Pollutant emission reduction of energy efficiency enhancement and energy cascade utilization in an energy-intensive industrial park in China

Industrial parks play an extremely important role in the rapid development of China’s economy. However, as the backbone of China’s economic development, industrial parks also consume huge energy resources and cause serious pollution to the environment, making China face greater pressure on environmental issues. This article takes the Yongcheng Economic and Technological Development Area, a typical energy-intensive industrial park in Henan Province, as the research object to analyze its energy saving and emission reduction potential. Three scenarios (baseline scenario, energy cascade utilization scenario, and energy efficiency technology enhancement scenario) are set to quantify the energy-saving potential and air pollutant emission reduction of the park under different scenarios. The results show that in the energy cascade utilization scenario, by realizing the recycling of waste heat resources from heat source enterprises, it can bring energy saving of 6385 TJ, and reduce 0.35 kt SO2, 0.79 kt NOx, 0.067 kt PM10, and 0.035 kt PM2.5. And CO2 emission reductions have reached 604 kt. In the energy efficiency technology enhancement scenario, by eliminating relatively backward technologies and adding advanced energy-saving technologies, 7306 TJ energy saving could be achieved. SO2, NOx, PM10, PM2.5, and CO2 emission reductions are 0.37, 0.82, 0.038, 0.071, and 719 kt, respectively. The results of the CALPUFF model indicate that the pollutant concentrations of SO2, NOx, PM10, and PM2.5 in the spring and autumn are relatively high, while those in the summer and winter seasons are relatively low. In four seasons, the highest 1-h average concentration and dispersion range of four pollutants have been reduced both in the energy cascade utilization scenario and in the efficiency technology enhancement scenario.