China Raises Entry Threshold for Yellow Phosphorus Industry     

The updating entry to China's yellow phosphorus industry issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is effective January 1st, 2009.
   The move is to regulate the development of the yellow phosphorus industry, avoid construction of low-level plants, strengthen environmental protection, improve the utilization rate for resources and ensure work safety. This would further expedite technological advance and industry structure upgrade for the yellow phosphorus sector.
   The revised rule could provide a base for relevant government departments when they evaluate and assess land use situation, environment impact, energy efficiency, safety, financing and power use before approving new yellow phosphorus projects.
   The latest rule stipulates that for any new yellow phosphorus project, the transformer capacity for a single furnace should be no less than 20 000 kVA, equivalent to an annual production capacity of 10 000 tons. New comers in the industry should have an initial capacity of at least 50 000 tons of yellow phosphorus per year.
    For existing facilities of 10 000 kVA furnace capacity or more, if they don't meet requirements in raw material dust and sludge phosphor recycle, energy efficiency, safety, waste water treatment and the reuse of tail gas and phosphate slag, they must be completely upgraded within two years since the new rule took effect and they could only resume operations after the upgrades are checked and accepted by authorities.
   Any single unit of 7 200 kVA or less must be phased out within one year since the rules went into effect and any single unit with capacity of ranging 7 200 kVA - 10 000 kVA must be washed out in two years if their tail gas and slag couldn't be fully utilized.
   On the environmental protection and resource conservation front, the new rule required that newly-built and expansion projects of yellow phosphorus must be situated near phosphate mines and power plants, at least two kilometers outside boundary of a city planning area, one kilometer away from rivers, trunk roads and railways as well as key underground pipelines. They must also be at least one kilometer away from housing and businesses for food and pharmaceuticals which have to keep pollution away.
   Meanwhile, new projects are prohibited at ecological and natural protection areas, scenic spots, cultural heritage protection zones and drinking water resource areas. Those projects already under construction or being operational in such areas must be gradually phased out in the form of relocation or production switch based on the water pollution control rules and local development plan.
   The new rule also required that newly-built yellow phosphorus projects must reuse tail gas of surpassing 90%, realize zero emission of waste water containing phosphor and build phosphor sludge recycle facility in production sites.