Estimation of the Effectiveness of the Current Policies on Coal-related Air Pollution Control

Abstract

China has been experiencing severe haze pollution mainly due to its fast economic growth and large amount of coal consumption. To deal with the problems, Chinese government has issued a series of policies to control main air pollutants emission. In this paper, the effectiveness of the policies to control the major four coal-consuming sectors, which are coal-fired power plants, coal-related industrial processes, coal-fired boilers and household coal consumption, were evaluated. The main air pollutants emission reduction was estimated and the air quality improvement was simulated using the WRF-CMAQ model. The results showed that by 2017, the emissions of SO2, NOx and primary PM from the four sectors will decrease by 1.37 million tons, 1.28 million tons and 1.55 million tons, respectively, which are 7.4%, 6.9% and 10.1%, compared with 2015. Consequently, the annual average concentration of PM2.5 will decrease by 3ug/m3, a drop of 6%. Implementation of the ultra-low emission standards in the coal-fired power plants is the most effective measures to reduce SO2 and NOx emission, while installation of dust removal facilities in coal related industrial processes contributes most to primary PM emission reduction.