The Performance of China's SO2 Scrubbers at Coal Power Plants

Abstract

The lack of effective policy and law enforcement is a serious and pervasive problem in China and environmental protection is particularly affected. Low SO₂ removal and operation rates at SO₂ scrubbers were of specific interests of this paper. Through active capacity building and mobilization of local governments, significant progress was achieved with a new policy of desulfurized electricity price premium. Jiangsu province witnessed a dramatic increase of removal and operation rates at its SO₂ scrubbers in July 2007 and afterwards when the policy formally entered into force. The success demonstrated China's ability to enforce significant policies and established a promising example for future CO₂ mitigation.