CAPST and the Consulate General of People’s Republic of China in Houston Jointly Hold Environmental Protection Expert Symposium

 Sponsored by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, on December 31, 2005, chemical engineering and environmental science society of Chinese Association of Professional in Science and Technology (CAPST) invited Houston area environmental protection experts and hold a symposium on recent Songhua river pollution due to the Jilin chemical plant explosion. The symposium was chaired by Dr Shaofu Wu, the chair of chemical engineering and environmental science society of CAPST. Many experts in environmental science and chemical engineering attended the meeting that include association president Dr. Max Li, association member Dr. Jisen Wu, Dr. Tie Li, Dr. Kaixian Jiang, Dr. Lishi Liu, Dr.Wenbin Liang, and other special invited environmental protection experts, Dr. Mike Chen, Bin-tuan Zhu, Shubo Liu and so on. Association technical Vice-chairman Yongjun Chen, Secretary General Dr. Yi Zhang, Consul He-ping Chen, Consul Jianlei Shen and Consul Chongjun Bai of the General Consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Houston also attended the symposium. Rice University Professor Wang Chuanyue could not attend the conference but sent the slides to join the discussion. 

The symposium first discussed the urgent needs in clean up technology and monitor method along the Songhua River.  Dr Mike Chen, the executive director of Seth Nanotechnology Inc., introduced a non-tradition water treatment technology recently developed by his company. This technology combined nanotechnology and the electric capacity technology, and will remove ionize chemical substance from the water. Dr. Chen also proposed using large-scale water treatment mobile ship to clean the Songhua River.    

The Rice University Professor Wang Chuanyue introduced the bioremediation technology that uses bacteria and plants to clean polluted water and the soil.  Dr. Li Tie utilizes his slide introduced EPA (US environmental protection administrative bureau) regulations on air and water pollution, including risk management plan (RMP) - clean air act, Urgent response plan, Risk assessment, Chemical safety information, Factory site security and fuel management regulations.  

Dr. Li, Min also talked about the video he saw in China about emergency response of Jilin chemical plant explosion. Although he was impressed by action of the fire fighters, it was very obvious that there was not a good emergency response plan and fire fighter might not realize the risk of their life due to the chemical emission. The plant also lacked of secondary containment which could prevent the pollution of the river.  

There was an extensive discussion about how to learn from American experience and technology and to apply to the Songhua River pollution. Especially, many ideas were suggested about how to deal with similar emergency event such as Jilin chemical plant explosion, and how to prevent similar big area water pollution.             

The Songhua River water was polluted mainly by the chemical benzene and the nitrobenzene class compound. Because benzene density is less than water and does not dissolve in water, one effective short-term way for clearing up the pollution is to use porous material to absorb the benzene and the nitrobenzene class compound.  Presently, the active carbon is used for absorption of benzene and other chemical product. However, this method is very expensive. Other porous materials, for example dry wood particle, coal particle, or the dry clay particles also can be used for absorption of the benzene and the nitrobenzene class compound. But, these porous materials with toxic organic chemical compound also could create environment problem. For example, burnt down these materials could cause air pollution, buried them could cause the ground water pollution. Therefore, there is a need for an economic, effective, environmental friendly technology.    

Now the Songhua River enters the icy froze time so the velocity of flow is slow. With time the nitrobenzene class compound may precipitate or be absorbed by the soil in waterbed.  This will increase the complexity of pollution clean-up.  In the long run, the bioremediation technology is a preferred one because it is economic, effective, and a environmental friendly technology. The bioremediation technology is different compared to other biological technologies.  It uses the microorganism or the plant to degrade the pollutant, can be used in the waterbed and the soil.  The benzene and the nitrobenzene class compound pollutant are toxic and very stable, so they are very difficulty to be clean by nature degeneration. If these toxic pollutant stay in the soil and the water for a long time, they could seriously affect people's life and the health. The nitrobenzene class compound could be biodegradated using two living thing: phyto-degeneration and microbial degradation. Recent investigation discovered that the nitrobenzene class compound can be degraded completely. The degradated product will not have benzene ring so they are not nitrobenzene class compound anymore. In addition, the nitrobenzene class compound is unstable under the light, and photo-degradation will take place. Therefore, an effective way to clean polluted water is to combine these three technologies, i.e., bioremediation, microbial degradation, and photo-degradation.   

 In order to prevent similar large scale water pollution taking place again, it was suggested to learn from the existed American environmental protection regulations, factory site security requirements, and toxic chemical management rules.  For example, all chemical company should have extensive safety training program for its employees, every level of government and other grassroots organizations should be trained how to handle similar emergency.  Only when the general public understand the potential damage caused by environmental pollution accident, how to response to the environmental accident, then we will have better chance to reduce number of environmental accidents or limit the damage if the accident occurs. All chemical plant also should have emergency plan, its own special drainage system, and have a buff zone or containment zone to prevent polluted water flowing into the river. It was also suggested that China should establish an emergency response agency like FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) in the United State to coordinate and overlook resource in case of a big accident occurs. 

(by Shaofu Wu)