Windbreak fence to cut coal pollution

One of the country’s largest fences for reducing dust pollution will be completed in May at Qinhuangdao Port’s coal wharves in Hebei province.

The fence, which will be 23 meters high and 1.4 kilometers long, has been designed to reduce the force of the wind on piles of coal and will “improve the air quality inthe port area,” said Zhang Yi, a publicity official at Qinhuangdao Port.

The fence will be mainly constructed of steel and on its own can reduce dust levels by about 60 percent, reaching 90 percent if used in combination with water sprayers, according to the company.

Once complete, the port will have 6.4 kmof windbreak fences.

Qinhuangdao Port, the world’s largest port operator for dry bulk cargo — mainly coal — achieved a total throughput of 370 million metric tons in 2015, according to its website.

“With the use of windbreak fences and other dust suppression measures, Qinhuangdao Port has been named one of the top two green ports in China,” Zhang said.

Other ports in China to use windbreak fences include Caofeidian Port in Tangshan and Huanghua Port in Cangzhou, both of which have coal docks and are located on the Bohai Rim.

Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, said that without the windbreak fences, coal docks can cause heavy air pollution.

“When strong winds blow through docks and over the coal, the air becomes black with drifting coal dust,” he was quoted as saying by Beijing News.

Peng said that without the fences and water sprayers, about one-third ofQinhuangdao’s air pollution would be caused by the coal docks.

“The windbreak fence can greatly suppress dust, though it cannot remove it outright,” he said, adding that enclosed coal silos might be able to do a better job.