A new environmentally friendly boiler room has begun operating in the Dandong Border Economic Cooperation Zone in Northeast China’s Liaoning province. Using special fuels, the boiler heats up without the usual piled fire coal, flying dust or dust remover, fire grate, blast blower and draught fan found in common boiler rooms. The boiler house is clean and tidy. It was cited at a recent seminar on methanol-based clean fuel application technologies, sponsored by the municipal office responsible for establishing an environment friendly model city.

The special fuel, known as Chun Ji, takes methanol as the main components, and is processed under the technology of proportioning raw materials for chemical reactions. It was developed by Dandong Municipal Alcohol Ether Research Institute. So far, Chun Ji has passed production inspection of the municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision and monitoring of the municipal environment protection monitoring central station. It has been found that its pollutant discharge is much lower than the maximum emission limit. Therefore it’s become known as a clean fuel.

A national environment friendly model city must use at least one half of its energy from clean sources. However, clean energy amounts to only 23 percent of total energy consumption in Dandong. To achieve the objective of supplying one half of its energy with clean sources by the end of 2012, Dandong needs to rapidly adjust its energy structure. This is a requirement in order to build a national environment friendly model city. There is an urgent demand to save energy, reduce emissions and protect the environment. The municipal office for establishing the environment friendly model city sponsored the seminar in a bid to explore the feasibility of promoting new energies. The office also wants to track the stability and safety of the new energies in the course of operation. In the next few years, the city will promote a similar type of clean energy but on a wider scale.