Toppling chimneys in the fight for a more sustainable future

Wen Tiejun , an environmental chief in the industrial city of Zhuzhou in central China's Hunan province, jokingly describes himself as a "chimney demolisher".

As a result of tight environment rules made by Wen's department, a textile mill in the city will soon replace a coal-burning boiler with a cleaner, more efficient gas-driven boiler. It means an 80-meter chimney for the old boiler will be demolished.

"Since 2006, we have been pushing factories to dismantle more than 100 chimneys that were highly polluting or had been put out of use," said Wen, director of Zhuzhou's Environmental Protection Bureau.

A forest of chimneys was once worshiped as a token of modernization in the world's largest developing and most populous country. But nowadays, these towers, pouring noxious dust and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, are subject to either treatment or demolition as China rapidly embraces a new concept of development: low carbon.

"China will step up efforts to develop a green economy, a low-carbon economy and a circular economy," President Hu Jintao said at the United Nations climate change summit held in September, 2009.

He promised that the country, the world's third largest economy, would endeavor to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a "notable margin" by 2020 from the 2005 level, a major move to grapple with climate change issues. This makes the toppling of many polluting chimneys inevitable.

But for 64-year-old Zhuzhou resident Ou Houjin, it is something unexpected. "In the 1950s and 60s, we were delighted and proud of the sound of roaring machines and stacks of chimneys giving off thick smoke because these indicated that our socialist construction was in full swing and our motherland was prospering," Ou recalled.

After coming to power in October 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC), led by Chairman Mao Zedong, forged a vision of building a rich and powerful socialist country from the "poor and blank" situation. Heavy industry was the backbone.

Only 60 km away from Chairman Mao's birthplace, Shaoshan, Zhuzhou was chosen as one of eight industrial bases to be developed in the early 1950s.

Tens of thousands of workers and engineers were dispatched to this riverside town of just 7,000 residents. Large smelters, chemical works, machinery plants and arrays of chimneys were erected, eventually transforming Zhuzhou into an industrial hub with almost 4 million people.

The changes in Zhuzhou may best illustrate China's path to industrialization in the past six decades.

The steel output of China in the early 1950s was less than one thousandth of the world's total.

In 2008, crude steel production accounted for 40 percent of the world output. Meanwhile, the annual output of motor vehicles rose from less than 20,000 to about 9.35 million, making China the world's second largest car producer after Japan.

High price for development

"Without chimneys, Zhuzhou may never have become a key industrial base," argued Ou, who works as an environmental protection advisor for a chemical plant. "But we paid a high price for it."

"In the 1960s and 70s we had almost no idea of environmental protection. Industrial wastes were discharged into rivers and the sky freely."

In 2004, Zhuzhou found itself among the 10 worst polluted places, according to an official evaluation of the overall environmental quality in 113 cities in China.

"The sky was no longer clear and fewer fish were seen in the river. There was always a strange, acrid odor in the air around the industrial area, sometimes like the smell of rotten eggs. It was so suffocating," Ou said.

As a result of heavy emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), Zhuzhou fell a victim to serious acid rain pollution.

In 2001, the PH level, a major measurement of the pollution, was 3.2 in the city, compared with 7, the neutral level.

"Even after years of efforts to cut SO2 emission, the average reading remains around 4 today," Wen said. "More alarmingly, we found that investors didn't want to come because of heavy pollution, which constrained further development of Zhuzhou."

Substantial action to cut industrial pollution started in 2003, prompting local enterprises to treat and recycle waste water, and to install dust removal and desulphurization devices on chimneys. "Some chimneys have to remain, but the emission must be cleaner," Wen said.

The city is now carrying out an even more ambitious plan for development, eyeing not only pollution treatment but also carbon emission reduction.

In 2007, Zhuzhou and neighboring Changsha and Xiangtan cities were chosen by the central government as a pilot zone for building a "resource-efficient and environmentally-friendly society".

"This indicates a crucial change in China's vision for future development - industrialization does not necessarily mean unsustainability. Highly efficient use of energy and resources and less emission of wastes should be the solution," said China's Environmental Protection Minister, Zhou Shengxian. "Low carbon development has become a global trend, which China should also follow."

Low-carbon trend

Small changes have taken place quietly, all over China. Electric or petrol-electric hybrid buses have begun to run on several bus lines in Zhuzhou. City planners want all petrol- or diesel-driven buses to be replaced with clean energy buses within three years.

Changsha, capital of Hunan, takes the lead among Chinese cities in using a computerized system to monitor the temperature in air-conditioned rooms in public buildings.

In a bid to save energy, the central government issued an order in 2007, asking that the room temperature in air-conditioned buildings in the public sector, including government offices, should not surpass 20 degrees centigrade in winter and not be lower than 26 degrees in summer.

A big flat screen hangs on the wall of Lei Yun's office showing a Google map of Changsha, on which a dozen buildings are marked with red dots.

"These buildings are linked to our monitoring system. Through it we know the temperature of every room at any time," said Lei, deputy director of the Changsha Municipal Office for Energy Management.

"If all 400 public buildings in Changsha abide by the rule, a total of 23,000 tons of coal can be saved a year, which means cutting the emission of 57,500 tons of carbon dioxide."

He admitted that not everyone abides by the rule, and only a small number of buildings are being monitored at present. "But at least we have begun the action," he said.

In South China's Guangdong province, Zhongshan Yida Apparel Ltd, which makes products for the United States and Japanese clothing retailers, practices its low-carbon production in a unique way.

Instead of an electrical central cooling system, the company has adopted a "water-curtain air-conditioner" at a garment-making workshop of some 400 workers.

As about 20 big air pumps on one side of the workshop send out indoor air, fresh air comes in through the opposite side after it is cooled down and cleaned using a special paper filter curtain on which circulated water flows down.

Reuters

(China Daily 12/28/2009 page5)