(Yicai Global) Nov. 15 -- Beijing's 'Replace Coal with Clean Energy and Reduce Nitrogen' project is outdoing itself this year, and the annual reduction of nitrogen oxide, soot, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants will reach 22,000 tons, while the annual concentration of sulfur dioxide is expected to reach a new low, the city's environmental protection bureau said yesterday, as Beijing Daily reported.

The project aims to replace the city's coal-fired boilers with those using clean energy to reduce nitrogen as an important means of controlling air pollution.

As an important precursor of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), oxynitride is the focus of air pollution control in Beijing.

Beijing has shed 99.8 percent of its coal-fired boilers over the past five years, and reduced its coal consumption by nearly 9 million tons, the city's environmental protection bureau said.

The elimination of Beijing's pollutants has reached 3.3 times the amount projected in the planned tasks overall, setting a new historical record, said Zeng Jinghai, deputy director of the atmospheric department of Beijing's environment bureau. Beijing must complete transformation of 10,000 steam tons of gas boiler capavcity to low nitrogen  this year, per planning. As of now, Beijing has eliminated 13,259 tons/hour of coal-fired boilers, replacing these with gas-fired boilers and reducing nitrogen by 23,000 tons per hour.

Replacing coal-fired and gas boilers with clean energy ones will reduce the annual emission of oxides by about 5,700 tons and 4,800 tons, respectively, preliminary estimates project. The transformation of coal-fired boilers to clean energy can achieve an annual reduction of nearly 3 million tons of coal, annual soot emissions of about 5,500 tons and sulfur dioxide by about 6,600 tons, per the report.