The sulfur reduction plan is being pushed by China’s most powerful economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, which has called for companies that are expanding power plants or building new ones to install pollution controls during construction. In addition, polices favoring desulfurized power plants are being implemented, such as granting priority to those that connect to local grids, and allowing them to operate longer than plants that do not desulfurize.

The coal-fired power plants scheduled for sulfur-capturing units have a total generating capacity of 137 gigawatts, or about 27 percent of China’s capacity. That 137-gigawatt total breaks down as follows: 7.37 gigawatts from 12 plants owned by the State Power Grid Corp.; 17.62 gigawatts from 34 power plants of the Huaneng Group; 18.12 gigawatts from 61 power plants of the Datang Group; 9.34 gigawatts from 81 power plants of the Huadian Group; 13.56 gigawatts from 107 power plants of the Guodian Group; 10.33 gigawatts from the China Power Investment Co.; and 60.26 gigawatts owned by local authorities.

Some of the sulfur-removal equipment is already in place. In 2006, power plants with a total of 57.6 gigawatts installed such equipment, 34.47 gigawatts will be installed this year, 28.75 gigawatts in 2008, and the remaining 12.78 gigawatts in 2009. In addition, the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), the country’s environmental watchdog, has signed emission-cutting agreements with seven provincial governments and several of the top power-generating groups, which together account for two-thirds of the country’s total sulfur emissions.

Nevertheless, the pending reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions should help clean up China’s polluted air – and also benefit its neighbors.