Environmental protection "alarm" once again to API manufacturers

[China Pharmaceutical network industry trends] with the coming of heating season, air pollution prevention and control efforts in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas are further increased On November 6, the Ministry of industry and information technology, the Ministry of environmental protection, the national health and Family Planning Commission and the State Food and Drug Administration jointly issued the notice on doing well in the peak shifting production of heating season 2017-2018 for pharmaceutical enterprises in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas (hereinafter referred to as the notice), requiring the relevant departments of "2 + 26" cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan to do well in pharmaceutical enterprises For peak staggering production in heating season, if pharmaceutical enterprises are involved in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emission process in API production, they shall stop production in principle in heating season (November 15, 2017 to March 15, 2018); if production is really required due to special needs of people's livelihood, it shall be reported to provincial government for approval Once again, the environmental protection "alarm" has been sounded to API manufacturers However, this year is different from last year in that the policy pays attention to the drugs that are easy to be in short supply, and the enterprises that have completed the VOCs treatment and transformation as scheduled according to the action plan for comprehensive air pollution control in autumn and winter 2017-2018 in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas (hereinafter referred to as the plan) or are not included in the peak shifting production plan Sound environmental protection "alarm" In fact, as early as March this year, the Ministry of environmental protection, the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of finance, the energy administration and the people's governments of Beijing, Hebei and other six provinces and cities jointly issued the work plan for air pollution prevention and control in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas in 2017, which is applicable to the "2 + 26" cities on the "air pollution transmission channel of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei", stressing the need to strengthen the comprehensive treatment of industrial air pollution, We will carry out the work of issuing emission permits for pharmaceutical and other industries nationwide, and comprehensively promote the VOCs governance in pharmaceutical and other industries The plan issued in August this year proposes the goal of 15% reduction in environmental protection in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, that is, from October 2017 to March 2018, the average concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei air pollution transmission channel cities decreased by more than 15% year on year, and the number of heavy pollution days decreased by more than 15% year on year One of its tasks is to promote the VOCs governance in key areas, and carry out comprehensive VOCs governance in pharmaceutical and other industries It is required that all regions should basically complete the remediation work by the end of October this year Enterprises that have not completed the governance and transformation should implement the shutdown remediation in accordance with the law and incorporate it into the winter peak shifting production plans of all regions Industry observers said that in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region, the environmental protection control of pharmaceutical enterprises was particularly strengthened, because a considerable number of pharmaceutical enterprises gathered in the region, especially in Shijiazhuang region, where the production of APIs is relatively concentrated and large-scale But in recent years, the groundwater resources in Shijiazhuang area are tense and the air pollution is serious Strictly control VOCs, including alkanes, aromatics, alkenes, halogenated hydrocarbons, esters, aldehydes, ketones, etc., nearly half of which have obvious toxicity to human body In addition, VOCs emission also has a "contribution value" to PM2.5 concentration in the air And the API enterprises that use fermentation technology to produce are the major VOCs emission enterprises in the pharmaceutical industry According to Zhou Jian, a researcher at health.com, at present, most of the waste gas discharged by API enterprises is not up to standard, so process improvement and equipment update are needed "VOCs in the waste gas produced by API enterprises mainly come from organic solvents in chemical synthesis There are many kinds and large quantities of organic solvents used by enterprises, which are easy to spill and volatilize in the process of transportation, filling and use There are many unorganized emission point sources of VOCs, which are difficult to collect and reuse The annual volatilization of some enterprises can reach 600 tons The organic waste gas discharged in an organized way is mixed with a variety of solvents Due to the high cost of purchase and operation of the treatment equipment, some enterprises will discharge it without treatment VOCs treatment is difficult, because it will not only volatilize into the atmosphere, but also penetrate into the soil, with a long impact period and a long smell " Zhang Daoxin, an expert of environmental protection project of China Chemical Pharmaceutical Industry Association, said that considering the different tolerance of different people to VOCs, pharmaceutical enterprises need to introduce higher level pollution control equipment and further improve the cost of pollution control, which is one of the problems that plagues enterprises, if they want to reduce the impact of VOCs on people to a lower level while meeting the emission standards Ili CHUANNING Biotechnology Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as CHUANNING Biotechnology) under Kelun group has made many years of exploration and continuous investment in green environmental protection technology, which has verified the difficulty of VOCs governance The person in charge of environmental protection told the reporter that at the beginning of the plant, CHUANNING biology adopted the process commonly used by pharmaceutical enterprises in waste gas treatment, but did not fundamentally solve the waste gas problem The smell of waste gas affected the lives of surrounding residents Therefore, the enterprise began to seek for improvement methods, tried to use the tail gas collection and chemical washing system for treatment, and introduced molecular sieve and hydrophobic activity imported from Japan in 2015 The process and technical route of sexual carbon collaborative treatment make the VOCs of purified tail gas export below 1ppm, which solves the problem of odor control of characteristic tail gas of antibiotic biological fermentation that has puzzled enterprises for many years "After optimizing the process, CHUANNING bio can collect and purify the waste gas before emission, which greatly reduces the damage of waste gas to the environment and the impact on people's lives This approach should be advocated, but the cost is very high and most enterprises can not afford it Therefore, we also advocate the concentration of API enterprises in the industrial park, the centralized discharge of waste and the centralized treatment to reduce the relevant costs But to fundamentally solve the problem, the necessary environmental protection investment and process optimization can not be saved, which is the reality that enterprises must face " Pan Guangcheng, executive director of China Chemical Pharmaceutical Industry Association, said The policy is more scientific To the delight of the industry, the notice is no longer "one size fits all" in spite of its severity It gives "special attention" to the production of medicines such as vulnerable to shortage The reporter saw that nearly half of the notice focused on ensuring the supply of vulnerable short drugs, and required all regions to timely report relevant information materials to the provincial short drug supply guarantee work conference linkage mechanism or provincial health and family planning departments The local health and family planning departments, together with the relevant departments, shall comprehensively consider the monitoring results of the shortage of drugs, the varieties of national essential drugs, emergency (rescue) drugs and other clinically necessary and easily short drugs according to the local clinical drug demand and other factors, and put forward suggestions on supply guarantee for the varieties of APIs that should be manufactured at staggered peak in principle The local industry and information technology departments, together with other departments, shall, in accordance with the supply guarantee suggestions of the health and family planning departments and the current situation of the production of APIs in their respective jurisdictions, propose the varieties of APIs that need to be produced due to the needs of the people's livelihood, and may continue to produce in the heating season after being approved by the provincial government At the same time, the local competent departments of industry and information technology should strengthen the operation monitoring of the pharmaceutical industry in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the surrounding areas, coordinate and solve the problems encountered in peak shifting production, and the local health and family planning departments should strengthen the monitoring of drug use in autumn and winter For pharmaceutical enterprises that have completed VOCs governance and transformation as scheduled in accordance with the plan, the notice does not mention it According to the inquiry of the plan, many provinces and cities have listed pharmaceutical enterprises in the arrangement of VOCs remediation in key industries, including 21 in Beijing and 55 in Shijiazhuang "Since the development of pharmaceutical economy, it is imperative to transform the green development, and the extensive development mode cannot be continued The treatment of industrial pollution should move forward from the end, which is not only to reduce the severity of pollution, reduce the cost of pollution treatment, but also to protect our blue water and blue sky " Zhang Daoxin said (Note: "2 + 26" cities refer to Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Langfang, Baoding, Cangzhou, Hengshui, Xingtai, Handan, Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, Jincheng, Jinan, Zibo, Jining, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, Heze, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Puyang, Henan ）Original title: four departments jointly issue "haze" to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei API Enterprises