Our country is a large country of energy consumption.  At present, to win the battle against pollution, we need to prevent and control pollution at its source. For example, we need to adjust the energy mix, reduce coal consumption and increase the use of clean energy. China's coal consumption accounts for about half of the world, and the energy structure is shifting from coal to diversification.

Most people's first impression of coal is that it is black and pungent when burned. However, did you know that coal can burn quite cleanly if modern technology is used? Compared with the national emission standards, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions have been reduced by 83%, 50% and 67% respectively. At the National Science and Technology Awards Conference in January this year, the "Research and development and application of key technologies for ultra-low emissions of coal-fired units" won the first prize of the National Technological Invention Award. This is a big step forward in the clean utilization of coal in China. According to statistics, China's energy consumption totaled 4.49 billion tons of standard coal in 2017, of which coal consumption accounted for 60.4% of the total energy consumption, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous year. "China accounts for about half of the world's coal consumption, and this combined with extensive use of coal previously has resulted in high emissions from dispersed burning of large amounts of coal." National Development and Reform Commission Energy Research Institute researcher Han Wenke said. Zhang Shaoqiang, chairman of the China Coal Processing and Utilization Association, said, "Clean utilization and large-scale burning are effective methods to improve air quality." Many experts believe that coal reduction is the pre-task of clean and efficient utilization, otherwise the pollutant emission concentration is low, the total amount is still huge. In the past two years, China has cut coal production capacity by more than 500 million tons. In 2017, non-fossil energy accounted for 17.6 percent of the country's total energy production, 6.4 percentage points higher than in 2012. Although the proportion of coal in the primary energy tends to decline, it is difficult to change the main energy status in the short and medium term. The realization of coal transformation development is the foothold of the energy transformation development of our country.
"We have a consensus on the development of clean energy, but it is far from enough to quench our thirst. On the one hand, among the proven reserves of fossil energy, coal accounts for more than 94%, while oil and natural gas only account for about 6%. The two are highly dependent on the outside world, and their consumption cost is much higher than that of coal, regardless of the differences in the use of varieties. On the other hand, the stability and controllability of wind power, photovoltaic and other new energy needs to be improved. At least in the short term, it is difficult to replace coal in a large proportion. Zhang Shaoqiang believes that the proportion of coal consumption should be reduced in a scientific and orderly way to promote clean and efficient use of coal. The emission control index of coal electric power units is at the leading level in the world, and the efficient utilization of coal has taken a substantial step. In 2017, the utilization rate of raw coal was 70.2%, 1.3 percentage points higher than last year. Progress has been made in the comprehensive utilization of resources. In 2017, the comprehensive utilization and disposal rate of coal gangue reached 67.3 percent. At present, China's coal consumption is mainly distributed in coal-fired power generation, metallurgical coking, coal chemical industry, boiler coal (including building materials furnace and heating), civilian bulk coal, coal consumption accounts for about 50%, 17.5%, 6.8%, 20% and less than 6% of the total coal consumption. "Coal accounts for a large proportion of power generation, but consumption is concentrated, pollution control and emission reduction efforts are strong." Zhang said the country has already broken through the technology of large-scale coal-fired power generation with ultra-low emissions, and the emission of air pollutants from coal-fired power plants meets or is even better than the national emission standard for natural gas power generation, which means no more than 5 milligrams of smoke per cubic meter, 35 milligrams of sulfur dioxide per cubic meter and 50 milligrams of nitrogen oxide per cubic meter. So will the costs be high? "The added cost of power generation is about 2-3 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than 10 percent, which is lower than the cost of gas-fired power generation," Zhang said. The person in charge of the National Energy Administration introduced that by the end of the third quarter of 2017, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan and other places have completed the ultra-low emission transformation task of all qualified units 1 to 2 years in advance. The national total has completed the ultra-low emission transformation of coal power more than 640 million kW, and completed the target of transforming 580 million kW in advance by 2020.
All newly built coal-fired power generation units have ultra-low emissions, and the pollutant emission control index of coal power generation units in China now leads the world. In addition to ultra-low emission projects, energy conservation and flexibility upgrading in the coal-power sector are also being accelerated. "By the end of the third quarter of 2017, China had completed a total of 530 million kw of coal-power energy conservation. In addition, we also focus on the implementation of thermoelectric decoupling transformation and deep peaking transformation of pure condensed coal power units to maximize the peaking capacity of coal power units and make room for new energy power generation. For example, after some coal power units in Liaoning province implemented flexible transformation, the rate of new energy wind abandonment dropped by 6 percentage points in 2017." National Energy Administration officials for example. In the deep processing of coal, the level of domestic production of Chinese technology has been improved, and some key technologies lead the world. Using coal as raw materials, we can produce super clean diesel, natural gas, etc. According to the vehicle operation and bench tests completed by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, compared with National V standard diesel, clean diesel from coal can reduce the emission of carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons by 24%, 49%, 12% and 34%, respectively. But in Han Wenke's opinion: "Coal chemical industry can be developed, but the scale should be appropriate and orderly, especially within the range of ecological environment can bear." The treatment of bulk coal is a difficult point. We will adhere to both reduction and clean replacement of bulk coal. Generally speaking, coal power generation, metallurgical coking and coal chemical industry can be used on a large scale, and pollution control is gradually improving. At present, what is really difficult to operate and supervise is a large amount of loose coal, mainly including small boilers and small kilns in the industrial field, loose coal for civil life, etc. The bulk coal is usually purchased in bulk, the circulation link is chaotic and difficult to supervise, and the ash and sulfur content of coal are high. Disperse use, combustion process efficiency is low; Most of them are direct combustion and direct discharge, and desulfurization and denitrification facilities are almost blank. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 480,000 coal-fired heating industrial boilers and about 130,000 various kilns, with an annual consumption of about 750 million tons of coal. "Boiler efficiency is low, pollutant control facilities are simple, a large number of heating boilers due to seasonal factors load changes, the actual combustion efficiency, boiler thermal efficiency average than the international advanced level 15%-20% lower, resulting in soot emissions more than 40% of the total national emissions, sulfur dioxide emissions accounted for more than 35% of the total national emissions, become a serious source of air pollutants emissions. " Zhang Shaoqiang introduced. In his opinion, small boilers less than 10 tons of steam per hour should not be reformed due to excessive dispersion, old furnace type, small capacity, etc., and should speed up the process of elimination, support integration and replacement. Industrial boilers of over 20 tons of steam per hour are similar to power plant boilers, and they can also achieve ultra-low emissions after supporting flue gas purification measures. "Now there are new pulverized coal type industrial boilers with combustion efficiency of more than 90 percent, and energy saving alone is more than 30 percent higher than the old chain furnace. However, there are certain difficulties in the promotion at present, which is related to the low cost of violation and inadequate supervision, but also affected by the 'one-size-fits-all' decoal in some areas. Some places also require large and medium-sized thermoelectric units to be replaced by gas power generation, whether or not to achieve ultra-low emissions, leading to low enthusiasm for technological research and development and application of enterprises, which is worth discussing. The relevant departments can raise the emission standards to be consistent with the gas units, who is better and who is worse can be compared, beyond the standards, and then shut down and eliminate no problem." Zhang Shaoqiang suggested. Domestic bulk coal consumption is about 200 million tons a year, of which more than 90 percent is used for winter heating in northern rural areas. Although the proportion of domestic loose coal is small, most of the stoves are primitive, dispersed, and the economic affordability of users is not high, which is a difficult "hard bone" for clean and efficient use of coal. The relevant person in charge of the National Energy Administration said that it will adhere to the reduction of bulk coal replacement and clean replacement, combined with the blocking, through the implementation of high-quality coal sources, the construction of clean coal distribution center, the promotion of the application of clean coal and briquette, advanced civil stoves, strengthen supervision and other measures to solve the problem of clean use of civil bulk coal.
Zhou Dadi, executive vice president of the China Energy Research Society, believes that while clean and efficient, efforts should also be made to low-carbon. "There is no way to change the high carbon nature of coal. The current focus is on clean and efficient, but it does not mean that low carbon is given up." Recently held a national energy work conference proposed to speed up research and experimental carbon capture and application technology, strive for early breakthrough, so that the development of coal power more in line with the requirements of clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient. "Overall planning to promote the clean and efficient use of coal is one of the key tasks of energy work in 2018. On the basis of controlling the total coal consumption, we will strive to increase the proportion of thermal coal in coal consumption, strive to raise the proportion of thermal coal to about 55% by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, and achieve ultra-low emissions for all coal-fired units with 300,000 kilowatts grade and conditions." National Energy Bureau responsible person said.