Wuhan Goes Low-carbon
The ideas of low-carbon living have become ingrained for most residents in the Baibuting area. Li Fang, another resident, always carefully sorts the family trash, before dumping it into garbage bins of different categories, making sure that used batteries go into a special collection box at the community entrance. “I am careful with electricity and water use, and reuse plastic shopping bags as long as possible,” she said.
Wuhan has now adopted low-carbon theories and applications in communities, first utilized in designing and building new residential areas. “We first of all employ green technologies, such as those reducing energy uses by tapping into geothermic sources and solar power, recycling rainwater, and fostering an artificial wetland environment,” explains Fang Yu, head of the General Office of the Baiputing Community Neighborhood Committee. The construction costs of green buildings involving such technologies are, however, RMB 200 to 300 higher per square meter than that for conventional buildings.
At present, about 20 percent of buildings in the community are equipped with ground-source heat pumps, which regulate indoor temperature through water circulation by making use of the disparity between the temperature of the groundwater and that of the open air in winter and summer. These pumps are 20 percent more electricity-efficient than air-conditioners, according to Fang.
A Revolution in the Cement Industry
The Wuhan factory of Huaxin Cement Co., Ltd. is an expanse of graceful arbors, dotted with light gray buildings, which resembles a park. This scenic view is in sharp contrast to what it was years ago – low-lying dilapidated facilities and towering chimneys spewing dark fumes into the sky. Soot and noise were so acute that residents living nearby seldom opened their windows throughout the year. “Now there is no more smoke and little noise, no louder than what you’d experience on the road,” said Shu Changxue, 73, who has lived in the neighborhood less than 100 meters away from the factory for almost half a century.
The flagship of the cement industry of Hubei Province, Huaxin has changed the industry’s conventional grimy image through phasing out obsolete technology and equipment, closing down old kilns and technological upgrading.
“We closed three wet-process kilns in Huangshi City, because the wet-process technique is energy intensive,” said Han Qianwei, vice-director of the company’s production management division.
While eliminating outdated techniques and procedures, new technologies are brought in. “We generate electricity with waste heat from the cement kilns. This way our electricity bill has been brought down by one third,” Han added. Huaxin has also renovated high- and medium-voltage electric motors to reduce energy consumption.
Another noteworthy breakthrough in technological upgrading is to replace coal with household garbage as a fuel source. So far, seven of Huaxin’s cement kilns have adopted this procedure. “Incinerating solid waste as fuel is a type of innocuous disposal of household garbage that doesn’t generate further pollution,” Han explained. “This is where cement production is heading in the future. It does away with garbage, and meanwhile lowers carbon emissions.”
This technique could generate huge economic and social benefits if promoted nationwide, according to Mr. Han. “If it is embraced by all cement manufacturers in China, and is put into practice, say, for one fourth of annual production, 100 million tons of garbage would be disposed every year, thus cutting standard coal use by 13 million tons and carbon dioxide discharge by 157 million tons.”
Through a series of low-carbon measures including waste incineration, Huaxin has cut coal use by 80,000 tons and carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 200,000 tons, from 2011 to 2013.
There are 65 cement production lines in Hubei Province, 27 belonging to the province’s top four manufacturers. So far, 35 cement producers have been subject to the carbon-emission quota system. Since 2011 the province has phased out outdated cement capacity by 6.91 million tons.
“Cement is an energy-intensive industry. Reducing its carbon footprint can only be achieved through technological improvements and better management,” Tian Qi, chief of the Response to Climate Change Division, of the Hubei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, concluded.
