On 1 Dec., 2022, Ecology and Environment Department of Jilin Province issued a notice on further inspecting prominent problems in VOCs treatment. The notice pointed out the province will clarify the responsibilities of enterprises for pollution governance, urge and guide enterprises to implement the rectification task, to ensure that the rectification rate of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) governance ledger problems reaches more than 91%; full coverage of spot check and review on site will be realised to promote the continuous improvement of ambient air quality and the completion of the VOCs emission reduction goal during the 14th Five Year Plan period.
The notice requires all regions to focus on petrochemical industries such as petroleum refining, petrochemical industry and synthetic resin, and chemical industries such as organic chemical, coal chemical, coking, pharmacy, pesticide, coating, printing ink and adhesive. More details are as follows:
Governance requirements:
For industries with many intermittent production processes, such as pharmaceutical, pesticide, coating, ink and adhesive, airtight measures should be taken in the processes of feeding and discharging, material transportation, mixing, solid-liquid separation, drying, filling and sampling; if coating is needed in the open air, low (no) VOCs content coatings meeting the requirements of national or local standards shall be used or mobile waste gas collection and treatment facilities shall be used. The storage, allocation, transfer, and transportation of materials such as coatings, inks, adhesives, thinners, and cleaning agents with VOCs accounting for 10% or more shall be sealed.
Prominent problems:
The VOCs content limit standards for coatings, inks, adhesives, cleaning agents and other products are still not implemented properly and there are still substandard products in the market; replacement ratio of low (no) VOCs content coatings, inks, adhesives and cleaning agents is low.
Key inspection points:
Enterprises using raw and auxiliary materials such as paints, inks, adhesives and cleaning agents containing VOCs should be inspected; enterprises are urged to record the product name, VOCs content and usage of VOCs containing raw and auxiliary materials, and establish management accounts.
Governance requirements:
Industrial coating, packaging and printing, shoe leather and bag manufacturing, bamboo and wood products, electronics and other key industries should increase the source substitution of low (no) VOCs content raw and auxiliary materials, and strengthen the application of mature technology substitutes. Manufacturers of coatings, inks, adhesives, cleaning agents and other products shall provide product labels, indicating product name, application field, construction ratio, VOCs content and other information.