International negotiations pressure mercury-containing electric light source Ministry of Environmental Protection brewing prevention New Deal

With the gradual replacement of incandescent lamps by energy-saving lamps, the mercury pollution of energy-saving lamps has caused public concern. Senior experts in the industry told the “Economic Information Daily” reporters that the narrow-tube T5, T8 and other straight fluorescent and circular fluorescent lamps are more prone to mercury content exceeding the standard due to the manual mercury injection process. According to relevant experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is planning to formulate policies to strengthen the mercury pollution prevention and control of mercury added products and related industries, and it is proposed to ban the use of liquid mercury and manual mercury injection of fluorescent lamps for the production of new construction, reconstruction, and expansion projects.

International negotiations pressure on mercury-containing electric light source

At the end of 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Announcement on the gradual ban on the import and sale of incandescent lamps for general lighting" and announced that by 2016, China will basically phase out the use of incandescent lamps for general lighting. At the same time, the National Development and Reform Commission, the United Nations Development Program, and the Global Environment Facility also jointly designed the "China's phase-out of incandescent lamps and accelerated the promotion of energy-saving lamps." Shanghai Yaer Light Sources Co., Ltd. told reporters that the relevant experts, which marks the use of high energy efficiency fluorescent lamps to replace incandescent lamps has become an inevitable trend.

However, with the further promotion of energy-saving lamps, their mercury pollution has also caused concern of all parties in society. According to data provided by researcher Su Juan of the Institute of Electric Illumination Materials, Nanjing University of Technology, mercury consumption for energy-saving lamps in China is about 20 tons per year, and 1 milligram of mercury permeates into the ground will cause pollution of 360 tons of water and the surrounding soil. Mercury in the atmosphere is highly diffusive and fat-soluble. The newspaper previously disclosed that the international mercury negotiations are mainly focused on the prevention and control of mercury in the atmosphere, and Canada, the Nordic countries, and other countries have claimed that the local fishery resources exceed the standard of mercury and the atmospheric circulation.

“As a country with the largest amount of mercury used and emissions in the world, China is faced with huge pressures for mercury reduction and emission reduction in the 'Global Mercury Instrument' negotiation.” Xiao Xiaodong, associate researcher of the Chemical Registration Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, disclosed that in July this year The fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee convened by the United Nations Environment Programme was convened. Delegates further negotiated the draft of a legally binding global mercury convention (the “Global Mercury Instrument”), reducing the supply of mercury, reducing the demand for mercury from products and processes, and reducing the international trade of mercury are still the focus of negotiations. field.

Relevant persons of the Ministry of Environmental Protection disclosed to reporters that the mercury instrument as an international convention is the same as the highest-level international law of the “Stockholm Convention” and the “CBD Protocol” concerning persistent organic pollutants, and even better than the “Kyoto Protocol” level for dealing with climate change. Still high.

According to the draft convention, mercury-containing electric light sources are included in mercury products that are subject to control. The draft convention provides for the restriction and elimination of the manufacture and trade of mercury products, that is, the prohibition of the manufacture of mercury-added products other than exempted uses, the adoption of the PIC procedure or the import licensing system to restrict the import and export trade of products, and to the Secretariat on a regular basis. Report on the manufacturing, import, export, and other information of mercury-added products.

“The mercury-free electric light source products have no mature mercury-free alternative technology and cannot be phased out in the short term. However, the global mercury instrument has not relaxed the control of electric light source products.” Xiaodong disclosed that in July of this year, Jamaica, Japan, etc. The representative of the country put forward a list of the elimination of mercury-containing electric light source products. Representatives of some countries believe that a global harmonized mercury content limit standard should be established for electric light source products, and products with mercury content exceeding the standard should be phased out within a time limit. Products meeting the standards can be applied for exemptions within a certain time limit, allowing their manufacture and production. import and export.

Mercury emissions from straight tubes and circular fluorescent lamps are not optimistic

"In the lighting and electrical appliance industry, mercury is mainly used in the production of gas discharge lamps." Chen Yansheng, Secretary-General of the China Lighting Association, provided reporters with such a set of data: According to estimates, the total amount of mercury used in the industry in 2011 was about 57 tons. The amount of mercury in the product is approximately 40 tons, and the amount of mercury emitted during the production process is approximately 17 tons. Among them, widely used in hospitals, schools and other lighting places and light box advertising display areas such as direct fluorescent lamps total mercury up to 26.9 tons, higher than used in home lighting, office lighting, commercial lighting and other fields of energy-saving lamps (21 tons) .

Specifically, the amount of single-use mercury in compact fluorescent lamps (commonly known as "energy-saving lamps") has become increasingly optimistic. According to the National Electric Light Sources Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, Liu Xi and Wan Hao stated that in 2008, the center had taken the lead in the world to complete a test survey of mercury levels in China's energy-saving lamps. The results show that in the Chinese mainland market, there are approximately 36% The level of mercury in energy-saving lamps does not meet the limit of 5 mg. By 2012, a spot check of 80 batches of energy-saving lamps across the country showed that 90% of the energy-saving lamps had a mercury content of less than 2 milligrams and reached the “low mercury” level; even 11% of the energy-saving lamps could meet the mercury limit. A value of 1 mg is required to reach the "micromercury" level.

However, the mercury reduction and emission reduction situation of straight fluorescent lamps and circular fluorescent lamps is not optimistic. The reporter was informed that the National Standardization Technical Committee for Lighting is developing a new national standard that requires the highest mercury content of 3.5 milligrams in the above-mentioned fluorescent lamps. An industry expert from a Nanjing Institute, who declined to be named, told the “Economic Information Daily” reporter that the narrow-tube T5, T8, etc. straight fluorescent lamps and circular fluorescent lamps were more likely to use mercury injection because of their more manual mercury injection process. "The proportion of people living on weekdays is 10% to 20%." According to the statistics of the China Lighting Association, in 2011, the output of T8 straight fluorescent lamps in China was approximately 1.098 billion, and that of T5 straight fluorescent lamps was approximately 792 million. The output of circular fluorescent lamps used in conjunction with household ceiling lamps was approximately 183 million.

Jiang Xuefeng, head of quality management at Zhenjiang Qiangling Lighting Electric Co., Ltd., told reporters that in order to reduce the total mercury used in direct-fluorescent lamps, LED lamps should be gradually sought as an alternative light source, resulting in a two-fold share of the total. The display index is not very good, coupled with the price is generally higher than the energy-saving lamps, can only be achieved through technical research to win the market advantage relative to straight fluorescent lamps.

Larger technology upgrade costs

The use of different mercury injection methods will affect the amount of mercury used and emitted by electric light sources. According to Xiaodong Xiao, U-type compact fluorescent lamps with large output and mercury consumption are taken as an example. Mercury content, mercury usage, and emissions of solid-state mercury single-use products are much lower than those of products using liquid mercury. However, the mercury content, mercury use, and emissions of the single-product mercury-assisted liquid mercury process are significantly lower than the manual liquid mercury process.

Qin Bifang, Chief Engineer of Xiamen Tongshida Lighting Co., Ltd. explained that because liquid mercury can easily adhere to the mercury injection pipe wall, it is difficult to accurately control the injection volume. In order to reduce the proportion of mercury deficiency and improve the product qualification rate, the production process often needs to increase The average mercury injection. “Compact fluorescent lamps using liquid mercury have a single mercury content of only 3-5 mg, but companies with poor process control have mercury concentrations as high as more than 10 mg.” In addition, Da Ming Lighting Co., Ltd. According to sources, liquid mercury has been used as a traditional process for many years, but there are hidden dangers in the use and transportation of liquid mercury, which can easily cause great harm to employees and the environment.

The harm caused by the use of liquid mercury or manual mercury injection techniques must not be underestimated. A technical person in charge of a large-scale energy-saving lamp company told the reporter that in 2009, a domestic fluorescent lamp manufacturing company had insufficient knowledge of the occupational hazards of mercury, which led to the occurrence of chronic mercury poisoning among many people and was suspended by the relevant government departments for rectification. Gaoyou Gaohe Photoelectric Equipment Co., Ltd. Relevant sources recalled that until the beginning of this century, due to lower production rates of some manufacturers, more broken lamps will still cause the dispersion of liquid mercury, the high temperature in the workshop will cause serious evaporation of mercury.

Xiaodong told reporters that the 2010 data showed that the production of fluorescent lamps using liquid mercury still accounted for about 29% of the total output of fluorescent lamps. Among them, the production of compact fluorescent lamps (caps) using solid-state mercury is only about 50%, the use of solid-state mercury in metal halide lamps and ultraviolet lamps is only 43% and 35%, respectively, and high-pressure mercury lamps use liquid mercury.

Chen Yansheng analyzed that for enterprises, the use of solid mercury instead of liquid mercury as raw materials will increase the cost of procurement, and changing the production process will also increase the cost of one-time equipment reform. “Wool is on the sheep and energy-saving lamps will certainly improve in the short term. Price, but through the ever-increasing market competition, energy-saving lamp prices can be lowered again." An industry expert from the Nanjing institute mentioned to reporters that the cost of using single-tube and liquid-mercury mercury for a single lamp is one to two cents, but due to the hundreds of thousands of energy-saving lamps, "the company's incremental costs are still relatively high. big".

Ministry of Environmental Protection brewing lighting industry mercury prevention New Deal

"China's mercury pollution prevention and management capabilities and level of technology, research and development and promotion of alternative products and technologies are still unable to meet the needs of the domestic and international situation." The relevant experts of the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is planning to strengthen the development of mercury-added products and related industries. Mercury pollution prevention and control policy.

Specifically, in reducing and eliminating the use of mercury and encouraging advanced products and processes, it is required to gradually reduce the production capacity of liquid mercury electric light sources and expand the production capacity of solid-state mercury electric light sources. Solid-state mercury must be used for the construction, reconstruction, and expansion of fluorescent lamp production projects. Automatic and closed mercury injection technology such as round row machines; encourage low-mercury/micro-mercury, long-life, high-efficiency electric light source product development and promotion, strengthen the independent research and development of LED products, and promote its application range.

In establishing and strictly implementing various environmental management systems, it is required to strictly implement the environmental impact assessment system and the “three simultaneous” system, and prohibit the approval of the use of liquid mercury and manual mercury injection of fluorescent lamps for the production of new, reconstructed, and expanded projects.

In the implementation of corporate responsibility for mercury pollution prevention and control, it requires strict management of daily corporate management responsibility; encourage and promote the implementation of mercury pollution prevention and control measures. Require enterprises to establish a safe storage and use management system for mercury-containing raw materials, establish a system for publishing ledgers and environmental information, formulate environmental emergency response plans and periodic training for mercury pollution, and be responsible for environmental issues caused by enterprises; request the county (region) where the enterprise is located The environmental protection departments should verify the implementation of the environmental management system of each enterprise at least once a year. Enterprises that do not establish and implement environmental management systems in accordance with requirements shall be rectified within a time limit. Environmental issues caused by the enterprises shall be strictly investigated for corporate legal person responsibilities; Related environmental protection special funds support enterprises to implement key mercury pollution prevention and control projects, coordinate local people's governments at all levels to formulate financial support policies that are conducive to the prevention and control of mercury pollution, and support enterprises to carry out technological transformation and equipment development through economic incentive measures such as subsidies, tax reduction, and preferential credit. And product upgrades.

Huang Wensuo, an engineer at Xiamen Tongshida Lighting Co., Ltd., suggested that the government promote and recycle low-mercury lamps for energy-saving lamps and introduce more powerful policies, such as encouraging low-mercury energy-saving lamps in government procurement.

People in Yancheng Haomai Lighting Technology Co., Ltd. believe that low-mercury and micro-mercury fluorescent lamps are high-tech products that integrate electronics, materials, vacuum discharge plasma, and other disciplines. It is recommended that under the leadership of industry associations, they should take the initiative to grasp pricing rights. Fluorescent lamp product prices; and select the industry core patents, determine the industry development strategy, focus on policy support, bid farewell to the lighting industry, "even the listed companies are difficult to compete with the international lighting giant" situation.