"The’ mysterious gas’ that destroys the ozone layer comes from China." Recently, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a British-based NGO, reported that in the polyurethane foam (PU) industry, there are still enterprises in China that illegally produce and use trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11).
According to the staff of the Foreign Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Environmental Protection pays great attention to this matter and is currently organizing a series of scientific research and inspection in all aspects.
As early as 2007, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the Announcement on Prohibiting the Production of Perfluorocarbons (CFCs), which stipulated that any enterprise was prohibited from producing and using 15 substances, including CFC-11.
It has been banned for more than ten years. Where did the "accusation" in the EIA report come from?
Existing but not mainstream.
Polyurethane foam, especially polyurethane rigid foam composite, has been in great demand in recent years because of its good thermal insulation effect, moisture-proof and anti-corrosion, and low cost. At present, China has become the largest producer and consumer of rigid polyurethane foam in the world.
CFC-11 is a foaming agent added in the production of rigid polyurethane foam.The reporter contacted a number of foaming agents, material suppliers or manufacturers online and offline, and they admitted that it is "cheaper" to sell fluorine-containing foaming agents.
Many interviewees admitted that the illegal acts discovered this time "may cause a passive situation in China’s international performance".
The reporter learned that China formally joined the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (London Amendment) in June 1991. Accordingly, China polyurethane foam industry has completely eliminated CFCs in 2010. "In the industry, CFC-11 is not allowed to be used." Li Jianbo, Deputy Secretary-General of China Polyurethane Industry Association, told the reporter that the state has provided a variety of alternative products and technical solutions for each CFC substance. "China is in the second stage of phasing out HCFC-141b, a substitute for CFC-11, which damages the ozone layer by one tenth of the former".
In May, 2007, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the Recommended Catalogue of Ozone Depleting Substances (Revised). There are more than 10 kinds of CFC-11 substitutes, which are used as refrigerants and foaming agents in different products such as household appliances, heat preservation pipes and tobacco processing.
According to Wei Ke, an associate researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, since the implementation of the plan for more than 10 years, the iteration of alternative technologies has been rapid, and the refrigerants are relatively mature. For example, household appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators are fluorine-free products. However, in terms of foaming agent, the alternatives are transitional. "Although the ozone depletion value (ODP) of some alternatives is 0, the greenhouse effect value (GWP) is very high, and the world is gradually freezing and decreasing."
"There are difficulties in the transition stage." Meng Qingjun, deputy secretary-general of China Plastics Processing Industry Association, admits that hydrocarbon technology has security risks and is difficult to approve; The technical performance of water is poor and the cost is high; There are also some technologies that have been included in the control targets and are not encouraged to use because of the greenhouse effect. In addition, polyurethane foam production enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, with fierce competition and insufficient technology, capital and management capabilities. "But difficulties cannot be used as an excuse for a few enterprises to use CFC-11."
"In the process of substitution, with the rising cost, improvement of equipment, improvement of technical specifications and safety requirements, enterprises without social conscience will continue to adopt low-cost and environmentally unfriendly substances." Li Jianbo said.
However, after participating in the relevant investigation organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Li Jianbo thinks that the EIA investigation is also biased. Most illegal enterprises that produce and use CFC-11 are "underground factories", which is definitely not the mainstream in China. However, this illegal behavior must be severely cracked down.
Ozone "killer"
In the 1920s, after the invention of HCFCs, they were considered as "a very perfect substance as a foaming agent and a refrigerant".
Sun Yang, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the reporter that under general conditions, the chemical properties of chlorofluorocarbons are very stable, among which CFC-11 is easy to compress and liquefy, with high latent heat of evaporation, low toxicity, nonflammability and low cost. Widely used in polyurethane foam foaming agent, air conditioning refrigerant, cosmetics, pesticide aerosol, fire extinguishing agent and other products.
When the foaming agent is trapped in the polyurethane foam in the gas state, the polyurethane foam has the least heat and cold transmission. "Polyurethane foam foamed with CFC-11 has the best thermal insulation performance." Sun Yang said.
After several decades, scientists have found that the ozone layer "hole" and the greenhouse effect are becoming more and more serious, and the reason is the emission and enrichment of chlorofluorocarbons from human activities.
Because the CFCs gas emitted by human beings is very stable, it hardly decomposes in the troposphere. When it diffuses to the stratosphere, when it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, a photochemical reaction of carbon-chlorine chain breakage will occur, and the generated chlorine atom will be used as a catalyst, resulting in the conversion of ozone into oxygen. "One chlorine atom can destroy about 100,000 ozone molecules, and the emission of CFCs gas causes ozone to be continuously consumed, thus making the stratosphere lose its ability to absorb ultraviolet rays." Sun Yang said.
The destruction of the ozone layer means that the ultraviolet rays of the sun reaching the surface are enhanced. This will seriously harm people’s skin and eyes, damage people’s immune system, and do harm to food production and animals and plants.
Wei Ke also said that CFCs have a long life span in the atmosphere. "It can always exist in the stratosphere, and it can only be removed from the atmosphere through various circulation in the stratosphere and finally to the ground, and this process is very slow."
Let the offenders lose more than they gain.
After the incident was disclosed, China Plastics Processing Industry Association issued the "Initiative on Consciously Resisting Illegal Foaming Agents" to encourage employees to take cracking down on CFC-11 as their own job.
Li Jianbo believes that relying on inspectors can cure the symptoms, not the root cause. "To truly solve the problem, we must establish a credit mechanism, implement the main responsibility of enterprises, and make the offenders unprofitable, or even lose more than they gain, from being forced to resist in the past to being a conscious behavior of enterprises."
In Wei Ke’s view, this is a corporate interest-driven behavior. He believes that it is necessary to strictly enforce the law, check the production process and product acceptance of enterprises, increase publicity, and enhance the self-discipline of the whole industry.
"China has been on the road of zero ODP and low GWP substitution." Meng Qingjun said that it is an established choice for the polyurethane foam industry to choose environmental protection technology, but at the same time it will inevitably bring new problems, which need not only technical research by enterprises, but also shared by downstream users and consumers.
(The original title is "Foreign NGOs report that China enterprises illegally produce and use chlorofluorocarbons to capture ozone" killers ":it is more important to cure the symptoms")
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