Liaoning province in northeastern China will dismantle all small heating boilers and replace them with urban central heating systems to reduce air pollution, according to the province's housing and urban-rural development administration.

Small heating boilers refer to those with a capacity of less than 10 metric tons.

The province aims to dismantle 3,805 boilers by the end of this year, the administration said.

It is part of the province's effort to lower the density of PM2.5 — air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and able to enter the lungs.

Other efforts include using new energy alternatives and controlling dust pollution.

In Dalian, a major city in the province, around 200 small heating boilers in the downtown area will be dismantled by 2015.

Meanwhile, the province is promoting the use of geothermal heat pumps to replace the heating system based on burning coal.

The geothermal heat pump, or ground source heat pump, is a central heating system that pumps heat from the ground.

Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, applied the new heating method in an area of 15.28 million square meters last year. ?

Calculations showed that the new heating method has saved the province from burning 630,000 tons of coal, on the condition that each square meter of architecture consumes 35 kilograms of coal during the five-month heating season in Liaoning province.

In result, it is estimated that the application of geothermal heat pumps has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 8,060 tons and soot discharges by 5,040 tons.?