Current Status of Environmental Regulations in China's Silica Industry

China's silica industry faces an increasingly stringent environmental regulatory system, with key regulations including national standards such as the "Technical Requirements for Silica Industry" (GB/T 14486-2017). In recent years, environmental policies have exhibited the following characteristics:

Clean Production Promotion: A clean production indicator system for silica has been established, covering three key areas: raw material selection, energy consumption control, and waste utilization. Companies are required to assess raw material renewability, CO2 emissions, and pollutant reduction targets.

High Pressure on Environmental Protection: The Ministry of Environmental Protection has listed silicon tetrachloride, a key silica raw material, as a high-pollution, high-risk product. The increased processing costs have directly increased silica production costs by approximately 8%-12% per ton.

Regional Policy Differences: Localities are developing centralized activated carbon regeneration centers based on the characteristics of their industrial clusters. For example, Fujian Province is exploring bamboo recycling and developing a bamboo activated carbon industry.

International Environmental Regulations and Standards: The international silica industry's environmental regulatory system is relatively mature, with key features including:

American Standards: ASTM has developed The new test standard for silica for rubber (ASTM D8018) regulates the quality assessment of silica for rubber by tire manufacturers and silica producers.

EU standards: Stringent air and water pollution control standards are implemented for carbon black production, requiring the installation of flue gas purification facilities to effectively remove sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants from exhaust gases.

Technical barriers: Internationally advanced companies such as Cabot have invested in and established factories in China. Its Tianjin plant has become the world's largest flagship facility integrating reinforcement carbon black and specialty carbon black products.

Impact on Production Processes: Environmental regulations are forcing continuous upgrades in silica production processes. Specific manifestations include:

Technical Upgrade Directions
Waste Gas Treatment: A "water spray + alkali spray" treatment system is used to treat exhaust gases, equipped with high-efficiency bag filters to keep dust emissions below 10 mg/m³

Wastewater Recycling: Spray drying and multi-effect evaporation technology coupled to achieve zero wastewater discharge. For example, one company uses waste heat from spray drying exhaust to evaporate wastewater and extract sodium sulfate.

Energy Consumption Reduction: Through liquid sodium silicate filter press modification and dissolution and heat water reuse, some companies have reduced energy consumption by approximately 15%, generating annual economic benefits exceeding 9 million yuan.

Recommended Cases
A silicone rubber factory in Dongguan: Using pulsed bag filters to treat silica dust, dust concentration in the workshop has decreased by 90% and dust recovery rates have increased to 95%.

Sailun Group: The world's first chemical rubber refining process, mixing nano-sized silica with rubber to achieve extremely uniform mixing, simultaneously improving three performance indicators. ‌

Regional Distribution Changes
Global Landscape: The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 66% of global carbon black production capacity, with China leading the way with a 46.06% share.

Domestic Concentration: China's silica production capacity increased from 2.036 million tons in 2016 to 2.77 million tons in 2022, primarily in Jiangsu, Shandong, and Hunan.

Enterprise Relocation Trends
Stricter Approvals: Environmental protection approvals are delaying the release of new capacity. For example, Cabot's fumed silica plant in Inner Mongolia has an annual capacity of only 8,000 tons.

Relocation Pressure: Some companies are relocating to regions with lower environmental requirements. For example, Binzhou Aoxiang Chemical Co., Ltd. is implementing a technological transformation project to meet environmental requirements.

Circular Economy: The Nanping Industrial Park in Fujian Province plans to build a specialized park for silica and forest products chemicals in the circular economy, promoting industrial cluster development.

International Technology Introduction and Local Innovation: The introduction of advanced international environmental protection technologies has accelerated the upgrading of the domestic industry.

Wet Mixing Technology: Cabot Corporation's wet mixing technology has been industrialized in China, and several companies have established wet masterbatch production lines for silica and natural rubber.

Equipment Introduction: The use of internationally advanced equipment, such as small spray dryers, has enabled full automation of the entire process from sodium silicate dissolution to silica drying.

Local Innovation: The Ministry of Science and Technology has included rubber wet mixing in the 13th Five-Year Plan's National Science and Technology Support Project. , driving domestic technological breakthroughs.

Environmental regulations have had a profound impact on the silica industry:
Production Process: Driving the industry's shift toward cleaner production, energy conservation, and emission reduction, technological upgrades have become crucial for business survival and development.
Industrial Layout: Accelerating industry concentration, forming an Asia-Pacific production base centered in China, and encouraging companies to relocate to environmentally compliant regions.
International Competition: Through technology introduction and local innovation, China's silica industry is gradually narrowing the gap with internationally advanced technologies.
As environmental requirements continue to rise, the silica industry will face stricter standards and higher production costs, but this will also present opportunities for technological innovation and industrial upgrading.