Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Environmental Protection released the "Implementation Plan for the 2017 Special Action on Ozone Pollution Prevention and Control in the Pearl River Delta Region (Draft for Comments)", which puts forward specific requirements for VOCs emissions in the field of coating and painting. It is proposed to take measures such as staggered production, production restrictions, and production shutdowns for coating enterprises, in order to strengthen VOCs emission control in the Pearl River Delta region, curb ozone pollution in the autumn of 2017, promote the decline of ozone concentration, and improve regional environmental air quality.

In fact, the paint industry, as a key area for VOCs emission reduction, has a very high difficulty in treatment, especially in the use of outdoor painting operations such as steel structures, containers, ships, guardrails, traffic markings, etc. The operability of VOCs end of pipe treatment is very poor. Although government departments are vigorously promoting the use of new materials such as water-based coatings and implementing restrictions on organic solvent coatings; The oil ban order;, But currently, traditional solvent coatings still account for half of the total market share.

However, the innovation pattern of China's coating industry has begun to improve, and the application of new materials and technologies in the coating industry is showing a continuous upward trend. Data shows that in 2016, the output of China's powder coating industry reached 1.7 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 13.4%. Due to its solvent-free, pollution-free, recyclable, environmentally friendly and energy-saving properties, powder coatings have become a popular choice in the industry; New Favorite ";, Many large-scale coating companies are planning to layout in the field of VOCs zero emission powder coatings.

>>The task of reducing VOCs emissions in the paint industry is arduous

Recently, in the seventh round of strengthened inspections by the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Supervision Team of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, a total of 5322 enterprises (units) were inspected, and 1389 gas related enterprises were found to have environmental problems. Among them, 536 enterprises had VOCs treatment problems, accounting for 38.6% of the total number of environmental problems found in this round of inspections. From an industry perspective, coatings and spraying are the primary issues, and it is common for companies to not build or idle VOCs treatment facilities.

“ The characteristic of the paint industry is concentrated emissions and high pollution. About 7 million tons of solvents need to evaporate every year, which is more serious than the pollution caused by automobile exhaust& rdquo; Yang Xianghong, a senior expert in the paint industry and chairman of Suzhou Austin New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., said.

Yang Xianghong introduced that China is a major producer of coatings, but not a strong country. According to the statistics of 1400 enterprises above designated size, the output in 2016 was nearly 20 million tons, with an output value exceeding 400 billion yuan. However, we do not possess the core technology of some high-end coating products, and even the coatings used for high-speed trains mostly come from foreign companies& ldquo; A large number of low-end coating products have become the main source of VOCs emissions in the industry. However, due to various factors, solvent based coatings still have a huge market demand for a certain period of time& rdquo;

It is understood that VOCs emissions have always been a key issue in green environmental protection, and the coating industry, as a major emitter of VOCs, has repeatedly been listed as a major contributor to pollution in the industry; Ranking;. The "13th Five Year Plan for the Prevention and Control of Volatile Organic Compound Pollution" released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection proposes to focus on promoting the control of VOCs emissions from industrial coatings in manufacturing industries such as containers, automobiles, and furniture, and to promote the use of water-based coatings and high solid powder coatings in related fields. However, Yang Xianghong pointed out that the above two coatings still contain a certain amount of solvents, and there are certain difficulties in monitoring and controlling related emissions during outdoor use.

The market share of powder coatings continues to increase

Powder coating is a solid powder coating that exists in the form of fine powder, which is transferred to the coated object in powder form, baked, melted, and solidified to form a film. Yang Xianghong said that powder coatings have achieved zero waste and zero pollution in the production process, and the scraps generated during production can also be basically recycled and reused. Powder coating can meet the anti-corrosion, decoration and other needs in multiple fields, and has a high utilization rate of powder coating. For the same thickness of paint film, the area coated with powder coating is more than twice that of traditional solvent based coatings. From a cost perspective, among the commonly used types of coatings, powder coating has the lowest price.

At present, powder coatings have been widely used in household appliances, automotive wheels, metal doors and windows, and other fields, with a continuously increasing market share in the industry, currently reaching about 10%. It is reported that Chinese powder coating enterprises are mainly distributed in coastal areas. The sales of powder coatings in the three major coating industry bases in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim area account for 94% of the national sales volume.

“ A market share of 10% tells us that powder coatings cater to the dual needs of environmental protection and the market, and have become the third largest category of coatings after latex paint and solvent based coatings. If we want to further promote the rapid development of powder coatings, we need to tackle their weaknesses. If the curing temperature can be successfully lowered, not only can energy consumption be significantly reduced during the coating process, but powder coatings can also be applied to a wider range& rdquo; Yang Xianghong said.

It is reported that the Guangdong Coatings Industry Association recently organized several coating companies and experts to discuss the application of powder coatings in the field of wood furniture. The Secretary General of the association, Lv Shuilian, proposed at the seminar that the environmental transformation and upgrading of coatings should comprehensively consider various solutions, and should not be limited to water-based ideas. The combination of powder coatings and wooden furniture is worth paying attention to and considering.

>>Difficulties in the transformation and upgrading of the paint industry

According to the "13th Five Year Plan for the Prevention and Control of Volatile Organic Compound Pollution", by the end of 2017, 60 container production enterprises with a production capacity of 5.6 million TEUs will complete the replacement of water-based environmentally friendly coatings and construct end of pipe treatment facilities; By the end of 2020, 13000 automobile manufacturing enterprises, 3400 wooden furniture production enterprises, 600 shipbuilding enterprises, 1300 engineering machinery manufacturing enterprises, and 5000 steel structure production enterprises nationwide will complete the construction of low volatility coating replacement, low VOC emission coating process transformation, and end of pipe treatment projects.

Yang Xianghong stated that in order to achieve the above goals, the upgrading and replacement of the coating industry is urgently needed. At present, the annual usage of coatings in China is about 25 million tons, with traditional solvent coatings accounting for about 54%, water-based coatings accounting for about 35%, and powder coatings accounting for about 10%. To eliminate solvent based coatings, it is necessary to increase research and development efforts in core technologies, establish stricter VOCs emission standards, and accelerate the upgrading and transformation of outdated production capacity. At the same time, the government should also accelerate project approval and provide strong support for the application of new materials and technologies. Yang Xianghong gave an example that with the same production capacity, powder coating enterprises only occupy half of the land area and production costs of traditional solvent coating enterprises. By supporting new materials and technologies to achieve mass production, old and backward production capacity can only choose to upgrade or be eliminated.

In Yang Xianghong's opinion, if powder coating is to be vigorously promoted, the existing production and coating equipment of the enterprise need to be replaced, and at the same time, the original production and sales chain pattern needs to be broken, which poses certain difficulties& ldquo; The CEO of a leading agricultural machinery enterprise in China said that water-based coatings are too troublesome and costly to use. If powder coatings are used, there are too many things that need to be changed, and traditional coatings are still comfortable to use. So, what needs to be changed is not only technology, but also mindset. The government should adopt completely different policies for new and old technologies, including support for what needs to be supported, restrictions for what needs to be restricted, and elimination for what needs to be phased out. Only in this way can the overall level of the paint industry be improved& rdquo;