Green Task' under Economic Development: Changzhou Cracking 'Chemical Watershed'

Recently, the reporter came to Xinyang Technology Group Co., Ltd. located in Changzhou Binjiang chemical industry park, driving for half an hour from downtown to the north. The factory is neat and orderly under the blue sky and white clouds, and the employees are checking the parameters of various equipment in the monitoring room. Zhang Guoqing, a staff member of Xinyang Science and Technology, told reporters that in recent years, Changzhou has paid close attention to environmental protection, especially in the Binjiang Chemical Park. "Whether the people on the river or the residents in the city, they drink the Yangtze River water, so we must protect the Yangtze River." Among the eight cities along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, Changzhou has the shortest coastline with a total length of only 18 km. However, in the 13 square kilometers riverside chemical park, there are 71 enterprises of various types and 44 enterprises along the river, of which 30 are chemical enterprises. The voice of the people is the mission of the Party and the government. In recent years, the Changzhou Municipal Party Committee, the municipal government and the only Changzhou High-tech Zone with the Yangtze River coastline in the city have been acting around the request of General Secretary Xi Jinping for the "Great Protection of the Yangtze River".

On August 9, with the final 8,600 square meters warehouse being demolished, the first phase of the demolition of Changlong Chemical Industry was completed, which also marks the further development of Changzhou Yangtze River Protection and the breakdown of "Chemical Watershed".

Changzhou High-tech Zone actively explores the way of green transformation and development based on the precondition of giving priority to ecological protection, and realizes the simultaneous promotion of ecological environment protection and industrial kinetic energy conversion.

As an important project of Changzhou High-tech Zone in the Yangtze River Protection Action Plan of 2019, the overall demolition of Changlong Chemical Industry must ensure the safe demolition in place. Time is tight, tasks are heavy and risks are high. Where should we remove them? How to remove it? How to ensure safety? This is a difficult problem for Changzhou High-tech Zone Yangtze River Protection Command.

In order to demolish this chemical enterprise within 1 km of the Yangtze River safely, the demolition project team of Changzhou High-tech Zone fought for 30 consecutive days from five to eight days in July, transporting 5600 cubic metres of materials in the field, clearing 28 cubic metres of domestic waste, classifying 41 cubic metres of industrial waste and replacing 50 cubic metres of hazardous industrial waste with packaging. After disposal, the equipment of powder workshop, emulsifier workshop, herbicide warehouse and oxygen and nitrogen production refrigeration workshop were finally dismantled. It is reported that Changzhou High-tech Zone has carried out three rounds of chemical renovation and upgrading. Through comprehensive evaluation of chemical enterprises along the Yangtze River, the policy of "closing, stopping, merging and transferring" backward production capacity was classified and formulated. More than 70 industrial enterprises were shut down and transformed, 506 "scattered and dirty" enterprises were banned, and 1329 enterprises were renovated and upgraded.

This year, the region plans to continue to shut down and relocate 10 chemical enterprises and upgrade 25, of which more than 7 will be shut down within one kilometer of the Yangtze River, and more than 20 will be shut down and relocated within one kilometer of the Yangtze River by 2021, so as to gradually solve the problem of "chemical enclosure of the Yangtze River".

Grasp closure at one hand and promotion at the other. Jiang Zhongqiu, assistant general manager and safety director of Xinyang Science and Technology, told reporters that this year Binjiang Chemical Industrial Park launched a special renovation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In order to reduce volatile organic pollutants (VOCs) emissions, Xinyang Science and Technology has been building a volatile organic pollutants leak detection and repair (LDAR) system since 2017. About 78000 possible micro-leak sites are located, numbered, documented and classified. Since the establishment of LDAR system, more than 800 leak points have been found and repaired, reducing VOCs emissions by about 42.9 tons. At present, the whole Binjiang Chemical Industry Park has realized the full coverage of LDAR (Volatile Organic Compound Leakage Detection and Repair) of the park and the chemical enterprises outside the park. In recent years, nearly 1500 tons of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions have been reduced by comprehensively carrying out the work of "one plant, one measurement" and "one plant, one policy". More gratifying is that the Changzhou High-tech Zone has laid out harmless and resource-based treatment centers such as sewage, sludge, hazardous waste, waste oil and construction waste in the riverside plate, effectively promoting the development of circular economy. The solid waste comprehensive treatment project, which was put into operation in June last year, can treat 28 industrial wastes and solid wastes such as medical wastes, pesticide wastes, wood preservative wastes, etc. The energy generated during the incineration process is recycled for steam production as a green energy supply Park enterprise, and the total amount of hazardous wastes is 30,000 tons per year. Scale can not only provide solid waste disposal services for many industrial enterprises in Changzhou High-tech Zone, but also radiate the whole city and the surrounding areas along the river to promote ecological protection and green development.

Yangtze River protection, we must achieve green transformation. Last year, a world top 500 enterprise intends to settle in Binjiang Economic Development Zone with a registered capital of 60 million euros, which will bring considerable tax revenue. However, some experts at the project evaluation meeting pointed out that the comprehensive energy consumption of natural gas and steam is very high. Under the background of sustainable energy conservation and emission reduction, the Binjiang Economic Development Zone eventually rejected the project according to the expert evaluation results. Zhou Bin, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Party and Labor Committee of the Changzhou High-tech Zone, said that the Yangtze River must be protected, but the economy also needs to develop. Therefore, innovation and development are the only driving force to speed up industrial upgrading and energy conversion. In terms of incremental innovation, Changzhou High-tech Zone has comprehensively raised the entry threshold for new attraction projects. Especially in Binjiang Economic Development Zone, from 2016 onwards, project attraction should be based on the consistency of industrial policy and technological equipment.