Assessment of pollutant emissions reduction potential of energy infrastructure in industrial parks of Henan Province

Industrial park is an area where energy consumption and pollutant emissions are concentrated, and energy infrastructure (power plants and industrial boilers) is the main consumers of energy. Facing the great pressure of climate change, it is essential to reduce pollutant emissions from energy infrastructure. In this work, taking the energy infrastructure (power plants and industrial boilers) of the national industrial parks in Henan Province as the research object, we have established energy-related CO2 emission inventory and air pollutants (SO2, NOx, PM10, PM2.5, VOCs, CO, and NH3) emission inventories. Besides, this study also designed five scenarios with 2030 as the target year, including baseline scenario (BAU), energy structure adjustment scenario (ESA), energy efficiency improvement scenario (EEI), waste heat recovery scenario (WHR), and best available end technology scenario (BAT) to explore the potential for emissions reduction. The results show that by comparing the emission reduction benefits of the four emission reduction scenarios in 2030, the BAT scenario has the greatest effect on reducing SO2, PM10, PM2.5, and NOx (reduction rate ranges from 47 to 81%). In 2030, the emission reduction potential of EEI, ESA, and WHR for pollutants (except for NH3) is 25-35%, 5-21%, and 1-4%, respectively. For the parks containing power plants, not only the best end-of-pipe technology and clean energy must be used, but also the application of energy-saving technologies. For parks containing only industrial boilers, we should use the best end-of-pipe technology and increase the proportion of clean energy. The study will provide valuable references for the development of parks and energy infrastructure.

Automated summary

The study finds that in 2030, the scenario with the best end-of-pipe technology has the most significant effect on reducing emissions of SO2, PM10, PM2.5, and NOx, with a reduction rate ranging from 47 to 81%. The other emission reduction scenarios have reduction potentials of 25-35%, 5-21%, and 1-4% for pollutants.