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On October 22, 2022, China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MOE) released national standards to further curb volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission in three key industries. They will take effect on January 1, 2023.
The three standards are:
GB 41616-2022 Emission Standard of Air Pollutants for Printing Industry;
GB 26453-2022 Emission Standard of Air Pollutants for Glass Industry;
GB 41617-2022 Emission Standard of Air Pollutants for Mineral Wool Industry.
Background
In 2021, China clearly pointed out that during the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" period, national efforts should be made to vigorously strengthen the coordinated control of fine particle matter (PM2.5) and ozone. As an essential precursor to form PM2.5 and ozone, VOCs stand as the major rectification target for air pollution.
The current management of VOCs emission in the printing, glass and mineral wool industry is flawed in several ways. The lax requirement on VOCs emission limits and ineffective source and process control of VOCs emission can not meet the demands for whole-process VOCs control and fail to meet environmental management needs. In addition, current standards are not targeted at specific industrial process, putting its feasiblity and applicablity under question. Therefore It calls for a necessity to establish a practical and authoritative standard to enhance the management of VOCs emission in the whole industrial process.
According to the characteristics of different industrial production processes, the newly released standards enhance the whole process control of VOCs emissions from source reduction, process control to end treatment. The highlights are shown below:
Requirements for organized emission
VOCs emission limits in printing industry
Unit: mg/m3
| No. | Pollutant | Limit | Monitoring location for pollutant discharge |
| 1 | Benzene | 1 | Exhaust pipes of workshop or production facility |
| 2 | Benzene series | 15 | |
| 3 | Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) | 70 |
VOCs emission limits in mineral wool industry
Unit: mg/m3
| No. | Pollutant | Application scope | Melting process | Forming process | Monitoring location for pollutant discharge |
| Glass furnace | Cotton collection chamber and curing chamber | Exhaust pipes of workshop or production facility | |||
| 1 | Ammonia | Flue gas treatment using urea, ammonia water, etc. | 8 | - | |
| Additives that use ammonia water as binder | - | 30 | |||
| 2 | NMHC | All | - | 80 | |
| 3 | Phenols | Using phenolic resin as binder | - | 20 | |
| 4 | Formaldhyde | - | 5 |
VOCs emission limits in glass industry
Unit: mg/m3
| No. | Pollutant | Application scope | Glass furnace | VOCs-related material processing procedures | Monitoring location for pollutant discharge |
| 1 | Ammonia | Flue gas treatment using urea, ammonia water, etc | 8 | - | Exhaust pipes of workshop or production facility |
| 2 | NMHC | All | - | 80 | |
| 3 | Benzene series | All | - | 40 | |
| 4 | Benzene | All | - | 1 |
In addition, the standards also stipulated requirements for fugitive emission of VOCs during storage, transfer, transportation and industrial process, as well as monitoring requirements. The requirements for organized and fugitive emission will be implemented as of July 1, 2024 for existing facility and January 1, 2023 for new facility.
So far, China has introduced several national standards on emission of air pollutants in industries like pharmaceutical (GB 37823-2019) and paint, ink and adhesive (GB 37824-2019). Many provinces and cities in China have pioneered the implementation of local standards on VOCs emission. With changes in China's economic growth strategy and prioritization of environmental remediation, it is expected that more mandatory national standards will be formulated to enhance the regulation and management of VOCs emission.
