The little-known clean energy blue charcoal has become a "sharp weapon" for reducing haze.

In recent years, frequent haze weather in northern China has often caused trouble to the people every winter, and the emission of bituminous coal is one of the important causes of PM2.5. This forced Yulin, Shaanxi Province, which was "prosperous because of coal", to move into the "fast lane" of building a new energy and chemical industry base.

“At present, the development momentum of Yulin City’s new energy industry has accelerated across the board, and has become an important support for promoting economic development, optimizing industrial structure, and promoting economic transformation.” Zhou Wenjun, deputy director of the Planning Office of Yulin City Development and Reform Commission, accepted reporter said in an interview.

Yulin City is located in the northernmost part of Shaanxi Province, at the border of the five provinces (regions) of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi. As a place rich in energy resources, the local area takes advantage of regional resources to vigorously advocate the development of clean energy. "Transformation and upgrading" has become a hot word in Yulin's economic development.

In the development process of Yulin's clean energy, Lantan plays an important role and has become a "sharp tool" to promote local pollution control and haze reduction and drive energy transformation.

Villages in Zibo, Shandong Province tried burning blue charcoal sponsored by Yulin City

Liu Zaitang said that Yulin Shenmu Enterprises have always had a large demand for blue charcoal. The past practice was to burn raw coal in the open air to burn off its volatile compounds, a process that often caused a lot of environmental pollution. Later, local companies and Lantan Factory began to jointly develop and process, and gradually developed the crude technology in the past into the current energy-saving and environmentally friendly process. "We have come step by step from open flame combustion, and this journey has been very difficult."

In the coking industry, blue charcoal is called semi-coke, which is made of high-quality Jurassic non-stick coal and weak stick coal. Made from fired coal blocks. Most of the coal suitable for producing blue charcoal is distributed in northern Shaanxi, Xinjiang and a few areas in Inner Mongolia, so blue charcoal has become a regional product.

Zhou Bin, an expert from the Institute of Economics of the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, said that as a type of clean energy, blue charcoal contains relatively low levels of pollutants, such as sulfur, compared with traditional coal. The efficiency is higher. In addition, the price of blue carbon is much lower than that of nuclear energy, solar energy and other energy sources. Since the coal industry in Yulin, northern Shaanxi, is relatively mature, Yulin Lantan has already formed a scale and brand, with a high degree of market recognition.

Blue charcoal is burned in the furnace

It is understood that from January to September 2017, Yulin City produced 22.8083 million tons of blue charcoal, a year-on-year increase of 11.47%; and sold 16.0629 million tons of blue charcoal. , a year-on-year increase of 17.71%. Yulin Lantan is mainly sold to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi and other surrounding areas as well as Hebei, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangzhou, Sichuan, Fujian, Guizhou and other places. A small amount of it is exported to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, India, Norway and other countries.

“The demand for blue charcoal in the domestic industrial market is becoming saturated, and the annual consumption is basically stable at around 15 million tons, but there is a huge gap in the civilian market.” Liu Zaitang told reporters that currently, in northern China, About 270 million tons of raw coal are needed every year for heating and cooking, but the Shenmu area of ??Yulin can only produce 20 million tons of blue charcoal every year. If blue charcoal is used to replace raw coal in the future, the prospects for the civilian market are very promising.

Qin Linhui, director of the Yulin Municipal Energy Bureau, believes that compared with traditional coal combustion, blue charcoal is not only clean and environmentally friendly, but also has a great price advantage. At present, the awareness of blue carbon in the civilian field is not high, and changing the inertial thinking of fuel use still requires government guidance and assistance.

In this way, the use of blue charcoal can be promoted to reduce smog.