Sinopec Jiujiang on the path to greener production

The Streaming down the Yangtze team has arrived in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province.

CRI Reporter Yang Guang visited Sinopec Jiujiang branch, the leading petrol and diesel producer in Jiangxi.

The photo taken on Aug 5th shows the water pond within the Sinopec Jiujiang industrial park used for observing treated waste water, with some fish and aquatic plants raised and grown inside. [Photo: China Plus/Yang Guang]

Located beside the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake, the company took the responsibility to strictly treat its waste water before discharge.

The company also adopted a live pollution-supervision system, aiming for a 'greener' factory.

For more on this we are now on the line with Yang Guang, who is covering the trip along the Yangtze River.

The petrochemical industry can cause serious water pollution. How does Jiujiang Sinopec treat its waste water and protect the Yangtze River?

The company of Sinopec Jiujiang is the only refinery in Jiangxi Province. 75 percent of oil in the province is provided by the company. Meantime it is the petrol and diesel production base of whole Sinopec Group in the central China region. It’s able to process over 10 million tons of crude oil annually. As it discharges the post-production water directly into Yangtze River, the company must have the highest standard of waste water treatment.

The water treatment plant of the company is introduced having the most advanced technology globally. The standard of the water after process is way higher than the national criterial for water allowed to be discharged into nature.

Additionally the factory has built a water pond inside to monitor the quality of the water after treatment. Interestingly fish and some aquatic plants were raised and grown in the water pond to see if they can live under the situation. In this way not only the data but the living creatures would give indications whether their water is clean enough to be discharged.

We also had a look at the pond ourselves yesterday and visually it looked very clear. The surrounding environment together with the pond formed a very big contrast to the industrial plants of the factory. The manager told us that the water they discharge into the Yangtze River is even cleaner than that they collected from the river in the first place.

What else does the company do to eliminate other pollutants such as waste gas and residue?

In 2017, the company developed an digital environmental protection map based on its smart factory construction strategy, which enables workers to constantly monitor the volume of each pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, dust and chemical solid waste. In this method once data indicates a certain pollutant is over discharged in one particular location of the factory, the company can immediately respond with production line adjustments.

Besides water quality, the gas emission and waste discharge of the company has been way lower than the national standard. An expert of the Streaming down the Yangtze team told me that the more that company has potential to damage the environment, the more measures would be taken to restrict pollution. Sinopec Jiujiang is typical of this kind of situation. For the past five years they have spent 1.6 billion yuan on pollution control, updating 38 major techniques for greener production.

More importantly they have build a new generation of oil production line, generating higher quality petrol and diesel that are more environmentally friendly. For a petrochemical company, producing cleaner and efficient energy is even more significant in terms of environment protection than pollution control within the industrial park.

That was CRI's Yang Guang with the team of Streaming down the Yangtze River.