Cabinet held an extended irregular meeting last Friday to review the actions on air pollution reduction and made relevant decisions, including the transfer of State ownership stakes of Tavan Tolgoi Fuel LLC, which is producing enhanced fuel as raw coal consumption will be banned next year.

At the meeting, the Cabinet decided to transfer the stakes of Tavan Tolgoi Fuel LLC to be held by the State to Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry and Ministry of Energy. Accordingly, the related ministers are now responsible for the annual production of 600,000 tons of enhanced fuel, monitoring the supply and reporting the results to the Cabinet.

Ministers were also ordered to install advanced technology and equipment of deep processing coal in order to create reserves and manufacturing international-standard enhanced fuel. A study determined the annual consumption of enhanced fuel in Ulaanbaatar city to be 600,000 tons. Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC will be responsible for financing the necessary funds under a strict monitoring of law enforcement in a publicly transparent manner.

Tavan Tolgoi Fuel LLC currently has 8,099 tons of enhanced fuel reserves and is expected to manufacture 600,000 tons by September 15, 2019.

As a pilot run, the early production was sold to 1,876 households of 28th khoroo of Sukhbaatar district, conducting several surveys. The study found that the product has already created demand as users had positive feedback for the fuel.

Additionally, the Cabinet further reviewed other actions on air pollution reduction. As exempted from customs duty, over 2,300 air purifiers and energy-efficient heaters were imported this year. A total of 862 air purifiers were installed at 142 medical centers, district hospitals and children’s cabinets of maternity hospitals under the Ulaanbaatar Clean Air Project, as well as another 5,200 air purifiers from the State Budget. As a result, PM 2.5 components in the air reduced by 13-29 percent in hospitals.

According to officials, 45 stoves and 68 boilers were dismantled in the last one year, and by connecting 10 stoves to district heating network, raw coal consumption was reduced by 70,000 tons, PM2.5 emission by 510 tons and sulfur emission by 560 tons.

Enhanced fuel has already created demand as users had positive feedback in early production
Report shows that MNT 8.3 billion was spent on night-time electricity discounts for 118,000 households of ger districts and about 15 percent of total households in ger districts have shifted to electrical heating appliances within the last one year. Furthermore, technical capacity of providing 4 kWt electrical heating appliances to 421,000 households have been completed so far.

Six entities have been selected to supply 80,000 tons of enhanced fuel to over 26,000 households in Songino khairkhan district. This is estimated to cut raw coal consumption by 150,000 tons and PM2.5 emission by 150 tons.

Around 65,000 children and 117,000 children of target group were included for influenza vaccinations and necessary changes were made to student holiday schedules.

The Cabinet also informed that MNT 1 billion worth financial support was granted to seven provinces with the highest pollution, which allowed them to prepare Air Pollution Reduction Program and set the areas in need for air quality improvement.

Published Date:2018-12-25