• Optimize the energy mix by scaling up clean energy like solar, wind and hydropower, alongside low-emission fuels including natural gas, biogas and fuel ethanol.
• Conduct pre-treatment of raw fuels via desulfurization, coal liquefaction and coal gasification to curb air pollutant formation in the combustion process.
• Renovate combustion facilities and upgrade relevant technologies, including furnace retrofitting and fluidized bed combustion application, to lift combustion efficiency and slash hazardous gas emissions.
• Popularize cleaner production techniques, phase out or replace highly polluting feedstock, and roll out closed-loop circular production systems.
• Rigorously implement energy-saving and consumption-cutting initiatives, and boost comprehensive resource recycling and utilization.
• Improve corporate environmental governance to avoid accidental pollutant discharge and unorganized fugitive emissions.
• Carry out standardized and timely disposal of industrial, municipal domestic and construction wastes, and put ground dust pollution under effective control.
2. End-of-Pipe Treatment of Key Pollutants
Despite the foregoing source-control measures, trace pollutants stemming from combustion and industrial activities are inevitably discharged into the ambient air. Accordingly, stringent limits shall be imposed on pollutant emission concentrations and total discharge volumes to keep pollutant loads within the regional environmental carrying capacity. Core end-of-pipe treatment technologies are specified as follows:
• Deploy diverse dust removal equipment to capture flue dust and industrial particulate matter.
• Remove toxic gaseous contaminants via absorption scrubbers: alkaline solvents including aqueous ammonia, sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate are adopted for sulfur dioxide absorption, while nitrogen oxides are abated through catalytic reduction, adsorption or solvent absorption processes.
• Adopt physical, chemical and physicochemical separation technologies such as condensation, catalytic transformation, molecular sieve separation, activated carbon adsorption and membrane separation to recover valuable resources from waste gas or detoxify hazardous contaminants.
3. Leveraging Phytoremediation of Vegetation
Vegetation delivers multiple ecological benefits: landscape improvement, climate regulation, dust interception and absorption of toxic airborne contaminants. Capable of sustained large-scale atmospheric purification over extended periods, green plants perform exceptionally well in areas with widespread yet low-concentration pollutant contamination. Scientific greenbelt layout and targeted expansion of urban and industrial green spaces constitute a vital long-term multi-objective strategy for integrated air pollution prevention and abatement.
4. Rational Exploitation of Atmospheric Self-Purification Potential
The atmosphere realizes natural self-cleaning via physical, chemical and biological pathways including atmospheric dispersion, dilution, redox reactions and wet deposition scavenging. With fixed total pollutant emissions, meteorological conditions dominate the temporal and spatial variation of ambient pollutant concentrations. Mastering local meteorological evolution rules to fully tap atmospheric self-purification potential helps reduce pollutant buildup and alleviate air pollution risks. A typical practice is scientifically setting stack height according to regional atmospheric aerodynamics and thermal stratification characteristics to facilitate fast dispersion and dilution of discharged pollutants.
