The Inner Mongolia Huayun New Material Solid Waste Center is located in Baotou, in Inner Mongolia. [Photo/baotounews.com]

The Baotou Aluminum Group Thermal Power Plant has made significant progress in its solid waste comprehensive utilization environmental protection project -- with the new Inner Mongolia Huayun New Material Solid Waste Center officially completed and put into use, according to local media reports.

The solid waste center, located in Inner Mongolia Baotou Aluminum Industry Park -- in Baotou city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- covers an area of 155.24 mu (10.3 hectares) and cost 102 million yuan ($14.42 million).

The solid waste center has an effective storage capacity of 590,000 cubic meters and is a supporting temporary storage point for the solid waste comprehensive utilization environmental protection project.

Officials said solid waste comprehensive utilization is an environmental protection project for thermal power plants. It can make solid wastes such as fly ash, slag, gypsum into concrete, refractory bricks and gypsum board, reducing environmental pollution.

In recent years, Baotou Aluminum Group Thermal Power Plant has taken multiple measures to become a green demonstration enterprise.

It has implemented a series of environmental protection and energy conservation projects featuring such things as ultra-low emission transformation, zero-waste water discharges and solid waste comprehensive utilization, helping along Baotou’s development as zero-waste pilot city and improving the atmosphere.

Officials said the total installed capacity of the thermal power plant is 1.71 million kilowatts and the average annual utilization hours are 7,800 hours.

It has adopted the limestone-gypsum wet flue gas desulfurization process and the SCR denitration process to complete the energy saving and emission reduction work two years in advance. All five units have reached the national ultra-low emission standards for flue gas desulfurization, denitrification and dust removal.

The thermal power plant currently consumes more than 2,000 tons of tap water daily. Officials said that by expanding the reclaimed water treatment system and using the reclaimed water treated by Baotou Donghe Sewage Plant to gradually replace tap water, the daily consumption of tap water will eventually be reduced to about 700 tons.