Joint efforts to conserve the environment and cultivate the economy have been credited for the continued success of the southeastern Guangdong city’s pillar petrochemical and electronics industries. Chai Hua reports from Huizhou.
An aerial view of Huizhou Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone’s petrochemical industrial park. Continuing its five-year streak as the top high-quality development park among its domestic peers, the zone is striving to become a world-class green petrochemical industry hub. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Editor’s note: February marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”. In the eighth in China Daily’s series on the most intriguing stories to come out of the Greater Bay Area cities within the past five years, we take an in-depth look at Huizhou’s efforts to explore its development in an environmentally friendly mode, and searching for a scientific method to protect the precious ancient trees.
Huizhou has carved out a niche for itself by coordinating environmental protection with economic growth, along with its innovative strategies and unwavering commitment to sustainability.
Huizhou topped Pearl River Delta cities and ranked sixth nationwide in terms of air quality last year, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Despite a challenging economic environment, Huizhou’s gross domestic product surged 5.6 percent last year, having achieved stable growth for the past two years since topping the province’s GDP growth rate in 2022.
The fact that Huizhou’s two pillar industries — petrochemicals and electronics — are traditionally seen as highly environmentally unfriendly makes the city’s environmental conservation achievements even more striking.
Preserving the environment is inseparable from the local government’s strict environmental standards and effective implementation. City authorities actively examine and supervise emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Of the 611 VOC-related enterprises they inspected last year, 221 were required to correct their operations.
The Huizhou site of Clariant, a Swiss specialty chemical company, uses 100 percent green electricity and the steam is generated from natural gas instead of coal. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Shift to green
Huizhou is home to the nation’s top base for the petrochemical business — the petrochemical industrial park in the Huizhou Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone — and is striving to become a world-class green hub for the sector. The zone includes a land area of 293 square kilometers, a sea area of 1,319 sq km, and a 63-kilometer-long coastline.
Located in southern Huizhou, the development zone was approved by the State Council in 1993. So far, more than 73 petrochemical projects have been underway there, including 13 Fortune Global 500 companies, such as China National Offshore Oil Corp, Shell PLC, ExxonMobil and BASF. Total investments amounted to 272.3 billion yuan ($37.67 billion). The zone topped China’s 30 high-quality development petrochemical industrial parks for the fifth consecutive year in 2023.
Daya Bay authorities place a strong emphasis on environmental protection. Among 74 cities monitored by the nation's environmental protection authority for air quality, Huizhou’s air quality ranked sixth nationwide, with Daya Bay topping the scores among five sites in Huizhou.
“We’re committed to the co-development of the petrochemical industry, as well as environmental conservation and protection, emphasizing the importance of both economic growth and ecological sustainability,” says Chen Zhicong, an officer at the zone’s newly formed Department of Petrochemical Industry Development.
One strategy is to provide standardized public services, such as a stable industrial power supply, steam and natural gas to reduce costs for enterprises and enhance their motivation for energy conservation and emission reduction, he says.
For chemical industries, a stable electricity supply is vital, as any power outage or instability could pose significant safety risks. Public facilities for wastewater treatment and waste disposal are provided, with a 38-km-long sewage pipe built to discharge wastewater into the sea after purification. In addition, a 2.33-sq-km “green belt” of plants was established around the zone, and a monitoring system with cameras and sensors was installed to detect 58 atmospheric indicators.
“In allowing petrochemical projects to operate here, we adopt the strictest admission standards, benchmarking against advanced international practices. We don’t just look at its output value,” Chen says. “The emissions level is tied to incentive policies, and this is indeed a remarkable innovation and breakthrough within the industry.”
A researcher studies high-performance surfactants in the petrochemical industrial park at Huizhou Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The zone’s Environment Assessment Office can veto any project if any environmental problem is detected, regardless of how valuable and beneficial the project is. Chen says several projects have failed to get the nod so far.
“Although environmental protection and low-carbon environmental requirements pose challenges to petrochemical enterprises, they also present opportunities for upgrading industry structure and management practices,” says Du Xi, assistant general manager of Hengli Petrochemical (Huizhou) Co — a subsidiary of China’s private refining and chemical giant, Hengli Petrochemical. “We’ve taken green and environmental considerations into account in technology research and production-line construction.”
The Huizhou company has also developed novel technology, using waste heat and exhaust gases to generate electricity. “The electricity generated, besides meeting our needs, is also a surplus for the external power grid,” Du says.
Luo Haodong, general manager of the Huizhou project of Clariant — a Swiss specialty chemical company — says they aim to cut direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared with 2019.
“China is a vital production and growth market for us. We aim to raise the number of our ‘Made in China for China’ products to 50 percent by next year. Our manufacturing expansion and emissions reduction efforts at the Daya Bay site — a strategic investment location — demonstrate our commitment to sustainable development. For instance, we implement our companywide energy efficiency program, eWATCH, to cut emissions,” Luo says. “Additionally, our site at Daya Bay uses 100 percent green electricity with a trackable Green Electricity Certificate and combined heat and power steam generated from natural gas, which replaces burning coal. The steam generated from natural gas would lead to a 40 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.”
In addition to Clariant’s, many other projects in the industrial park are expanding. But the land that has been approved for enterprises in the chemical industry is at a premium. To address the issue, the petrochemical zone is working with the Huizhou New Material Industrial Park, which is about 10 km from the Daya Bay Petrochemical Zone, to form a collaborative development model that would encompass the entire industry chain.
Companies in the new material base can utilize raw materials produced in the Daya Bay Petrochemical Zone to make innovative products. The new project has so far launched 25 industrial projects with total investments of about 37.3 billion yuan. An annual output value of approximately 72.3 billion yuan is expected at full production capacity.
An engineer at Sinocli New Energy Technology (Huizhou) uses a robot to dismantle waste batteries for recycling. The remote, technological operation effectively mitigates the safety risk associated with the process. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Toward sustainability
New-energy battery manufacturing is another key industry in Huizhou. The sector’s output value exceeded 100 billion yuan last year, with many leading manufacturers in operation.
In pursuing sustainable and closed-loop development of the battery industry, Huizhou is also bolstering the battery recycling market — a promising emerging field driven by the popularity of new-energy vehicles.
Power batteries will face a wave of large-scale retirements in the future. According to the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, the total of retired power batteries in the country is expected to reach 116 gigawatt-hours (780,000 metric tons) next year.
Lithium-ion batteries consist of metals like cobalt, nickel and manganese, which possess toxic properties and could contaminate water sources and disrupt ecosystems. It’s said that water wouldn’t be consumable for 50 years if a pack of lithium batteries were to be thrown into it.
Two major sustainable methods for handling retired batteries are to reuse or shred them into mineral elements. But they carry potential risks of damaging the environment during processing. To address environmental pollution concerns associated with the problem, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2018 launched a “white list” of companies that can meet the required standards of recycling retired power batteries. By the end of last year, 156 enterprises in the country, including two in Huizhou, had been included in the list.
Sinocli New Energy Technology (Huizhou) — a factory engaged in repurposing used batteries for electricity storage and powering two-wheel electric scooters — was enlisted last year. “Retired batteries are not useless. It’s just their energy capacity that is reduced. We can recycle them and make full use of them with other applications,” says Sinocli Chairman Chen Zhonghua.
Hengli Petrochemical (Huizhou) Co utilizes waste heat and exhaust gases to generate electricity. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Sinocli has invested heavily in upgrading environmental protection technologies and facilities. “One of the risks is electrolyte leakage during the testing and disassembling processes. To tackle this problem, we’ve built cement floors and applied epoxy resin on top to prevent liquid from seeping through and contaminating the soil,” Chen says. “We’ve also implemented special treatment measures for exhaust gases generated during the welding and assembly stages, and installed sensors and cameras to monitor the emissions of exhaust gases and wastewater in real time, aiming to minimize pollution and emissions.”
Chen Zhonghua praised Huizhou’s high environmental requirements for the electronics industry, suggesting that a dedicated industrial park for power battery recycling be set up as retired batteries are classified as hazardous material. “The storage and transportation of retired batteries call for specific facilities and protective measures. Centralized development plays a crucial role in both industrial growth and environmental protection.”
When shredding batteries into materials for reuse, the environmental pollution risks primarily arise during burning, sieving and smelting. If improperly processed, exhaust gases, wastewater and residues could be generated, warns Sun Tao, project manager of Huizhou Ruicycle Environmental Technology Co. The company is also included in the “white list” of products that are considered acceptable.
However, Sun warns that smelting used batteries could create pollutants, but they can be produced only within a specific temperature range. “Therefore, we send the exhaust gases for secondary combustion in strictly controlled temperatures — high temperatures of around 800 degrees (C) and immediately cool them down — to prevent toxic substances from being formed,” he explains.
To meet the growing demand for recycling facilities, Ruicycle aims to build more recycling factories domestically and internationally. The second phase of the company’s factory in Huizhou is expected to double the size of the existing plant. Construction is due to be completed next year.
Contact the writer at grace@chinadailyhk.com
