China Beijing announces local standard to control laboratory-generated volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution

China
30 June 2020  CHEN Yang  CHEN Yang (EnviX partner)

Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau announced a new local standard called the “Technical Standards for the Control of Laboratory-generated Volatile Organic Compound Pollution” (DB11/T 1736-2020) on June 30, 2020. The standard will come into force on October 1, 2020. Here is an overview of the standard.

Coverage

  • Basic requirements for the control of laboratory-generated volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution, rules for the use and handling of organic solvents, and requirements for the collection and treatment of organic gas emissions.
  • Applied to any laboratories that use organic solvents, in order to control VOC pollution.

Terminology

  • Laboratory: A place for, or related to, experiment where educational experiments, scientific research, research and development of technology, tests, measurement, etc. are performed.

Basic requirements (part of them)

  • Business operators are required to establish a registration and management system for organic solvents and standards for organic solvent handling in laboratory. They are also required to choose an effective emission collection and treatment system that reduce VOC emissions to prevent pollution in the surrounding environment.
  • VOC emissions must be treated by an emission treatment system before discharged, and must meet the requirements of DB11/501 Integrated Air Pollutant Emission Standards.

Rules for organic gas emission collection (part of them)

  • Laboratories with annual usage of 1 tons or less of organic solvents can use a ductless fume hood/ductless fume hoods with activated carbon filters.
  • Laboratories with annual usage of more than 1 tons and less than 1 ton organic solvents can use a ducted fume hood/ducted fume hoods.
  • Laboratories with annual usage of 1 ton or more of organic solvents are required to install an emission collection system for the entire facility and maintain slightly negative pressures in the buildings to prevent emission and leakage of VOC.

The original text of this standard can be found at this link (in Simplified Chinese):
http://sthjj.beijing.gov.cn/bjhrb/index/xxgk69/sthjlyzwg/kjygjhz/10824790/index.html

Author / Responsibility

CHEN Yang

EnviX partner

CHEN Yang