China Environmental Law • VOC Emissions | ONS | NNS
Industrial Environmental Compliance

China's industrial environmental compliance framework combines national environmental legislation, the pollutant discharge permit system, national ecological-environment standards and potentially more stringent local standards. For VOC-intensive plants, compliance is therefore not determined by a single law or a single stack limit: operators must identify the legal framework, applicable emission standards, permit conditions, monitoring obligations and site-specific requirements governing the installation.

As of 15 August 2026, the 《中华人民共和国生态环境法典》 / Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China is in force. It consolidates China's ecological-environment legal framework and simultaneously repealed the former Environmental Protection Law, Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution and other listed environmental laws. The former laws therefore remain important search and historical references, but current compliance assessments should be made against the Code and the applicable implementing regulations, standards and permits.

China Ecological Environment Code • official Ministry of Ecology and Environment text | DEC • VOC emission control regulations and enforcement

China's 2026 Ecological Environment Code: what changed for industrial operators?

The Ecological Environment Code provides an integrated legal framework covering environmental supervision, standards and monitoring, environmental impact assessment, pollutant discharge permitting, atmospheric pollution prevention, water and soil pollution, waste, ecological protection, green and low-carbon development and legal responsibility. For industrial operators, the practical task is to connect these legal obligations with the actual production process, emission sources, environmental-control equipment and operating records.

Pollutant discharge standards and permit conditions

China's current framework requires pollutant discharges to comply with applicable pollutant emission standards, relevant total-emission control requirements, pollutant discharge permit management and other applicable legal, regulatory and administrative requirements. National and local standards can both be relevant. Local pollutant emission standards can be stricter than national standards and, where applicable, take precedence. Industry-specific standards can also take precedence over general or comprehensive standards.

For this reason, a China VOC compliance assessment should begin with the plant's location, industry, process, emission source, permit and applicable standards, rather than assuming that one national VOC limit applies uniformly across China.

Industrial atmospheric pollution and VOC control

The Code contains specific controls relevant to industrial atmospheric emissions. For operations using VOC-containing raw materials or products, applicable requirements include VOC-content controls, enclosed production or equipment where required, pollution-control facilities or other effective measures to reduce exhaust emissions, and measures to reduce leakage from equipment and pipelines. Industrial operators are also expected to strengthen fine management and adopt collection and treatment measures for gaseous pollutants.

GB 37822-2019: VOC fugitive emission control

GB 37822-2019, Standard for Fugitive Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds, is a key national technical standard for VOC-intensive installations. It addresses VOC material storage, transfer and transportation, process operations, equipment and pipeline components, open liquid surfaces, VOC exhaust-gas collection and treatment systems, and relevant plant and surrounding pollution monitoring.

GB 37822-2019 • official MEE standard page | China stationary-source air pollutant emission standards • official MEE index

Sector-specific VOC standards

China also applies sector-specific atmospheric pollutant emission standards. The national standards catalogue includes, among others, GB 37823-2019 for the pharmaceutical industry and GB 37824-2019 for coatings, inks and adhesives, alongside standards for petrochemical, chemical, synthetic-resin and other industrial sectors. The applicable sector standard should therefore be established before selecting a VOC treatment technology or defining a compliance target.

China VOC Compliance Checklist: Critical Parameters for Industrial Operations

2026 is a transition point in China's environmental legal framework. The Ecological Environment Code entered into force on 15 August 2026, while existing national and local standards, permits and implementing requirements must be evaluated for their continued applicability under the current framework. The checklist below is an operational readiness framework, not a substitute for the applicable permit, local requirements or sector-specific standards.

1. Establish the applicable legal and standards hierarchy

Identify the installation's industry, process categories, emission sources and geographic location. Then map the applicable Ecological Environment Code provisions, pollutant discharge permit, national standards, local standards, sector-specific standards and any project-specific environmental requirements.

• Legal framework: current Ecological Environment Code and applicable implementing regulations.
• Permit framework: pollutant discharge permit and associated monitoring and management requirements.
• Emission standards: applicable national, local, sector and source-specific standards.
• Site requirements: local environmental-zone, atmospheric-control and plant-specific requirements where applicable.

2. Build a traceable VOC mass balance

Purchasing records alone do not establish the fate of solvent throughout an industrial process. A robust engineering assessment should reconcile solvent inputs with recovered solvent, material retained in products or waste, VOC treated by abatement systems and fugitive or residual losses.

• Solvent inputs: purchased, transferred, recycled or otherwise introduced into the process.
• Captured and recovered solvent: including DEC.SRU™ solvent recovery systems.
• Treated VOC: VOC mass treated or destroyed by systems such as RTO regenerative thermal oxidation.
• Fugitive and residual emissions: losses from storage, transfer, equipment, ventilation, wastewater interfaces and other relevant sources.

3. Control fugitive VOC emissions at the source

VOC compliance in China is not limited to the final stack. GB 37822-2019 covers storage, transfer, process operations, equipment and pipeline components, open liquid surfaces, collection systems and relevant monitoring. Facilities should therefore evaluate the complete emission pathway from process equipment to final treatment and discharge.

Typical engineering controls

• Closed handling and transfer of VOC-containing materials.
• Leak prevention, inspection and maintenance of equipment and piping.
• Effective local exhaust and collection of process VOC sources.
• Appropriate vapour treatment or recovery systems.
• Management of open liquid surfaces and other diffuse sources where applicable.

4. Verify stack monitoring and measurement requirements

Monitoring frequency, measurement methods and data requirements depend on the applicable standard, pollutant discharge permit, emission source and local regulatory requirements. Operators should establish the relevant concentration, mass-flow, operating-condition and monitoring parameters and maintain appropriate calibration, quality assurance and records. Continuous automated monitoring should not be assumed to be universally mandatory; it should be determined from the applicable regulatory and permit framework.

5. Assess actual APC performance

Installed equipment should be evaluated using measured field performance rather than nameplate capacity alone. Depending on the technology, useful indicators can include inlet and outlet VOC concentration, mass flow, removal or destruction efficiency, solvent recovery rate, pressure drop, operating temperature, energy consumption, regeneration performance and system availability.

6. Check permit, environmental-impact and evidence readiness

Environmental compliance should be supported by traceable technical evidence. Operators should maintain consistent process descriptions, emission-source inventories, material information, monitoring records, operating data, maintenance records, APC performance evidence and the documentation required by the applicable permit and regulatory framework.

Technical Mitigation and Solutions Delivered by DEC

DEC is an industrial Air Pollution Control engineering and EPC partner providing integrated technologies for VOC recovery, concentration and destruction. For plants operating in China, DEC can connect the applicable legal and standards framework with the actual emission baseline and engineering performance of the installed APC system.

Technical and Environmental Gap Analysis

DEC can benchmark process data, emission sources, monitoring records and installed APC performance against applicable Chinese standards, permit requirements and project objectives, identifying the technical evidence and engineering measures needed to close compliance gaps.

Process Engineering and Custom APC Design

Depending on the emission stream and treatment objective, DEC can engineer and integrate:

• SRU™ solvent recovery for capture and reuse of recoverable solvent vapours.
• XBC™ VOC concentration, including RBC™ rotary bed concentrators, for dilute VOC streams.
• XTO™ thermal oxidation, including RTO™ regenerative thermal oxidizers, for non-recoverable VOC streams.
• DST™ distillation systems where solvent separation and recovery are part of the process objective.
• XSU™ dry and wet scrubbers and XFU™ exhaust filtration for complementary pollutant-control duties.
• ERS™ energy recovery where heat integration can improve overall system efficiency.

Turnkey Equipment Fabrication and Commissioning

DEC can support engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, commissioning and performance verification of APC systems, including brownfield integration where existing process and emission-control assets must be upgraded while maintaining production continuity.

Permitting and Technical Documentation Support

DEC can prepare technical documentation supporting environmental permit review and engineering decisions, including process descriptions, emission-source inventories, material and mass-balance information, equipment data, monitoring concepts and performance documentation. Regulatory decisions remain with the competent Chinese authorities and the applicable legal and standards framework.

Technology Selection: Match the Solution to the VOC Stream

The appropriate APC technology depends on VOC composition, concentration, airflow, temperature, humidity, variability, solvent value, recovery objective, required emission performance, energy integration and permit constraints. DEC can combine technologies where a single treatment step is not sufficient.

Related DEC Regulatory, Engineering and China Resources

• VOC Emission Control Regulations and Enforcement
• Industrial VOC Emission Control • Technologies, Case Studies, Guidelines & Regulations
• Solvent Recovery Engineering Guide
• Thermal Oxidizer Engineering Guide
• Sustainable Technologies and Solutions
• DEC China • APAC VOC and Air Pollution Control
• DEC • Dynamic Environmental Corporation

DEC China VOC Compliance Engineering

DEC supports industrial operators in translating applicable Chinese environmental requirements, emission standards and permit conditions into measurable engineering actions. The approach starts with identifying the applicable legal and standards hierarchy, establishing the actual emission and resource baseline, quantifying the compliance gap, evaluating technically appropriate recovery or abatement technologies and generating the technical evidence required to demonstrate system performance.