ICS

National Standard of the People’s Republic of China

GB 4915-2004
Replace GB 4915-1996

水泥工业大气污染物排放标准
Emission standard of air pollutants for cement industry

Issue date: Dec. 29, 2004 Implementation date: Jan. 1, 2005

Issued by China State Environmental Protection Administration and China
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
 Contents
Foreword ........................................................................................................................................ 3
1 Scope............................................................................................................................................ 5
2 Normative references ................................................................................................................. 5
3 Terms and definitions ................................................................................................................ 6
4 Emission limit values ................................................................................................................. 8
5 Other administrative provisions ............................................................................................. 10
6 Monitoring ................................................................................................................................ 12
7 Implementation of standard.................................................................................................... 13
 Foreword

This Standard is formulated to implement the Law of the People’s Republic of China
on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, to control the cement industry’s
emission of air pollutants, and to promote the restructuring of the cement industry.
This Standard will replace GB 4915-1996 Emission standard of air pollutants for
cement plants
--From Jan. 1, 2005 for new production lines;
--From July 1, 2006 for the existing production lines.
This Standard mainly contains the following amendments in comparison with GB
4915-1996 Emission standard of air pollutants for cement plants:
—This Standard’s scope of application has been expanded to the cement industry’s
whole process of production, including not only cement production (including
pulverizing stations) but also mine exploitation and on-site crushing. Mine
exploitation and on-site crushing shall cease to implement GB 16297-1996
Integrated emission standard of air pollutants from the date specified hereunder.
The name of the standard has been correspondingly renamed as Emission standard
of air pollutants for cement industry.
—Requirements for the emission of particulates from the production of cement
products are added in this Standard.
—This Standard unifies the emission limit values for rotary kilns and vertical kilns;
—This Standard no longer specifies emission limit values according to functional
areas with regard to ambient air quality.
—For the existing production lines, this Standard no longer specifies different
emission limit values according to different times of establishment; this Standard
unifies the criteria for the existing production lines and sets a transitional period for
reaching the standard; and this Standard further increases the strictness of the
criteria of emission for new production lines.
—Requirements for emission from cement kilns’ incineration of hazardous wastes are
added in this Standard.
—Administrative provisions on environmental protection are added and the relevant
provisions on synchronous running rate and stack height are amended in this
Standard.
—Provisions on the installation of continuous stack gas emission monitoring devices
on the stacks of cement kilns and other thermal equipment are added in this
Standard.
—Provisions on the implementation of standard are added in this Standard.
In accordance with the provisions of the relevant laws, this Standard is provided for
compulsory implementation.
This Standard replaces all its previous editions, including GB 4915-85 and GB
4915-1996.
This Standard was proposed by the Scientific and Technological Standards
Department of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
This Standard was drafted by the Environmental Standards Research Institute of the
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Hefei Cement Research &
Design Institute of China National Building Materials Group, and China National
Materials Industry Group.
This Standard was approved by the State Environmental Protection Administration on
Dec. 29, 2004.
This Standard shall be implemented as of Jan. 1, 2005.
The State Environmental Protection Administration is responsible to interpret this
Standard.
 Emission standard of air pollutants for cement industry

1 Scope

This Standard specifies the emission limit values for air pollutants from the stacks
of various production equipment of the cement industry, the limit values for the
fugitive emission of particulates in working sites, and the relevant administrative
provisions on environmental protection. This Standard also specifies the
requirements for the emission of particulates during the production of cement
products.
This Standard applies to the administration of the existing cement enterprises and
cement product production enterprises’ emission of air pollutants, to the
environmental impact assessment, design and completion acceptance of the
construction, reconstruction and expansion of cement mines, cement production
lines and cement product production lines, and to the administration of these
mines and production lines’ emission of air pollutants after their construction,
reconstruction or expansion is completed.
2 Normative References

The following normative documents contain provisions which, through reference

in this text, constitute provisions of this Standard. For undated references, the
latest edition of the normative document referred to applies.
GB 16297-1996 Integrated emission standard of air pollutants
GB 18484 Pollution control standard for the incineration of hazardous wastes
GB/T 16157 Determination of particulates and sampling methods of gaseous
pollutants emitted from exhaust gas of stationary source
GB/T 15432 Ambient air—Determination of total suspended
particulates—Gravimetric method
HJ/T 42 Stationary source emission—Determination of nitrogen
oxide—Ultraviolet spectrophotometric method
HJ/T 43 Stationary source emission—Determination of nitrogen oxide—N
(1-naphtye)-ethylenediamine dihydrochloride spectrophotometric method
HJ/T 55 Technical guidelines for monitoring the fugitive emission of air
pollutants
HJ/T 56 Determination of sulfur dioxide from exhaust gas of stationary
source—Iodine titration method
HJ/T 57 Determination of sulfur dioxide from exhaust gas of stationary
source—Fixed potential electrolysis method
 HJ/T 67 Stationary source emission—Determination of fluoride—Ion selective
electrode method
HJ/T 76 Continuous monitoring system for stack gas emission from stationary
sources—Technical requirements and test method
HJ/T 77 Determination of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated
dibenzo-p-furans by isotope dilution HRGC/HRMS
3 Terms and Definitions

For the purpose of this Standard, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1 Standard state
“Standard state” means the state when temperature is 273K and pressure is
101,325Pa. All the emission concentrations of air pollutants specified in this
Standard mean the values in dry stack gas at the standard state.
3.2 Maximum allowable emission concentration
“Maximum allowable emission concentration” means the limit value that shall not
be exceeded by the average concentration of a pollutant from a stack after
treatment facilities in any 1h, or the limit value that shall not be exceeded by the
average concentration of a pollutant from a stack without treatment facilities in
any 1h.
3.3 Unit emission
“Unit emission” means the weight of hazardous matters produced by all
equipment for the production of every ton of product, and the unit of unit emission
is kg/t of product. The output of product shall be calculated according to the
equipment’s actual hourly output in the period of pollutant monitoring. For
example, product output shall be calculated according to clinker output in the case
of cement kilns and clinker coolers, according to raw material output in the case
of raw material mills, according to cement output in the case of cement mills,
according to coal powder output in the case of coal mills, and according to the
output of dry materials in the case of drying machines and drying mills. For
in-line kiln/raw mill, product output shall be calculated according to the quantity
of material produced by the mill when the kiln and the mill are integrated together
during operation, or according to the quantity of clinker produced by the cement
kiln when the cement kiln operates separately.
3.4 Fugitive emission
“Fugitive emission” means the random emission of air pollutants not through
stacks, mainly including the emission of flying dust during the piling and open
conveying of materials in working sites, and the leakage of dust-containing gases
from pipes and equipment.
 Emission through low stacks belongs to organized emission but may also lead to
same consequences as those of fugitive emission on certain conditions. Therefore,
when the index “limit value of concentration at fugitive emission monitoring
point” is implemented, the increase of pollutant concentration at a monitoring
point caused by low stacks shall not be deducted.
3.5 Limit value of concentration at fugitive emission monitoring point
“Limit value of concentration at fugitive emission monitoring point” means a limit
value that shall not be exceeded by the average concentration of a pollutant at a
monitoring point in any 1h.
3.6 Stack height
“Stack height” means a stack’s height from the ground surface (or the main
architecture to which the stack is affiliated) where the stack is located to the
stack’s outlet.
3.7 Cement kiln
“Cement kilns” mean clinker calcination equipment, generally including rotary
kilns and vertical kilns.
3.8 In-line kiln/raw mill
“In-line kiln/raw mill” means a system that integrates a cement kiln and a raw
material mill together, introduces the exhaust gases produced by the cement kiln
into the raw material mill, uses the residual heat of exhaust gases to dry materials
and uses a same dedusting device to treat the exhaust gases discharged by the kiln
and the mill.
3.9 Drying machine, drying mill, coal mill and cooling machine
“Drying machines” mean various types of material drying devices; “drying mills”
mean material drying and pulverizing devices; “coal mills” mean various types of
coal powder preparation devices; “cooling machines” mean various types
(cylinder type and grid type) of clinker cooling devices.
3.10 Crushing machine, pulverizing machine, packing machine and other
ventilated production equipment
“Crushing machines” mean various types of machines used to crush massive
materials; “pulverizing machines” mean various material pulverizing equipment
systems (exclusive of drying mills and coal mills); “packing machines” mean
various types of cement packing machines (including bulk cement bins); “other
ventilated production equipment” means the other production equipment that
needs ventilation than the abovementioned main production equipment, including
material conveying equipment, storage bins and various types of warehouses.
3.11 Cement product production
 “Cement product production” means the production of premixed concrete and
preformed concrete products, not including the process of on-site cement mixing.
3.12 Existing production lines and new production lines
“Existing production lines” mean the cement mines, cement production lines and
cement product production lines that have been put into production or the
environmental impact reports for which have been approved before the
implementation date of this Standard (Jan. 1, 2005).
“New production lines” mean the newly constructed, reconstructed and expanded
cement mines, cement production lines and cement product production lines the
environmental impact reports for which are approved after the implementation
date of this Standard (Jan. 1, 2005).
4 Emission Limit Values

4.1 Emission limit values for air pollutants from the stacks of production equipment
4.1.1 Before July 1, 2006, the emission of air pollutants from the stacks of various
types of production equipment (facilities) of the existing cement plants
(including pulverizing stations) shall still implement GB 4915-1996; the
existing cement mines and cement product plants shall still implement GB
16297-1996.
In the period from July 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2009, the maximum
allowable emission concentrations and the unit emissions of particulates and
gaseous pollutants from the stacks of various types of production equipment
(facilities) of the existing production lines shall not exceed the limit values
specified in Table 1.
From Jan. 1, 2010, the maximum allowable emission concentrations and the
unit emissions of particulates and gaseous pollutants from the stacks of
various types of production equipment (facilities) of the existing production
lines shall not exceed the limit values specified in Table 2.
4.1.2 From Jan. 1, 2005, the maximum allowable emission concentrations and the
unit emissions of particulates and gaseous pollutants from the stacks of
various types of production equipment (facilities) of new production lines
shall not exceed the limit values specified in Table 2.
 Table 1
Nitrogen oxide Fluoride
Particulate Sulfur dioxide
(as per NO2) (as per total fluorine)
Production
Production equipment Emission Unit Emission Unit Emission Unit Emission Unit
process
concentration emission concentration emission concentration emission concentration emission
3 3 3 3
mg/m kg/t mg/m kg/t mg/m kg/t mg/m kg/t
Mine Crushing machines and other
50 － － － － － － －
exploitation ventilated production equipment
Cement kilns and in-line klin/raw mills
100 0.30 400 1.20 800 2.40 10 0.03
*
Drying machines, drying mills, coal
Cement 100 0.30 － － － － － －
mills and cooling machines
production
Crushing machines, pulverzing
machines, packing machines and other 50 0.04 － － － － － －
ventilated production equipment
Cement
Cement bin and other ventilated
product 50 － － － － － － －
production equipment
production
Note: * The figures mean the emission concentrations and the unit emissions at the state when the conent of O2 in stack gas is 10%.

Table 2
Nitrogen oxide Fluoride
Particulate Sulfur dioxide
(as per NO2) (as per total fluorine)
Production
Production equipment Emission Unit Emission Unit Emission Unit Emission Unit
process
concentration emission concentration emission concentration emission concentration emission
mg/m3 kg/t mg/m3 kg/t mg/m3 kg/t mg/m3 kg/t
Mine Crushing machines and other
30 － － － － － － －
exploitation ventilated production equipment

Cement kilns and in-line kiln/raw 50 0.15 200 0.60 800 2.40 5 0.015
mills *
Drying machines, drying mills, coal
50 0.15 － － － － － －
Cement mills and cooling machines
production Crushing machines, pulverzing
machines, packing machines and
30 0.024 － － － － － －
other ventilated production
equipment
Cement
Cement bins and other ventilated
product 30 － － － － － － －
production equipment
production
Note: * The figures mean the emission concentrations and the unit emissions at the state when the conent of O2 in stack gas is 10%.

4.1.3 When a cement kiln is used to incinerate hazardous wastes, the particulates,
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and fluoride in the exhaust gas shall respectively
implement the emission limit values specified in Table 1 or Table 2 according
to the time of the establishment of the cement kiln; the other pollutants shall
implement the emission limit values specified in GB 18484 Pollution control
standard for the incineration of hazardous wastes, but the maximum emission
concentration of dioxins shall not exceed 0.1ng TEQ/m3.
4.1.4 Limit values for the fugitive emission of particulates in working sites
For the fugitive emission of particulates, the existing cement plants (including
pulverizing stations) shall still implement GB 4915-1996 before July 1, 2006;
the existing cement product plants shall still implement GB 16297-1996.
The concentrations of particulates at fugitive emission monitoring points in
working sites shall not exceed the limit values specified in Table 3 from July 1,
2006 for the existing production lines and from Jan. 1, 2005 for new
production lines.
 Table 3
Point for monitoring the fugitive Limit value of concentration *1,
Working site
emission of particulates mg/m3
Cement plants (including
1.0 (after the reference value is
pulverizing stations) and 20m from plant border
deducted *2)
cement product plants
Note: *1 It means the concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP) at the monitoring point in 1h.
*2 See Paragraph 6.2.1 for the meaning of reference value.

5 Other Administrative Provisions

5.1 Requirements for controlling the fugitive emission of particulates
5.1.1 Effective measures shall be taken to control the fugitive emission of
particulates in the process of cement mine exploitation, cement production and
cement product production.
5.1.2 The material processing, conveying, loading, unloading and storage processes
of new production lines shall be enclosed. Other effective dust-suppressing
measures may be taken for block stones, adhesive and humid materials, slurry
and the process of vehicle and vessel loading and unloading.
5.1.3 The existing production lines shall process, convey, load, unload and store dry
powder materials in an enclosed way; measures for preventing flying dust and
rain wash shall be taken for open-air storage spaces; and effective measures
shall be taken to prevent flying dust during vehicle and vessel loading and
unloading.
5.2 Requirements for controlling abnormal emission and accidental emission
5.2.1 A dedusting device shall operate synchronously with the corresponding
production equipment. The annual accumulated running periods of the
production equipment and the dedusting device shall be respectively measured,
and their synchronous running rate shall be examined on the basis of the ratio
of the dedusting device’s annual running period to that of the production
equipment.
5.2.2 New cement kilns shall ensure their dedusting devices can operate normally
notwithstanding the fluctuation of production process and shall forbid
abnormal emission. The dedusting devices and the cement kiln ventilating
machines used by an existing cement kiln shall have an annual synchronous
running rate no less than 99%.
5.2.3 In case of accidental emission caused by the failure of dedusting device,
emergency measures shall be taken to stop the relevant main equipment. The
dedusting device and the main equipment shall be put into operation at the
same time after the end of repair.
5.3 Requirements for stack height
5.3.1 Except for dedusting facilities used for material conveying by lifting and for
 small compartments under storage bins, the heights of the stacks of all
production equipment (including the stacks of workshops) shall not be less
than 15m.
5.3.2 The heights of the following production equipment’s stacks shall also conform
to the provisions of Table 4.
Table 4
Crushing machines,
Dying machines, drying pulverizing machines,
Description of production Cement kilns and in-line kiln/raw
mills, coal mills and packing machines and other
equipment mills
cooling machines ventilated production
equipment
＞700 ＞500
Production capacity/line ＞240 ＞ ＞
≤240 ～ ≤500 ～
(machine), t/d ～700 1200 1000 3m above the building
1200 1000 where the stack is located
Minimum allowable height,
30 45* 60 80 20 25 30
m
Note: * The minum allowable height for the stacks of existing vertical kilns is still 35m.

5.3.3 If the stack of an existing production line’s production equipment fails to reach
the height specified in Table 4, this production line’s emission of air pollutants
shall be controlled more strictly. The emission limit value shall be calculated
with the following formula:
h2
C  C0  2
h0

Where,
C—Actual allowable emission concentration, mg/Nm3;
C0—Allowable emission concentration specified in Table 1 or Table 2, mg/Nm3;
h—Actual stack height, m;
h0—Stack height specified in Table 4, m.
5.4 Other provisions
5.4.1 The backward production technologies and equipment that may seriously
pollute the atmospheric environment as specified in Article 19 of the Law of
the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution
shall not be adopted or used.
5.4.2 It’s forbidden to exploit mines or produce cement or cement products in type I
functional areas with regard to ambient air quality.
5.4.3 Cement kilns shall not be used to incinerate hazardous wastes that belong to
heavy metals.
The incineration of medical wastes with cement kilns shall meet the
requirements of the Technical Specification for the Centralized Disposal of
Medical Wastes.
 When a cement kiln is used to incinerate hazardous wastes, the cement kiln or
in-line kiln/raw mill shall adopt efficient bag-type dust collectors for stack gas
treatment.
6 Monitoring
6.1 Monitoring of air pollutants in stacks
6.1.1 The stacks of production equipment shall have permanent sampling holes,
which shall conform to the conditions of sampling as specified in GB/T
16157.
6.1.2 The monitoring and sampling of particulates or gaseous pollutants in stacks
shall be carried out in accordance with GB/T 16157.
For daily supervisory monitoring, the operating mode in the sampling period
shall be same as the normal operating mode. Neither the personnel of the
pollution-discharging organization nor the monitoring personnel shall change
the normal operating mode without approval. The average value shall be
obtained through continuous sampling in any 1h; or three or more samples
shall be collected with equal time intervals in any 1h and then the average
value shall be calculated.
The requirements for operating mode during the completion acceptance and
monitoring of environmental protection facilities for a construction project and
the frequency of sampling shall be determined in accordance with the
measures for the completion acceptance and monitoring of environmental
protection facilities for construction projects as specified by the State
Environmental Protection Administration.
6.1.3 See Table 5 for the methods for analyzing air pollutants emitted by the cement
industry.
Table 5
Method of automatic
No. Item of analysis Method of manual analysis
analysis

1 Particulates GB/T 16157 Gravimetric method HJ/T 76 Continuous

monitoring system for stack
HJ/T 56 Iodine titration method gas emission from stationary
2 Sulfur dioxide
HJ/T 57 Fixed potential electrolysis method sources—Technical
HJ/T 42 Ultraviolet spectrophotometric method requirements and test
3 Nitrogen oxide HJ/T 43 N (1-naphtye)-ethylenediamine dihydrochloride method
spectrophotometric method
HJ/T 67 Ion selective electrode method
4 Fluoride －
5 Dioxin HJ/T 77 Chromatograph-mass spectrum combined method －

6.1.4 The stacks of newly constructed, reconstructed and expanded production lines,
cement kilns and in-line kiln/raw mills (kiln tails) shall be equipped with
devices for continuously monitoring particulates, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxide in stack gas; the stacks of cooling machines (kiln heads) shall be
 equipped with devices for continuously monitoring particulates in stack gas;
and the existing cement production lines shall be equipped with continuous
monitoring devices in accordance with the regulations of local environmental
protection administration authorities.
Continuous monitoring devices shall meet the requirements of HJ/T 76
Continuous monitoring system for stack gas emission from stationary
sources—Technical requirements and test method. After a device for the
continuous monitoring of stack gas emission is examined and accepted by the
environmental protection administration department of the local people’s
government at country level or above, the data provided by the device within
the period of validity shall be deemed effective data. The hourly average
values shall be used as the basis for checking the conformity of continuous
monitoring to the standard.
6.2 Monitoring of the fugitive emission of particulates outside plant boundary
6.2.1 Sampling points shall be arranged outside a plant on both the windward side
and the leeward side 20m from the plant boundary (or 20m from the workshop
in case of no obvious plant boundary). The data obtained from monitoring on
the windward side shall be used as the reference value.
6.2.2 Monitoring shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of HJ/T 55
Technical guidelines for monitoring the fugitive emission of air pollutants.
6.2.3 The method specified in GB/T 15432 Ambient air—Determination of total
suspended particulates—Gravimetric method shall be adopted for the analysis
of particulates.
7 Implementation of standard
7.1 The environmental protection administration departments of the people’s
governments at county level and above are responsible to supervise the
implementation of this Standard.
7.2 Local environmental protection administration departments shall, according to the
requirements of environment management and taking into account the
restructuring of the cement industry and the situation of enterprises’ conformity to
the standard, formulate and announce plans for the installation of continuous stack
gas monitoring devices on the existing cement production lines.
7.3 The environmental protection departments of the people’s governments of all
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government may, according to the need of local environment management,
implement the limit values specified in Table 1 or Table 2 in advance after
approval by the relevant provincial people’s governments and reporting to the
national environmental protection administration authority for putting on record.
________________