Extension of deadline for pollution control technologies in TPPs

Extension of deadline for pollution control technologies in TPPs

Subject : Environment

On September 5, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) extended the deadline for installing pollution control technologies in the country’s thermal power plants (TPPs).

Emission Norms:

The Environment Ministry had revised emission norms for particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen for TPPs in December 2015, requiring them to install emission control systems by December 2017.

Extended Timeline:

Three different timelines have been provided  for three categories of thermal power plants for ensuring installation of pollution control technologies.

Category 1: Power plants within a 10 km radius of Delhi NCR and million plus cities– deadline has been extended to December 31, 2024.

Category 2: Power plants within a 10 km radius of critically polluted cities, the deadline has been extended to December 31, 2025.

Category 3: All other power plants across the country the new deadline stands at December 31, 2026.

Pollution from the thermal power plants:

According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), TPPs account for more than 60 per cent of total industrial emissions of particulate matter; 45 percent of SO2; 30 percent of NOx; and more than 80 per cent of mercury, in India. These are also responsible for 70 percent of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries.

Other pollutants include carbon monoxide, ozone, non-methane hydrocarbons and lead.

Flue gas desulfurization (FGD):

The process of eliminating sulphur compounds from the exhaust emissions of fossil-fuelled (coal-fired) power plants is known as flue gas desulfurization (FGD). This is accomplished by including absorbent materials, which can eliminate up to 95% of the sulphur from the flue gas by scrubbing.

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP):

• It is a long-term, time-bound, national level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner.
• It targets to achieve 20% to 30% reduction in Particulate Matter concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year.
• Under NCAP, 122 non-attainment cities have been identified across the country based on the Air Quality data from 2014-2018.