Abstract: The emission characteristics of air pollutants (i.e., particulate matter (PM), SO₂, NO_x and Hg) from typical 'near-zero emission' coal-fired power plants of Shenhua Group were investigated. The '1123' emission limits of air pollutants for clean coal-fired power plant agreeing with eco-friendly requirement for green development was put forward, which required the emission limits of PM, SO₂, NO_x and Hg were 1, 10, 20 and 0.003 mg/m³, respectively. Based on the monitoring results, the long-term operation states of two new coal-fired units were evaluated. Also, the co-removal efficiency for mercury pollution in near-zero emission units has been studied. The results show that the PM, SO₂ and NO_x average emission concentrations of new units advanced in environmental indicators from January to October 2017 were in the range of 0.69-0.77, 6.04-6.63 and 16.56-16.79 mg/m³, respectively. The emission performances of PM, SO₂ and NO_x could be as low as 0.0023, 0.022 and 0.057 g/(kW·h), which is the lowest in the world. Furthermore, the discharge rates of PM, SO₂, and NO_x under the '1123' emission limits exceeded 92.06%, 85.43% and 77.46%, indicating that the principle technology roadmap of near-zero emission could achieve better and more excellent eco-friendly emission targets. After the 'near-zero emission' retrofitted, Hg synergistic removal efficiency of air pollution control devices increased to 82.8%±8.1% from 75.3% to 90.9% due to the increasing efficiencies of Hg⁰ oxidation and Hg compounds capture, and Hg emission concentrations were reduced to the range of 0.51-1.45 μg/m³, which basically reached the collaborative control level of world advanced coal-fired units. On the whole, the new emission limits of air pollutants for clean coal-fired power were about 1 order of magnitude less than the limits regulated in the latest Emission Standard of Air Pollutants for Thermal Power Plants (GB 13223-2011), which accelerate the ecological civilization construction and provide scientific evidence for setting new emission standard of air pollutants for coal-fired power plants.