The Era of Codification Has Begun

Chemical industrial parks are a key focus area for ecological and environmental risk prevention and control, and their capacity for ecological governance bears on every aspect of the petrochemical industry’s and the parks’ high-quality development. The Ecological and Environmental Code of the People’s Republic of China will officially come into force this Saturday. Experts note that the Code will establish a new benchmark for ecological and environmental governance in all types of industrial parks and will help advance their governance systems toward greater systemic integration and precision.

System layout tailored to local conditions.

Ecological and environmental governance in chemical industrial parks encompasses wastewater treatment, gaseous emission control, solid waste management, and soil and groundwater protection, involving a long governance chain and a wide range of dimensions. Each park, drawing on its unique industrial characteristics and resource endowments, has established a tailored ecological and environmental governance framework. For instance, parks in the northwest generally face water scarcity and complex solid waste disposal challenges, with their governance systems often centered on “integrated water–waste management.” Meanwhile, the Zhongwei Industrial Park, guided by the regional requirements for ecological protection in the Yellow River Basin, has developed a model that combines centralized pollution treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and risk prevention, addressing the high salinity and difficult disposal of wastewater generated by its new materials industry. ” An integrated governance system incorporates the full collection, treatment, and reuse of industrial wastewater as core objectives for park-level management. Leveraging the characteristics of its coal deep-processing industry cluster, the Yulin High-tech Industrial Development Zone has integrated clean production, green‑hydrogen‑coupled coal chemical processes, and advanced wastewater reuse into its comprehensive park‑wide governance plan, ensuring that environmental protection facilities are designed and implemented in tandem with industrial projects.

The establishment of an ecological governance system for coastal, port‑adjacent industrial parks is firmly aligned with the principle of “integrated land‑sea planning.” The China–Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park, situated along the Beibu Gulf coastline of Guangxi and in close proximity to a critical habitat for Chinese white dolphins, adopts an overarching spatial layout of “industrial development in the west, ecological protection in the east,” clearly delineating ecological red lines and boundaries for industrial development, and incorporating marine ecosystem conservation and discharge‑into‑the‑sea management into its park‑level performance‑evaluation framework. Meanwhile, the Dongying Port Economic Development Zone, located at the mouth of the Yellow River, makes efficient use of seawater resources by developing a membrane‑based seawater desalination and integrated utilization project, while coordinating the deployment of a comprehensive system that integrates green electricity supply, district heating, and carbon capture and utilization.

In certain fine‑chemical industrial parks in central and eastern China, where the large number of enterprises and the complexity of pollutant compositions pose significant challenges, governance systems place particular emphasis on “precision‑based coordination.” To address the difficulty of managing hundreds of dispersed fine‑chemical firms, the Shangyu Economic Development Zone around Hangzhou Bay has adopted a dual‑pronged approach, simultaneously strengthening both oversight and remediation. It has implemented a region‑wide smart environmental‑monitoring network and established a shared platform for the resource‑based utilization of hazardous waste. Meanwhile, Quzhou Intelligent Manufacturing New City, centered on the fluorochemicals and new‑energy materials value chains, has designed a three‑tier circular‑economy governance framework—“enterprise‑level micro‑circulation, industry‑level meso‑circulation, and park‑level macro‑circulation”—deeply integrating ecological management into every stage of industrial‑chain development.

Diverse practices are being implemented and yielding tangible results.

Each park has successively explored distinctive approaches to ecological and environmental governance, with tangible results gradually emerging.

The Ningdong Base has established an integrated digital water‑management platform, enabling precise metering and dynamic scheduling across the entire enterprise water‑use process, as well as implementing “zero‑discharge” projects. As a result, the comprehensive utilization rate of mine water has increased to over 80%, while simultaneously replacing Yellow River water. Through… “ Underground Backfilling + Building Material Utilization ” The solid waste management pathway ensures the full utilization of coal gangue, with the comprehensive utilization rate of gasification slag steadily increasing, and supporting facilities have been completed. “ Heaven, Earth, and Humanity ” A three-dimensional monitoring network enables end-to-end closed-loop supervision of solid waste, covering the entire lifecycle from generation to disposal.

Yulin High-tech Industrial Development Zone is advancing an innovative pilot program for clean production audits, guiding enterprises to implement energy-saving and pollution-reduction technological upgrades. At the same time, it is developing low-carbon projects such as green hydrogen replacing gray hydrogen and carbon dioxide–coupled chemical processes. Relying on a centralized utility tunnel system, the zone facilitates intra‑park material sharing and centralized steam supply, thereby reducing pollutant and carbon emissions at the source. Concurrently, the park is promoting advanced treatment and reuse of industrial wastewater, steadily increasing the rate of reclaimed water utilization.

The China–Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park strictly safeguards its ecological boundaries, having planted over 60 hectares of mangrove forests and restored 8.19 kilometers of coastline. While a multi‑million‑ton‑per‑year refining and petrochemical project is steadily being implemented, the park has maintained stable, compliant water quality in nearshore waters. To address VOC emissions from petrochemical facilities, the park has instituted full‑coverage leak detection and repair programs and standardized discharge outlets into the sea. “ One bite, one flavor. ” Management to achieve a two-way balance between industrial development and marine ecological conservation.

The Dongying Port Economic Development Zone has pioneered a practical pathway for synergistic pollution reduction and carbon mitigation: a 1.4‑million‑kilowatt offshore wind power project delivers green electricity directly, supplying 2.288 billion kWh annually; centralized district heating via public utility tunnels has replaced decentralized coal‑fired boilers, cutting annual coal consumption by 80,000 tonnes; and a carbon capture facility with an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes has been commissioned, utilizing captured CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery and chemical feedstock production, thereby achieving a win‑win outcome of pollutant emission reductions and the valorization of carbon resources.

The eastern industrial park, led by the fine chemicals sector, has set even higher standards for refined and precise management of ecological and environmental governance. The Shangyu Economic Development Zone’s smart environmental protection platform integrates more than 28,000 monitoring stations and over 6,000 enterprise‑level surveillance camera feeds, supported by China’s first digital odor‑source‑tracing system, which leverages meteorological data and pollutant fingerprints to rapidly pinpoint pollution sources. Meanwhile, the park has compiled a reference manual on supply‑demand relationships within its industrial chain, facilitating the transfer of hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste through… “ Peer-to-peer ” Targeted utilization turns waste into valuable resources. Quzhou Intelligent Manufacturing New City leverages leading enterprises to drive circularity throughout the industrial chain, achieving 100% reuse of by-product acids and dilute sulfuric acid, while ensuring all industrial solid wastes are collected and managed. A groundwater monitoring network enables early detection and prompt response to potential groundwater contamination risks.

Raising the level of governance still requires tackling tough challenges.

However, experts also point out that, across the nation’s more than 700 chemical industrial parks, the industry’s overall governance standards still have considerable room for improvement.

“At present, regional disparities in ecological and environmental governance among chemical industrial parks are pronounced, with a significant gap in the capacity for resource‑based treatment of chemical solid waste. Moreover, the level of ecological and environmental management remains relatively low in some small and medium‑sized parks,” noted Zhang Heng, Director of the Hunan Institute for Collaborative Innovation in Modern Petrochemical Industries. He added that in eastern coastal areas and the Yangtze River Delta, the ecological and environmental governance systems of chemical parks have advanced toward greater sophistication and coordination. By contrast, certain parks in central and western regions—often serving as recipients of industrial relocation—are constrained by limited fiscal investment and a shortage of specialized personnel, resulting in lagging environmental infrastructure. Consequently, these parks face gaps in the treatment of high‑salinity wastewater, waste salts, and other pollutants, while regulatory capacities struggle to keep pace with the rapid expansion of the industry.

The weak capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises to manage their environmental impacts is a widespread challenge faced by industrial parks. Constrained by limited profit margins, these firms lack sufficient incentives to upgrade their pollution-control technologies, and their compliance‑management capabilities vary considerably. This issue is particularly pronounced in fine‑chemical industrial parks.

Qiang Xing, Secretary-General of the Jiangsu Provincial Materials Society, pointed out that all industrial parks should seize the opportunity presented by the implementation of the Environmental Protection Code of the People’s Republic of China to accelerate efforts to address shortcomings in centralized pollution‑control infrastructure, provide small and medium-sized enterprises with low‑cost, compliance‑oriented pathways, and strengthen collaborative governance across industrial chains to achieve synergistic gains in pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. At the same time, they should expedite the promotion and application of smart regulatory models to steadily enhance the overall governance capacity of the industry. Zhang Heng suggested that, where conditions permit, parks could adopt a model featuring “park‑built collection, storage, and transfer stations combined with regionally coordinated treatment.” ” Dual‑standard compliance pathway: For established, mature large petrochemical parks, a subsidy of 3 is provided. — During the five-year transitional period for supporting infrastructure, a hazardous waste collection and transportation system will be established in phases. During verification, differentiated assessment criteria will be applied to newly developed industrial parks and existing ones, thereby avoiding… “ One-size-fits-all ”。

(Source: China Chemical News, August 10, 2026)