Air pollutant control and strategy in coal-fired power industry for promotion of China’s emission reduction

Coal-fired power industry has always been the major power source in China. As coal-fired power industry consumes around a half of China’s coal production, it is always thought to be a big air pollutant emission source. As more and more strict legislations in coal-fired power industry have been issued by the government, the emission performance in coal-fired power industry has been drastically reduced recently. Based on a brief review of the development of emission control in China’s coal-fired power industry, the affecting mechanism among the development of installed capacities of emission control device, pollutant emission, and emission performances in coal-fired power industry is studied. According to a systematic study on the development of emissions of classified categories, the role of coal-fired power industry as a pollutant source is reevaluated. It is found that, coal-fired power industry has contributed the most to China’s emission reduction, and the barycenter of air pollutant emission has been transformed to other high energy consumption industries, like heat, iron/steel, and cement. Then some development strategies are suggested, such as maintaining the current emission standard in coal-fired power industry; expending the coal-fired power emission standards to categories of heat generation and supply, nonmetallic mineral production and ferrous metals smelting and processing; and controlling other heavy metal by consulting the method of Hg control.