Culture News Blog

The transportation, metallurgy, thermal power and chemical industries have public images as big polluters in China and across the globe. However, 10 Chinese eco-friendly projects recently honored for their environmental protection efforts are working to change the dirty stereotype.

The winners were selected from more than 100 projects nominated by central and local governments beginning 10 months ago.

The award, given by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, honors a total investment of more than 80 billion yuan by the companies. Of that amount, 5.3 billion yuan was spent directly on environmental protection.

Pan Yue, deputy minister of environmental protection, the leading organizer for the green competition, said at the award ceremony that China faces increasing pressure from environmental deterioration due to its rapid urbanization and the examples given by the winning projects are badly needed.

A fixed investment project for producing 120,000 autos by DongFeng Honda Automobile Co Ltd.

The China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA), a non-profit organization, affiliated with the environmental ministry judged the winning projects.

Wang Panpu, CECPA director, says the projects are a good showcase to integrate construction and operation, ecological protection, public opinion to create an eco-friendly culture.

"Every project had to meet the strict standards of environmental protection at every step from design to operation. That is the reason that we had to go through a complicated process to assess that which ones were worthy of the award," Wang said.

Take the Golmud to Lhasa rail line project on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway for example.

The Qinghai-Tibet railway, the highest-altitude railway in the world, is built on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northwestern China, where the ecosystem is unique and fragile.

It's where the country's five major river systems - the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Lancang River, Nujiang River and Yarlung Zangbo River originate. The plateau is also home to rare wildlife, such as the Tibetan antelope, wild ass and snow leopard.

The mean annual temperature of the plateau is between -4 C and 6 C. Once vegetation is destroyed it is almost impossible to recover.

Work on the line from Golmud in Qinghai province, to Lhasa, Tibet a distance of 1,142 km, began on June 29, 2001. About 960 km of track was over 4,000 m above sea level, with the highest point 5,072 m.

The total investment was more than 33 billion yuan, of which, 1.5 billion yuan was been spent protecting the unique environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The money is a big amount, because the task to ensure the environment's protection is also large.

The project has taken measures to protect wildlife, to replant fragile vegetation moved during construction 4300-4700 m about sea level, to work out technological solutions to treat wastewater in the harsh environment, protect the permafrost layer and maintain the natural scenery for sightseeing as well.

Lu Chunfang, deputy minister of railway, said at the award ceremony: "It is the first national award that the railway construction sector has received in the field of environmental protection.

"Now is just the time for China to carry on large-scale of railway construction. The award is an encouragement and demonstration of the country's move to upgrade its railway transportation system."

Another project giving the Chinese people hope to shed the dirty impact of coal-fired power plants is the Huaneng Yuhuan Power Plant in Zhejiang province.

Green investment in the project accounted for a very big part, nearly 16 percent, which was more than 2.2 billion yuan.

So, what is the value of such a high investment?

After the first two units went into commercial operation at the end of 2006. Huaneng now has finished phase II plan for Yuhuan to build another two 1,000 mW units.

The ultra-supercritical technology, as well as the supercritical technology, is the most-advanced thermal power technologies used in the world today.

With either technology, a power-generating unit operates under a mix of temperatures and pressures above the critical point, at which the boundary of water's liquid state and a vapor state disappears. By eliminating the transition of water into steam, the power units markedly increase fuel efficiency.

According to the London-based World Coal Institute, power plants that use supercritical generating units have an energy efficiency that can reach up to 46 percent. For ultra-supercritical plants, the efficiency can be as high as 50 percent.

Energy efficiency of conventional power plants currently in use in China is 30 percent to 40 percent.

Li Jianming, manager of the plant, said: "Huaneng, with its own experiences, proved that black and dirty coal can produce green and clean power."

However, Pan Yue also said although the green demonstration projects may make the public and industries feel upbeat, it is not enough for China to improve its ecological quality.

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