Chemical giants to set up operations in the Three Gorges Reservoir area; experts worry about the potential for new PX production starting (reposted from Surfactant Network)

Thread Content

The environmental impact assessment for BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing has been approved, and the project is set to be established in the Chongqing Chemical Industry Park. “Who dares to build giant chemical plants in the Yangtze River, especially in the Three Gorges reservoir area and as water sources for the six provinces and one municipality downstream? ! ”For a time, the intense discussions among netizens regarding the balance between economic development and environmental protection in the Three Gorges Reservoir area once again came to the public’s attention. The BASF MDI project in Chongqing is just one of the many chemical companies that pose a threat to the environmental safety of the Three Gorges Reservoir area. In line with its 11th Five-Year Plan, Chongqing established three major chemical industry bases in Changshou, Fuling, and Wanzhou within the Three Gorges Reservoir area to develop industries such as natural gas, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, and salt chemicals. It is reported that Chongqing Chemical Industry Park, the leading among the three chemical industry parks, currently has 70 enterprises established there, with an agreed investment of over 60 billion yuan. Among these are 16 multinational companies, 11 companies from the Fortune Global 500 list, and 19 listed companies. In the controversy surrounding BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing, the public’s concern for environmental safety in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, along with its doubts regarding the information disclosed in the environmental impact assessment and the flaws in the related procedures, stood in sharp contrast to the low-key attitude and avoidance of these questions by the relevant authorities in Chongqing. On February 7, the media reported that BASF’s 400,000-ton/year MDI project in Chongqing had passed the environmental impact assessment review by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and was now facing a stringent environmental review process while awaiting final approval from the relevant authorities, which drew significant public attention. Once approved, BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing will be located in the Chongqing Chemical Industry Park, at the tail end of the Three Gorges Reservoir on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The park is located in Yanjia Sub-district, Changshou District, 53 kilometers downstream of Chongqing’s main urban area. Under the plans for ** in Chongqing, the Chongqing Chemical Industry Park is set to be developed into the largest chemical industry hub in the western region. Affected by the financial crisis, BASF in Germany closed 80 of its factories around the world last November, as MDI became highly sought-after. Meanwhile, this world’s largest chemical company invested 8 billion yuan to build an MDI plant in Chongqing with an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons. The negotiations for this project have lasted for several years, and the total investment amount has risen from 2 billion yuan and 4 billion yuan initially to 8 billion yuan at present, which is enough to demonstrate the incredible power of MDI as an emerging chemical material. The main component of MDI is diphenylmethane diisocyanate, which is the most important raw material for producing polyurethanes. Polyurethanes possess the elasticity of rubber and the strength of plastics, as well as advantages that no other synthetic materials can match, making them widely used. The MDI market has great potential. China has now become the second-largest global market for MDI after the United States, with an annual growth rate of over 8%. There are only a few companies in the world that possess independent intellectual property rights and are capable of producing MDI, and they are mainly located in Germany, the United States, Japan, and China. Yantai Wanhua is the only company in China that possesses independent intellectual property rights for MDI. High technical barriers, substantial profits, and broad market prospects have made MDI highly sought after. It is reported that once the BASF project in Chongqing comes online, it will create a natural gas chemicals cluster with annual sales revenue of 50 billion yuan, generating profits and taxes of over 10 billion yuan; it will also enable direct or indirect employment for 250,000 people in the surrounding area. However, high toxicity, high pollution, and high risk are inherent in the production processes of the vast majority of chemical products, representing a curse that the chemical industry has struggled to overcome. When a chemical product is created, there are potential hazards and risks at every stage, including raw material procurement, transportation, storage, and production. According to information provided by Greenpeace Labs, in the standard production process of MDI, it is first necessary to produce *** through a reaction between benzene and nitric acid. ***It reacts with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to produce aniline. Upon reaction with formaldehyde, an important intermediate product MDA is formed, which then reacts with phosgene to produce MDI. Among them, *** is an explosive substance with extreme toxicity; long-term exposure can cause severe damage to the central nervous system. Aniline is also a highly toxic chemical that can be absorbed through the skin and respiratory system. Phosgene is highly toxic and volatile; excessive inhalation can lead to lung failure and death. It is worth noting that the Songhua River pollution incident in 2005 was caused by an *** explosion, with benzene and *** being the main culprits. Phosgene was the culprit behind the 2008 Qiqihar phosgene leak incident that resulted in 18 deaths. Ai Nanshan, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering at Sichuan University, told a reporter from Time Weekly: “Chemical manufacturing enterprises are industries with high risks and high levels of pollution.” The industrial treatment of pollution from chemical products has always been a global challenge. Taking sewage treatment as an example, there is no unified approach; the pollution caused by different chemical products varies greatly, requiring different methods for treatment. Scientists have long hoped to develop a universal solution, such as supercritical governance, but little progress has been made. ” The more than 10 experts, scholars, and environmental activists who were interviewed by a reporter from Time Weekly agreed almost unanimously that chemical pollution and accidents undoubtedly pose a threat to the safety of the water resources in the Three Gorges Reservoir area and the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges Reservoir area cannot bear such a heavy load. In Chongqing’s chemical industry layout, three chemical manufacturing bases have been established along the Three Gorges Reservoir area: Changshou, Fuling, and Wanzhou, which are dedicated to the development of natural gas chemicals, petrochemicals, and salt-based chemicals respectively. An environmental expert familiar with the background and details of the project, who requested anonymity, told a reporter from Time Weekly that establishing three large chemical manufacturing bases in the Three Gorges reservoir area carries high risks; thorough analysis is needed, and opinions from experts from various fields as well as residents in the provinces and cities downstream should be taken into account before making any decisions. The Yangtze River water in the Three Gorges Reservoir area affects hundreds of millions of people along its banks. There will be risks for drinking water for both humans and livestock, as well as for water used in industrial and agricultural production; the South-to-North Water Transfer project and the East Route water supply will also be affected. **To verify and thoroughly study this issue, arbitrary decisions must not be made, so as to avoid a situation similar to that of the Xiamen PX project, where hundreds of millions were invested only to have it eventually forced to be shut down and relocated, resulting in huge waste. Experts also revealed to a reporter from Time Weekly that last year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection held a seminar on BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, and a former vice minister of the Ministry of Chemical Industry strongly opposed it. His reason is that MDI production requires phosgene, which is highly toxic; therefore large isolation and buffer zones are needed, with the buffer zone alone covering several square kilometers. The expert expressed his concerns: experts in Chongqing and the Development and Reform Commission believe that the project should proceed. They believe that the most advanced technology from Germany has been introduced. However, even the most advanced technology cannot guarantee absolute reliability. As long as chemical projects exist in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, potential hazards will accompany them at all times. Weng Lida, Secretary-General of the Yangtze River Forum and former Director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Bureau, offered his views based on the current status of water resources in the Three Gorges reservoir area: \"After the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the hydrological conditions have changed significantly.\" The water flow is very slow now; the water level difference from in front of the dam to the back of the reservoir is less than 30 centimeters, meaning the reservoir is essentially level. The self-purification and diffusion capacity of water bodies, or in other words, their capacity to absorb pollutants and their environmental capacity, are all greatly affected. The issue of water quality protection in the Three Gorges Reservoir area is severe; although it has not exceeded expectations, the tributaries in this area have already begun to suffer from eutrophication, with algal blooms occurring in many places. ” Professor Ai Nanshan believes that both Chongqing and Sichuan should assume corresponding responsibilities for establishing an ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Enterprises in the old chemical industrial zones that are long-established should also be reduced, as the current practice of building new chemical complexes on a large scale along the rivers carries high risks. Higher thresholds should also be set for industrial relocation, especially to avoid relying on heavy and chemical industries. Pollution control in the heavy and chemical industries is a global challenge; it is best not to establish such industries in reservoir areas. **This issue should be addressed head-on rather than avoided. On February 15, a reporter from Time Weekly went to the “MDI integrated project site” in Chongqing’s chemical industry park and climbed onto the dam of Hequan Reservoir, located at the foot of Xishan Mountain. The Hequan Reservoir is located at the foot of what the locals call Xishan Mountain. It serves as one of the sources of drinking water for both humans and animals in Yanjia Sub-district, Changshou District in Chongqing, which has a population of 70,000 people. The reservoir has a capacity of 2 million cubic meters. The river water plant located beneath the reservoir dam supplies nearly 3,000 tons of drinking water to Yanjia every day. “I need to go back and ask how the Yan family’s water source was taken into consideration in the environmental impact assessment. ”Wu Dengming, the head of the Chongqing Green Volunteers Federation who was traveling with the reporter from Time Weekly, said. Experts point out that for the chemical product MDI, from the perspective of production safety, there needs to be a buffer zone of several square kilometers between the work area and residential areas, in addition to isolation zones. What was observed on site was that the signage for the MDI integration project was located within a radius of less than 3 kilometers from both the Yanjia residential area and the water source. On the website of the Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau and in the simplified version of the \"Second Public Announcement on the Environmental Impact Assessment of the BASF Chongqing MDI Project\" released by the Chongqing Chemical Engineering Design Institute, only information on pollution treatment technologies is provided; there is no content related to water sources and residential areas. In other words, if the water source for the residents of Yanjia remains the Hequan Reservoir, then no matter where the BASF Chongqing MDI project is located within the \"MDI integrated project site,\" it will not be able to meet the safety planning requirements applicable to chemical projects that are typically highly toxic, highly polluting, and pose high risks. There is a call for genuine environmental impact assessment reports. Since the PX incident in Xiamen and the chemical industry incident in Pengzhou, Chengdu, the high level of public attention and active participation in the planning and construction of heavy industrial projects have become symbols of the growing environmental awareness and public consciousness throughout society. The environmental impact assessment report for BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing has sparked widespread controversy. Many experts, the public, and environmentalists agree that the environmental impact assessment report for this project provides insufficient information, uses flawed methods, ignores the public’s right to know, and avoids **supervision. Yang Yong, deputy director of the Expert Committee of the China Desertification Control Foundation, offered three views on environmental impact assessments in a written response to a reporter from Time Weekly. First, the content of the environmental impact assessment public notice is too simple, lacking the basis and criteria for providing comments. For example, there are no total emission figures for things like waste gas and wastewater. There is also no environmental quality background or environmental capacity planning for construction, etc. The project’s pollution treatment processes, emission standards, investment, and costs are not clearly specified, so such a public announcement holds little significance. Second, the environmental impact assessment concludes that the project has no significant effect on environmental quality and offers good economic, social, and environmental benefits; however, this conclusion is too vague to be reliable for making judgments. Third, environmental impact assessments should make public BASF’s environmental performance regarding its related chemical projects around the world, so that the public can be informed. Wu Dengming, president of the Chongqing Green Volunteers Federation, emphasized that in assessing the water environment capacity, the Three Gorges Reservoir area should use lakes as the basis for environmental evaluations; using rivers as a standard would not reflect reality. Environmentalists also urge that the list of experts involved in the environmental impact assessment along with their comments should be made public, so as to ensure transparency in the assessment process. This would enable the experts to fulfill their responsibilities properly, guarantee the accuracy of the assessment results, and uphold the integrity of the environmental impact assessment process. On February 13-14, reporters from Time Weekly called repeatedly the phone numbers of the environmental assessment agencies listed in the electronic version of the second public announcement for this project, but no one answered the calls ； Multiple calls were made to the duty phone number of Chongqing’s Environmental Protection Bureau as well as to the phone number of its Education and Publicity Department; fortunately, one call was connected. The staff members refused to answer the reporter’s questions, stating that the environmental impact assessment opinions were still being collected and processed. A reporter from Time Weekly called the ** News Office in Chongqing, but no one answered the phone ； Call Wang Ke, the spokesperson and office director of Chongqing Chemical Medicine Investment Holding Group Company, the Chinese representative in charge of the project. Wang Ke claimed to be unaware of the details regarding this project, suggesting that the reporters ask the headquarters of the “MDI Integration Project” directly. When the reporter asked for the headquarters phone number, Wang refused on the grounds that he didn’t know it. Throughout the numerous setbacks encountered in attempting to obtain interviews, reporters from Time Weekly discovered on the website Chongqing Online, which published a simplified version of the second public notice regarding the environmental impact assessment for BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing, as well as on the website of Chongqing Chemical Engineering Design Institute, that this institute, being one of the parties responsible for carrying out the environmental impact assessment, only possesses Class B qualifications for such assessments. Moreover, it is a subsidiary company of Chongqing Chemical Medicine Investment Holding Group, which is the Chinese investor in this project. On Sunday, February 15th, at 6:15 p.m., the website of the Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau published a report titled \"Environmental Protection Status of the MDI Project in Chongqing\" under the environmental information section. On the 15th, Xinhua News Agency republished this information under the headline “Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau: Chongqing’s MDI project can ensure the water environment safety in the Three Gorges Reservoir area,” emphasizing that the project utilizes advanced technology and has passed environmental impact assessments. Exclusive response from BASF: On February 13, a reporter from Time Weekly contacted Ms. Tian Lijun from the Media and Public Relations department at BASF’s Beijing office via phone and email. “A gas called phosgene is produced during the MDI manufacturing process, and this is something that concerns the public as well as those of us in the chemical industry the most. It is the most important part of the entire project. ”Tian Lijun believes that BASF’s over 30 years of experience in the safe production of MDI can ensure the safety of MDI production at the Chongqing project. A reporter from Time Weekly asked Ms. Tian to confirm whether BASF has any similar projects worldwide to the Chongqing MDI project, located upstream of rivers in large reservoir areas. Ms. Tian said that water transport is the main method for transporting raw materials for large chemical companies, and it is common practice for BASF facilities to be located near rivers and the sea. However, in a subsequent email, BASF reaffirmed that the MDI project in Chongqing is the company’s only MDI project located in an upstream river basin. BASF’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, is situated upstream of the Rhine River and is the world’s largest integrated chemical manufacturing complex built in the 19th century. Referring to Greenpeace’s accusations that BASF applies a double standard toward China in terms of disclosing information on environmental pollution, and that it has yet to make public the data on pollutant emissions from its factories in China, BASF responded to a reporter from Time Weekly by saying, “We comply with Chinese laws; we have disclosed all the information required by law.” ” On February 17, a reporter from Time Weekly received an email from BASF, which was the company’s only response to the doubts raised regarding the MDI project in Chongqing. In addition to reiterating the safety of BASF’s production processes, the content discusses the reasons for choosing Chongqing as the location for the project. BASF said, “Factors such as proximity to raw material sources, market development potential, support from technical personnel, relevant logistics infrastructure, and the environment.” Environment, health, and safety have always been the most important considerations for us when selecting locations for all our projects. BASF’s MDI plants in Antwerp (Belgium) and Ulsan (South Korea) were also established based on the aforementioned considerations. ” “Located in a strategic position upstream of the Yangtze River, Chongqing serves as a gateway city to China’s five neighboring provinces and a hub for economic activity and transportation in the western region. It covers an area of 82,000 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 40 million. ” “Chongqing is the western gateway of China, equipped with excellent infrastructure that enables it to serve the domestic market as well as the whole of China. ” At the end of the email, BASF emphasized once again: “More importantly, Chongqing itself has an ambitious development plan.” The MDI project is just one of the facilities in the Chongqing Chemical Industrial Park. ”This can be understood as follows: the decision to locate BASF’s MDI project in Chongqing within the Three Gorges Reservoir area was driven more by Chongqing’s own interests, as there were already dozens of chemical manufacturing companies there even before BASF arrived. The difficulties in planning chemical industries along rivers. An expert with over 20 years of experience in chemical industry environmental protection told a reporter from Time Weekly: “Building chemical industrial bases in upstream reservoir areas is something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world!” ” During the \"**\" in 2007, there were calls for \"adjusting the industrial layout in the Yangtze River basin\" and for \"establishing an early warning system for water environment safety\". Weng Lida, secretary-general of the Yangtze River Forum, told a reporter from Time Weekly: “More than half of the country’s chemical enterprises are concentrated in the Yangtze River basin.” The amount of domestic and industrial wastewater that enters the Yangtze River every day is equivalent to that of the Yellow River. ” “If the provinces and cities along the Yangtze River develop related industries in accordance with the established ’11th Five-Year Plan’ guidelines, not only will the water environment security in the Yangtze River basin not be effectively ensured, but it will also face greater risks and hidden dangers. ”Chen Lingfu, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, is deeply concerned about the layout of heavy chemical industries in the Yangtze River basin during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. To address the challenges associated with the layout of chemical industries, Professor Ai Nanshan believes that it is necessary to break away from the existing pattern. Chemical parks should be organized in a **centralized manner, with centralized management and unified control over pollution prevention, in order to achieve true integration and thus minimize the threats they pose to environmental safety. Weng Lida believes that due to the existence of the Three Gorges Reservoir, industrial policies and structural adjustments for economic development in the reservoir area should be treated differently: \"If it weren’t for the Three Gorges Reservoir, Wuhan and Nanjing could pursue chemical industry projects, and Chongqing should also have no problems doing so.\" “The Three Gorges Project brings significant benefits in terms of flood control, power generation, and navigation, with the middle and lower reaches being the main beneficiaries. But it also has negative aspects, mainly in the reservoir area. ” Weng Lida believes that it is understandable that tens of millions of people living in the reservoir area need to introduce industry and develop the economy in order to survive. However, resolving the conflict between environmental protection and development in reservoir areas is a very complex issue; without an effective compensation mechanism for those affected, such as financial transfers, it is difficult to solve this problem.