Pollution control of wastewater from the coal chemical industry in China: Environmental management policy and technical standards

Abstract

The current situation of China's coal chemical industry faces many problems: 1) This industry causes environmental pollution; 2) employs inadequate environmental management system, wastewater pollution control standards, and energy consumption standards; 3) lacks environmental standards applicable to the coal chemical industry; 4) suffers from poor implementation of technical standards for coal use; 5) and lacks top-level design of a high salinity wastewater standard. A modern coal chemical industry demonstration area should be established to promote industrial agglomeration and development. Therefore, several suggestions are put forward to promote the modernization of the coal chemical industry: 1) The responsibilities, supervision tasks, scope, and implementation rules of local environmental law enforcement and supervision agencies should be improved and clarified at all levels; consequently, law enforcement and supervision work would be backed up by relevant laws. 2) To decrease the treatment cost of highly saline wastewater, a corresponding subsidy scheme should be formulated. 3) Research on the top-level design of the standard system for saline wastewater should be accelerated to standardize the treatment of saline wastewater. 4) Coal chemical enterprises should integrate environmental management into their daily production management system, constantly improve their management level, and reduce pollution generation and emission. 5) Furthermore, it is necessary to consider the recycling of wastes and both the separation and recovery of valuable resources as part of the treatment of wastewater from the coal chemical industry. 6) Moreover, economic policies can be used because economic leverage may be more effective than administrative orders or even regulations. 7) Finally, cooperation should be increased to promote the “green development, circular development, and low-carbon development” of the modern coal chemical industry.