The China Environmental Protection Industry Association has released a review of the organic waste gas treatment industry in 2023 and its development prospects in 2024. The details are as follows:

In order to timely reflect the development trends of the ecological and environmental protection industry in the past year and predict the development trend of the new year, our association has organized various branches to prepare the "2023 Industry Review and 2024 Development Outlook" for reference by environmental protection enterprises, institutions, experts, and managers.

(This article is a review of the organic waste gas treatment industry in 2023 and its development prospects in 2024. The author is Luan Zhiqiang, Wang Xiqin, and Li Jingfen from the Waste Gas Purification Professional Committee of the China Environmental Protection Industry Association.)

Industry Review for 2023

01 Main policy standards

Following the two major plans of "Ten Measures for the Atmosphere" and "Blue Sky Defense War", a national level heavyweight policy "Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") will be introduced at the end of 2023. The target indicators of the Action Plan are: by 2025, the PM2.5 concentration in prefecture level and above cities nationwide will decrease by 10% compared to 2020, and the ratio of days with severe or above pollution will be controlled within 1%; The total emissions of nitrogen oxides and VOCs have decreased by more than 10% compared to 2020; The PM2.5 concentration in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and surrounding areas, as well as in the Fenwei Plain, has decreased by 20% and 15% respectively. The overall PM2.5 concentration in the Yangtze River Delta region meets the standard, and the PM2.5 concentration in Beijing is controlled within 32 μ g/m3. The Action Plan adheres to the overall tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, synergistically promoting carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, with improving air quality as the core, reducing heavy pollution weather as the focus, and improving PM2.5 indicators as the main line. It clarifies the target for PM2.5 reduction, highlighting the coordinated emission reduction of multiple pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and VOCs; Strengthen joint prevention and control in different regions, increase the number of "2+26" cities in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region and surrounding areas from "2+26" cities to "2+36" cities, and promote coordinated linkage between the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region; Among the 36 measures introduced, most of them involve the treatment of VOCs, of which 12 measures specify the requirements for the treatment of VOCs (including oil fumes and foul odors). The VOCs emission reduction control industry should focus on reducing emissions at the source, strictly controlling the process, and implementing end-to-end governance, and strengthen comprehensive governance throughout the entire process and process. In November 2023, the Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Draft Work Plan for the Investigation and Rectification of Inefficient and Ineffective Air Pollution Control Facilities (for soliciting opinions)", which requires the comprehensive investigation and rectification of inefficient and ineffective air pollution control facilities, the establishment of an investigation and rectification list, and the elimination, rectification, and enhancement of a batch. In September 2023, the Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the Action Plan for Comprehensive Control of Air Pollution in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Surrounding Areas, Fenwei Plain, and Autumn and Winter from 2023 to 2024, and continued to carry out the comprehensive control of air pollution in autumn and winter.

In terms of national standards, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has issued the "Technical Specifications for the Treatment of Waste Gas from Coking Chemical Industry", feasible technical guidelines for industrial pollution prevention and control such as slaughtering and meat processing, casting, pesticide manufacturing, nitrogen fertilizer, seasoning, fermented product manufacturing, tanning, and pharmaceuticals (raw materials for fermentation, chemical synthesis, extraction, and formulation), and the "Tank Sampling/Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of 65 Volatile Organic Compounds in Environmental Air", seeking opinions on the modification of emission standards for atmospheric pollutants in the petroleum refining industry, petrochemical industry, and synthetic resin industry. In terms of local emission standards, Beijing has revised 5 new standards, including 3 oil and gas emission control limit standards, and 2 pollutant emission standards for the printing and automotive manufacturing industries; Chongqing City, Hebei Province, and Hainan Province each issued one emission standard for atmospheric pollutants from the catering industry; Shanxi Province has released two emission standards for air pollutants in the industrial coating process and refractory material industry; Anhui Province has released one air pollutant emission standard for the furniture manufacturing industry. In terms of technical specifications in other regions, Shandong Province has issued the "Feasible Technical Requirements for the Prevention and Control of Volatile Organic Pollutants in the Petroleum Refining Industry", while Anhui Province has issued two types of "Green Island" project construction technical guidelines (trial): centralized spraying (including automotive maintenance and centralized painting) and catering oil fume treatment.

02 Industry Development

(1) Overall development of the industry

In 2023, China's economic situation is complex and severe, which has a significant impact on the development of the VOCs governance industry. Currently, there are still shortcomings in VOCs governance technology and market, such as a large number of inefficient and ineffective governance facilities, unreasonable application of some technologies, insufficient emphasis on technology safety, and incomplete performance standards for key adsorption and catalytic materials; Industry competition intensifies, enterprises face difficulties in financing, scale expansion is affected, overall profit margins decrease, and the phenomenon of low-priced bidding is not uncommon.

At present, the treatment of large-scale pollution sources has been basically completed, and China's VOCs treatment work has entered the stage of fine control and deep treatment of pollution sources. In 2023, the main focus will be on the improvement and enhancement of simple and inefficient governance facilities, as well as the governance of new projects. If the existing inefficient treatment facilities such as low-temperature plasma/photocatalysis/photo oxidation are renovated, they will be replaced with high-efficiency treatment equipment such as zeolite rotary adsorption concentration, RTO, RCO, activated carbon adsorption, etc; Upgrade and upgrade some treatment facilities that do not meet emission requirements, such as adding zeolite rotary adsorption and concentration equipment to some activated carbon/activated carbon fiber adsorption and recovery equipment, to achieve deep treatment of pollution sources; The renovation of treatment facilities that are poorly designed and difficult to operate normally, such as process improvement for RTO treatment facilities containing acidic and alkaline components, and improvement of pre-treatment processes.

(2) VOC governance technology level

In recent years, the level of VOCs treatment technology in China has significantly improved, and some equipment has reached or approached the international advanced level. The treatment process is gradually becoming mature. The production level of purification materials such as activated carbon/activated carbon fibers and oxidation catalysts has significantly improved; The performance and manufacturing capacity of zeolite molecular sieves and adsorption resins used for VOCs treatment have achieved breakthroughs; In terms of process equipment, breakthroughs and improvements have been made in zeolite wheels, RTO/RCO, adsorption recovery devices (resin adsorption devices, activated carbon moving bed adsorption devices, biological purification devices, etc.). In terms of process design, the level of combined purification process design for complex working conditions is constantly improving, and the purification process technology routes for key industries are gradually becoming clear.

(3) Rapid development of low-carbon governance models for recycling and utilization

In order to solve the problem of VOCs treatment for a large number of small and medium-sized pollution sources and achieve resource recycling, the 2020 Volatile Organic Compounds Treatment Plan, the 2022 Ozone Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, and the 2023 Air Quality Continuous Improvement Action Plan all propose the construction of VOCs "Green Island" projects, and coordinate the planning and construction of activated carbon centralized treatment centers, solvent recovery centers, and centralized coating centers to achieve centralized, efficient, and low-carbon treatment of VOCs.

The adoption of the "Green Island" governance model for comprehensive governance can ensure the standard discharge of pollution sources and the economic operation of facilities, and has achieved rapid development in recent years. There are three specific application cases of the "Green Island" governance model for different application scenarios. One is to establish activated carbon dispersed adsorption+centralized regeneration and disposal centers in areas with high adsorbent usage (cities, parks, and industrial clusters), and simultaneously improve the management system for standardized procurement, unified collection, and centralized regeneration of adsorbents, achieving the circular utilization of activated carbon resources. The second is to establish solvent dispersion recovery+centralized purification/disposal centers in parks and clusters with high usage of organic solvents of the same type, to achieve the recycling of organic solvents. Thirdly, in parks and clusters where industrial coating enterprises of the same category gather, a centralized coating center should be established to achieve unified and efficient treatment of spraying waste gas. These application cases have played a good demonstration role in the industry, successfully driving the rapid and large-scale development of enterprises engaged in activated carbon dispersion adsorption+centralized regeneration and solvent dispersion recovery+centralized purification/disposal.

In addition, in the context of coordinated pollution reduction and carbon reduction governance, industries with high solvent usage such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, lithium batteries, coatings, and printing place greater emphasis on solvent recovery and utilization. The solvent recovery industry has developed rapidly, and solvent recovery technology has also developed rapidly. Compared with other enterprises, the performance of enterprises engaged in solvent recovery in 2023 has generally grown rapidly, and many enterprises have added solvent recovery businesses.

03 Key Core Technology Progress

(1) Solvent recovery can achieve the recycling of resources and reduce carbon emissions. The solvent recovery process technology is currently the focus of the development of VOCs treatment technology. The technological progress focuses on nitrogen cryogenic technology, membrane separation technology, activated carbon moving bed adsorption+nitrogen/water vapor desorption recovery technology, resin adsorption recovery technology, and multi technology combination deep recovery technology. The nitrogen deep condensation technology is mainly applied to the recovery of solvents with extremely high concentrations, such as solvent storage tanks. It is usually combined with end effector activated carbon adsorption equipment to achieve standard emissions of pollution sources. The technology of continuous adsorption, desorption, and condensation recovery of VOCs in activated carbon moving bed has been applied in industries such as rubber production, pharmaceuticals, and PVC glove production. Resin adsorption technology is suitable for solvent recovery of high concentration waste gas and is widely used in the recovery of chlorinated solvents in industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical, and pesticide industries. The two-stage purification technology of activated carbon fiber adsorption recovery and zeolite rotary adsorption concentration is widely used in industries such as packaging printing and lithium battery production for solvent recovery. The application of condensation (absorption)+membrane separation+activated carbon adsorption technology in ultra-high concentration oil and gas recovery is relatively mature.

(2) In incineration/oxidation technology, the development focus of high-temperature incineration technology (TO/RTO) is on efficient and energy-saving structural design, and comprehensive utilization of heat energy (such as waste heat boilers). Based on the emission characteristics of different industries, targeted process design and thermal efficiency management have been carried out to achieve efficient utilization of thermal energy. Widely used in VOCs management in industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical, spray painting, coating, packaging and printing.

(3) Compared with high-temperature incineration, catalytic combustion technology has lower energy consumption and better safety in the catalytic oxidation process; Through comprehensive analysis of technology and economy, catalytic oxidation technology (CO/RCO) has certain advantages in many cases, partially replacing high-temperature incineration technology. The technological progress mainly lies in the catalytic oxidation purification of process waste gases in various chemical and fine chemical industries; Catalytic oxidation technology for nitrogen-containing organic compounds (such as DMF); The deep purification of complex organic compounds in the enameled wire industry through cascade catalytic oxidation.

(4) Green Island governance technology. In recent years, in order to meet the deep treatment needs of small and medium-sized VOCs pollution sources and odor in the automotive repair industry, chemical industry, manufacturing industry, restaurants and other industries, the technology of activated carbon dispersion adsorption centralized regeneration has developed rapidly.

(5) Biotechnology has made breakthroughs in areas such as microbial agents, fillers, and bioreactors, and its application scope in purifying odors and low concentration VOCs continues to expand. Plasma, photocatalysis/photo oxidation and other technologies are mainly used for odor control.

(6) In order to meet the requirements of deep VOCs treatment, most industries have developed applicable multi technology coupling processes for VOCs treatment, such as adsorption concentration+catalytic combustion/high-temperature incineration, condensation+membrane separation+adsorption solvent recovery, absorption+adsorption solvent recovery, activated carbon fiber+multi-stage adsorption solvent recovery with rotary wheels, etc.

Development Outlook for 2024

The Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality clearly focuses on controlling PM2.5 indicators, highlighting the coordinated emission reduction of multiple pollutants such as VOCs and nitrogen oxides, and strengthening the comprehensive management of VOCs throughout the entire process and process. At present, in 2024, we will focus on the inspection and rectification of inefficient and ineffective air pollution control facilities, and a large number of inefficient and ineffective end treatment facilities will be upgraded and renovated. This is a major policy benefit and helps the industry to develop in a healthy, orderly, and high-quality manner.

In terms of source emission reduction, efforts should be made to reduce pollutant emissions from the use of solvent containing products and other sources, reduce the use of harmful substances at the source, strengthen the constraint of mandatory standards, and vigorously promote low (no) volatile organic compound content coatings, inks, adhesives, cleaning agents and other products. In terms of process emission reduction, we aim to improve the level of clean production in the industry, improve the efficiency of waste gas collection, and reduce unorganized emissions such as VOCs leakage during the production process. We will optimize leak detection and repair technology (LDAR) in industrial enterprises such as petrochemicals and chemicals. In terms of end of pipe treatment, the development direction of technology is pollution reduction and carbon reduction recycling, and solvent recovery technologies such as adsorption, condensation, and membrane separation will be the key development direction. The development and application of different adsorption materials in specific fields, research and development of membrane materials, centralized regeneration facilities for ineffective activated carbon, and solvent recycling are key points. The development focus and key technical equipment of high-temperature (catalytic) incineration technology/thermal storage high-temperature (catalytic) incineration technology lie in the design of efficient and energy-saving structures and the comprehensive utilization of heat energy. The focus of catalytic combustion technology still lies in the research and development of broad-spectrum/high selectivity catalysts. The development focus of condensation technology lies in the stable operation and energy-saving optimization design of condensation systems. The development focus of biological purification technology lies in the research and development of composite biological agents, three-dimensional framework fillers, multiphase bioreactors, as well as the optimization and improvement of the process flow of various mainstream technologies and low consumption and high efficiency combination purification processes by industry.