Central Beijing says bye to coal-fired boilers

BEIJING - The last 155 coal-fired boilers in two central Beijing districts have been shut down and replaced by gas and electronic steam boilers to improve air quality in the capital, according to the local environmental protection bureau.

Without the burning of 300,000 tons of coal each year, the gas and electronic steam boilers will help reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 2,360 tons and smoke dust emissions by 800 tons each year, said Liu Wei, deputy chief of the atmosphere division of the Beijing environmental protection bureau.

The new environmental friendly boilers - which cover all of Dongcheng and Xicheng districts in the central part of Beijing - will affect 12 million square meters of building area of 90,000 households.