NO_x, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NH₃ and VOCs from the industrial boilers in Beijing were about 51,745 t, 27,943 t, 10,143 t, 14,624 t, 20,227 t, 197.55 t and 1304 t, respectively. Coal-fired boilers were the major source of CO, SO₂, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, while gas-fired boilers were the major source of VOCs and NH₃. Furthermore, in IPC-1 and IPC-2 scenarios, which represent the different levels of implementation of the “low-NO_x retrofits policy” as well as the replacement of all coal-fired boilers with gas-fired boilers, the ambient concentration of PM_2.5 and SO₂ was reduced by about 7.1% and 9.5%, respectively, and the concentration of NO₂ was reduced by about 4.4% in IPC-1 and 3.7% in IPC-2 during the heating season in Beijing.