The Standards for Fixed Gas Turbine Air Pollutant Emissions (DB32/3967-2021), compiled by Guodian Science and Technology Academy under China Energy for Jiangsu Province, was released on February 3, which will come into effect on March 8, 2021.

In recent years, alongside the application and upgrading of ultra-low-emission coal-fired generation units, the advantage of gas turbines in NOx emissions has been facing challenge. By the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-2020), the installed capacity of gas turbines in Jiangsu Province had reached 19 million kW, accounting for about 20 percent of the province’s total. It is imperative to formulate stricter standards for air pollutant emissions of fixed gas turbines.

The new standards represent three major innovations based on the existing standards: First, they abolish the limits on particle and SO2 emissions, which not only conforms to the actual discharge level of gas turbines, reduces the waste of social resources and avoids the risk of violating the environmental law, but also achieves an alignment with international universal standards; Second, they refer to international compliance evaluation norms such as that of the EU while taking into account China’s actual conditions, and formulate the criterion that the monthly average pollutant emission concentration shall be no more than the limit, 95% hourly concentration no more than 200% of the limit, and daily average concentration no more than 110% of the limit; Third, the standards clarify that the turbine turning on/off and load below 50% shall be exempt load period. That means the emissions in that period shall not be calculated into hourly average pollutant emissions.

It is estimated that after the implementation of the standards, the daily and yearly average PM2.5 concentrations in typical urban environment in Jiangsu will drop respectively by 1.33-2.37 μg/m3 and 0.06-0.17 μg/m3 and daily and yearly average NO2 emissions will decrease respectively by 1.83-6.95 μg/m3 and 0.25-1.21 μg/m3.

The implementation of the new standards is conducive for Jiangsu Province to continuously improve its air quality, while providing reference for other areas in the Yangtze River Delta to upgrade their standards for fixed gas turbine NOx emissions and reduce their discharge.