[New Era, New Chapter] Holingol, Inner Mongolia, Walks Out of Pollution Mud

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Li Renhu, Zhang Lina and Wang Yuxiao.

　　In the past, there were thick smoke and dust everywhere, but now there are blue sky and white clouds and beautiful scenery … … Holingol City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a heavily polluted city that has been concerned by domestic and foreign media, takes aluminum pollution control as a breakthrough, explores international advanced pollution control methods, and promotes a fundamental improvement in the global environment.

　　Advanced technology, the lowest pollution emission in China.

　　A city is built and prospered by coal. Over the years, Huolinguole City, under the jurisdiction of Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, has taken an industrial path of coal-fired power generation, aluminum smelting and aluminum post-processing according to local conditions, which is considered by industry experts to be the most ideal integrated industrial base of coal, electricity and aluminum in China. Now it has formed 33.25 million tons of coal, 4.42 million kilowatts of installed power, 1.77 million tons of primary aluminum and 1.61 million tons of aluminum post-processing capacity. However, dust, fluoride and sulfur dioxide are produced in the process of aluminum electrolysis, and the ecological environment of the surrounding grasslands is polluted. A large number of cattle and sheep and other livestock are sick and die, and the local people are miserable.

　　"In June 2016, the central environmental protection inspector severely criticized and promoted an environmental governance storm in Huolin River." Li Jiexiang, secretary of Tongliao Municipal Party Committee, said that the government urged enterprises to achieve ultra-low emissions on the basis of the original environmental protection standards. At the end of 2016, Inner Mongolia Huomei Hongjun Aluminum and Electricity Company, an integrated enterprise of coal, electricity and aluminum, was the first to "eat crabs".

　　There are no demonstration cases in the industry. What should we do with ultra-low emission projects? The technical backbone of the company formed a research team, repeatedly studied and demonstrated, and finally decided to adopt limestone — — Gypsum wet flue gas purification technology. Hui Jingming, deputy general manager of the company, said that this is the first time that this technology has been used in electrolytic aluminum production. At the end of 2017, all four sets of devices were running stably, which was the first ultra-low emission device in China.

　　Today’s Hongjun company factory is clean and tidy, with flowers and plants everywhere. Hui Jingming introduced the national emission standard particulate matter ≤ 20mg/Nm3, sulfur dioxide ≤ 200mg/Nm3, fluoride ≤ 3mg/Nm3, the actual emission index of particulate matter is less than 5mg/Nm3, sulfur dioxide is less than 35mg/Nm3, and fluoride is less than 0.3mg/Nm3, all of which are the lowest in China.

　　Two other major aluminum producers, Inner Mongolia Jinlian Aluminum Co., Ltd. and Inner Mongolia Chuangyuan Metal Co., Ltd., also implemented ultra-low emission projects in succession last year. At the beginning of July this year, 11 industry experts, including Zhang Wenhai, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, identified that limestone was used for the first time on the basis of dry defluoridation of electrolytic flue gas. — The synergistic purification technology of wet desulfurization and defluoridation of gypsum was applied to the purification of aluminum electrolysis flue gas with low concentration of sulfur dioxide, and the emission index was obviously better than the national emission standard of pollutants in aluminum industry. This achievement has been industrialized in three enterprises.

　　Turning environmental protection into an advantageous enterprise to taste the sweetness.

　　"Either be eliminated in the environmental protection inspector, or use scientific and technological innovation to kill a way to turn environmental protection into a competitive advantage for enterprises!" Zhang Hongfu, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Holingol, said that enterprises have implemented emission reduction according to the highest standards. Although they have increased investment and raised costs, they have also tasted the sweetness.

　　"Four sets of devices invested 310 million yuan, and no one knew the result. I didn’t expect the final effect to be better than expected." Cao Guanghua, secretary of the Party Committee of Hongjun Company, said with a smile, "The cost per ton of aluminum has increased by more than 90 yuan, but protecting grassland ecology is the responsibility that central enterprises must fulfill, and it can play an exemplary role for other enterprises. This money is well spent!"

　　Jinlian Company invested 249 million yuan in two sets of ultra-low emission devices, and the cost per ton of aluminum increased by about 70 yuan. "In the short term, the input cost has indeed increased, but with the country’s increasingly high environmental protection requirements for enterprises, whoever takes this step first will be ahead of the industry." Gao Heng, general manager of Jinlian Company, said.

　　Chuangyuan Company, which integrates wind, light, coal, electricity, aluminum and aluminum processing, installed ultra-low emission devices at the time of construction, and the cost per ton of aluminum only increased by about 40 yuan. Cao Yong, the general manager of the company, told the reporter that the ultra-low emission standard is high and the pollution is small, and it will be implemented simultaneously during the construction, so the cost increase is not high.

　　Cao Guanghua said that since the beginning of this year, electrolytic aluminum enterprises in Shanxi, Yunnan and other places have come to Hongjun Company to learn from the experience and learn ultra-low emission treatment technology. "The environmental awareness of enterprises has generally improved, and we hope to provide ultra-low emission technology experience for the industry."

　　Global environmental governance, reproduction of green mountains and green waters

　　Narenbaoligacha in Zhalute Banner, less than 10 kilometers away from the nearest aluminum factory, was once heavily polluted and began to move in 2013. Herder Haas Bater said that when I was a child, the grass could grow waist-high, but in the past few years, it didn’t even reach my ankles, and livestock often got sick.

　　Since 2016, Holingol City has carried out the most vigorous pollution remediation since its establishment. The city has invested 470 million yuan in ultra-low emissions and more than 1 billion yuan in closed storage and transportation of coal, and the ecological environment is being reversed.

　　There are 11 coal mines in Holingol, 8 of which are open pit mines. Since 2017, Holingol requires coal-related enterprises to "store coal without seeing coal, transport coal without exposing coal, and produce coal without burning". All 14 thermal power units in the city will complete the ultra-low emission transformation before the end of 2019.

　　Implement the policy of "who governs who invests who benefits" and treat 100,000 mu of land damaged by mining in the city by stages; To control desertification and bare mountains, more than 12,000 mu of farmland has been returned to grassland since last year; More than 8,700 sheds have been changed, and all of them will be provided with central heating by the end of this year; In the past three years, the city’s green area has increased by 3990 mu, and the green rate has reached 42%; In 2016, it was awarded as "Eco-livable Demonstration City in Autonomous Region" & HELIP; …

　　The monitoring commissioned by Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau shows that after the three electrolytic aluminum enterprises are put into operation with ultra-low emission, they can reduce 640 tons of dust, 350 tons of fluoride and 21,000 tons of sulfur dioxide every year based on the production capacity of 1.77 million tons of electrolytic aluminum. According to the monitoring of Holingol weather station, the average annual dust storm was 15.6 days in the past 45 years, while it was only 5.1 days in the last three years.　

　　Haas Bater said that now, the grassland has slowly changed back to what he remembered.