Opening its eyes

In the past, Zhou Hong, a retired blind worker living at Shenyang, capital of China's northeast Liaoning province, struggled to turn on the stove for breakfast every morning, and sometimes singed her fingers.

Because of noise from the nearby Shenyang Shenhai Thermal Power Plant, it was quite difficult for her to be guided by what she heard.

"Before, when I was pouring boiled water into the thermos flasks, I didn't know when it would be full. I also couldn't distinguish directions and always bumped on the furniture," Zhou says, frowning.

But thanks to Shenyang Shenhai Thermal Power Co Ltd, a 12-meter noise-resistant wall has been built with an investment of 3 million yuan. The wall blankets the power plant sound and ensures a safe and convenient life for the 150 households in the blind community opposite the plant.

The noise prior to the wall was estimated by the local environmental bureau at between 70-80 decibels - twice to four times as loud as ordinary conversation or equivalent to the sound of a passing car from 10 feet away. At present, the noise is estimated at 50 to 60 decibels, Sixty decibels is about equivalent to the sound of ordinary conversation.

Zhou smiles, saying now she is doing chores without assistance of her family, and can take care of her grandchildren.

That is not the only work which Shenhai is doing to improve the quality of life and the environment in Shenyang, a traditional industrial and heavily polluted city.

Shenyang Shenhai Thermal Power Company Limited, 51.5 percent owned by China Resources Power Holdings Co Ltd, consists of three 200 mW heat and power co-generation units, with an annual capacity of 3.8 billion kWh.

Shenhai is responsible for generating one fifth of the electricity in Shenyang, and supplying more than one million people with heating in winter, for an area of 13 million sq m.

"We're not only providing warmth for people and power for economy, but also a bluer sky and better environment," says Li Yingbi, deputy general manager of Shenhai Thermal Power.

Previously, Shenhai was one of biggest polluters in Shenyang. It discharged 16,600 tons of soot in 2005, accounting for 18 percent of the city's total and 13,900 tons of sulfur dioxide, equal to 11 percent of the whole.

In 2006, Shenhai began efforts to clean up its act by investing billions into the construction of environmental protection facilities, including waste water treatment, soot and slag utilization, desulphurization facilities and the noise-resistant wall.

Desulfurization

The desulfurization facility for Shenhai's No 3 heat and power co-generation unit began working since last year, with an investment of 55 million yuan.

Gas and soot produced by power generation process is transferred into the post-dust removal machine to get rid of 80 percent of the dust. In the desulfurization tower, sulfur dioxide in the gas reacts with quicklime, forming calcium sulfate or calcium sulfite.

The process effectively reduces sulfur dioxide emissions and helps prevent acid rain.

A cloth sack dust removal technology is used for a second filtration of sulfur dioxide and soot.

Similar emissions cleaning projects for the plant's No 1 and No 2 units were launched at the end of last year and are expected to be completed later this year.

Once complete in a year, emissions of sulfur dioxide at Shenhai are expected to be reduced by 90 percent.

Liu Haifeng, a resident living nearby Shenhai says he used to see yellow smoke coming from chimneys, and black dust on the windowsills.

But the situation is becoming better with the changes at the plant, Liu says.

"Our next step is to adopt denitrogenation technologies, which are required by the government," Li says.

Utilization of coal ash

Shenhai Thermal power plant produces about 1,000 tons of coal ash a day, which causes serious pollution, says Li.

They used to mix coal ash with water and transfer the sludge to a reservoir located at Hui Mountain scenic resort. But after the sludge dried, ash blew all around on windy days.

Now the company is selling the stored ash to construction material producers and battery and brick factories and the ash has also been used in road construction and Shenhai is planning to turn the former reservoir into an artificial lake.

Shenhai has also removed hundreds of inefficient small boilers and thousands of chimneys which used to discharge polluting smoke.

A recycled waste water treatment and a recycle project have also been in use since 2006, with a capacity of 20,000 tons of waste water a day. It not only reclaims water used by the company, but also helps to process wastewater recycled from other enterprises.

"We used to think that investing in environmental protection would be costly and for little benefit, " Li says.

"But now, we don't regard it as pressure any more, and if you can combine environmental protection projects with your manufacturing and business, they will be lucrative."

(China Daily 05/26/2008 page5)