Kolkata: The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has come up with a policy to prohibit the use of pet coke and furnace oil as industrial fuels in the state to curb pollution. The use of these materials increase the amount of sulphur dioxide in the air, which may affect the respiratory system particularly lung function.
The areas in which the prohibition on the use of such materials has been emphasised includes Kolkata
Municipal Corporation, Howrah Municipal Corporation, Barrackpore Municipality, Asansol Municipal Corporation, Raniganj Municipality, Durgapur Municipal Corporation, Haldia Municipal
Corporation, Siliguri Municipal
Corporation and some selected parts of Howrah, Asansol and Bandel. All these areas come under the category of
Non-Attainment City (NAC) in terms of air quality index and polluted industrial
areas.
The industries have been given a time frame of 18 months for switching over to alternative fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Piped Natural Gas, Coal-Based Methane/ Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Bio Gas, Refuse Derived Fuel, High Speed Diesel, Light Diesel Oil and other fuel with lesser pollution potential after
obtaining approval from the state PCB.
As per orders of PCB, in the rest of the state pet coke and furnace oil shall be replaced with approved replacement fuels within 24 months or an industry using it has to install device for 90 per cent recovery of sulphur dioxide
emissions.
The large and medium scale units shall be required to install a continuous online emission monitoring system along with online data transmission facility to state PCB and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The use of these materials may be allowed in industries either as feed stock or where they get absorbed along with the product as in the manufacturing process like cement, lime kiln, calcium carbide industries etc.
"Pet coke use in Bengal is limited to only a few industries but furnace oil is used in a good number of industries because of its low cost. We are taking measures to implement the prohibition
policy," a senior official of WBPCB said.
The National Green Tribunal in March 2019 had directed CPCB to issue appropriate directions to the concerned states to curb this pollution and accordingly the latter had directed the states to come up with a policy in this
regard.
Pet Coke is a spongy and solid residue found at the bottom of oil distillation column in refineries that can be burned as fuel while furnace oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation which is made of long hydrocarbon chains, particularly alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatics.