Demand for air monitors helps companies clean up

The heavy smog that has stifled Beijing and other parts of China for two weeks continued on Wednesday when the air pollution index hit 420 to 440 in six downtown districts of the capital, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.

Meanwhile, outside Beijing, around 20 provinces were still affected by a blanket of pollution, leading the authorities to maintain yellow alerts for smog and haze in central and eastern parts of the country, said the website of the China Meteorological Administration.

However, no matter how much Beijing residents complain about pollution, the "Beijing Cough" that has forced millions to wear protective face masks simply to walk down the street is actually bringing million-dollar business opportunities to companies from around the world.

On Jan 12, the air-quality monitor operated by the United States embassy in Beijing recorded that the level of PM2.5 - microscopic particulate matter considered especially harmful to human health - reached 886 micrograms per cubic meter, nearly 35 times in excess of the World Health Organization's recommended standard.

"Currently, more than 70 percent of PM2.5 monitoring equipment used in China is made by overseas companies, most likely companies in the US," said Wang Yuesi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The heavy reliance on foreign-made equipment is mainly because Chinese enterprises do not have "sufficient skills" to manufacture the devices, said Wang.

However, Wang said China will definitely accelerate the pace of research and development into monitoring equipment in the wake of the recent sky high levels of air pollution.

"It's only recently that equipment able to monitor PM2.5 has been manufactured in China," said Jo Ann Choi Pottberg, director of global sales and marketing at Met One Instruments. The company entered the Chinese market in 1992 and supplies monitors to the US embassy in Beijing and its consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The requirements for these monitors to comply with specifications and obtain certification are very strict. Because certifiable data is required, customers always request monitors that have US Environmental Protection Agency designations or certificates such as the European TUV, MCerts and Ens. The review procedures required for companies to obtain these certificates are often lengthy because the equipment has to be tested over a variety of seasons and locations, she said.

Research into the technology used in monitoring equipment started late in China. Pottberg said the country still needs to buy PM monitors that employ technology approved by experts at environmental agencies around the world to provide accurate, reliable data for the public.

That will change, of course. "It won't be long before some local manufacturers will be able to achieve the same quality and reliability as monitors produced after more than 30 years of research and development and field experience", she said.

Monitoring network

Last year, the Chinese government started to monitor PM2.5. By December, the country had established a network of real-time monitors for PM2.5 intensity in 74 major cities nationwide.

"We are all amazed at how quickly China has implemented the PM2.5 monitoring network," said Pottberg.

She estimated that her company's business in China has increased by a factor of 10 since 1998, when the country started buying Met One's instruments, including monitors for BAM PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.

"Right now, China ranks among our top five global markets and we are hoping to continue doing business there for a long time, with all kinds of products," said Pottberg.

Automated Precision Inc, a leader in laser-based metrology products used in the aerospace, automotive and energy sectors, has the same high expectations.

"We have had a dramatic increase - more than 30 percent last year - in the number of Chinese customers from the clean-energy field," said Andrew Martel, marketing and communications manager at API.

The company entered the Chinese market in 2001. It now has nine offices or subsidiaries in different regions of China and its 20,000-square-meter factory in Chengdu, Sichuan province, employs more than 200 workers in R&D and manufacturing.

"Over the past decade, API has sold more than 1,000 instruments and accessories in China, totaling millions of dollars each year," said Martel.

API has also seen increased demand for its products and services from "green" energy companies. Martel considers China to be a market that will continue to grow in tandem with the increase in energy demand and consumption.

"Our technology is used in the assembly of many alternative-energy components, including wind turbines, solar panels and nuclear plant construction. However, that technology also allows auto and plane manufacturers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles," he said.

"We believe this will be increasingly important to these manufacturers and we expect strong demand for our technology from auto and aerospace companies for this purpose," he added.

But US businesses are not the only ones benefitting. A growing number of European clean-technology companies are eyeing opportunities in China as air pollution worsens as a result of rising coal consumption and an increase in vehicle exhaust emissions.

"The opportunities for low-emission technology in China are huge, and we can help Chinese companies with their technology," said Dave Shemmans, chief executive officer of Ricardo Plc, a British engineering consultancy.

Ricardo established a subsidiary in Shanghai eight years ago. Since then, it has helped a large number of Chinese companies develop energy-efficient, environmentally friendly products, particularly in the automotive industry.

"Our Chinese clients send their employees to our research and development center in the UK and they work with our staff to develop new technology. They can then take this technology back to China and teach their colleagues how to use it," said Shemmans.

Marco Warth, engineering director of the British company MAHLE Powertrain Ltd, also believes China's pollution problem provides opportunities for his company. "We can definitely help China improve air quality by helping automotive companies improve the energy-efficiency of their engines," he said.

In 2007, MAHLE Powertrain established a subsidiary in Shanghai and now helps many Chinese automotive companies design, develop and produce prototypes of high-efficiency, low-emission powertrains that comply with Euro 5 and 6 standards, so that they can export their products to Europe.

To take advantage of these opportunities, a delegation of clean-technology companies will visit China in March. The trip has been organized by UK Trade and Investment, a government agency.

Meanwhile, German clean-recently technology companies are also keenly scouting opportunities to help China address its pollution challenges, said Michael Schumann, head of German-Chinese Joint Initiatives at the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade.

He said his team will place a special focus on introducing more German clean-technology innovations to China in 2013.

Marco Voigt, managing director of VKPartner, a German consultancy for the clean-technology industry, organized the IndustrialGreenTec Conference at the Hannover Messe technology fair in 2012. The one-day event allowed clean-technology companies to gather and discuss cooperation opportunities. The event proved so successful that Voigt said his team is planning to organize a similar conference in China.

Friedrich von Ploetz, managing director of Germany's SunCoal Industries GmbH, a company that helps customers turn organic waste to solid biofuel, sees opportunities in helping China replace fossil coal with biocoal.

"I understand that China's high level of CO2 emissions mostly come from coal-fired power plants. However, we've heard that in China agricultural straw is often burned too, causing environmental problems in agricultural areas. So, turning agricultural waste into biocoal to replace coal would solve both problems," he said.

Richard Gaul, a member of the supervisory board of Kolibri Power Systems AG, a German company that specializes in power-storage technology, sees great opportunities in China for renewable energy, which can be stored using the batteries that Kolibri is developing.

"The issue with renewable energies like wind and solar in comparison with fossil fuel technology is the uncertainty of power generation, but power-storage technology can help store energy for use when needed. Hence, our technology helps customers make the transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy," said Gaul.

A national challenge

Controlling PM2.5 intensity should be raised to a national level during the national conference on environmental protection in Beijing, which begins on Thursday, said Zhou Shengxian, China's environment minister.

"The network of real-time air quality monitoring on PM2.5 will cover 113 cities throughout the country in 2013," he said. He has also announced a ban on the use of vehicles registered before 2005, under exhaust-emissions requirements, although details are sketchy at present.

The growing concern about air pollution has spurred sales by, and investment in, Chinese green-technology companies, especially those that manufacture air quality monitors and air purifiers.

In the two weeks that the capital has been shrouded in smog, Suzhou Beiang Technology Co has seen sales revenue exceed 1.5 million yuan ($241,000). In 2012, the company, based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, manufactured and sold approximately 2,000 ionic-wind air purifiers for homes, offices and cars, earning 5 million yuan in the process. Half of its customers are located in Beijing, while the others are in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

"Actually, it won't be a problem for our sales revenue to hit 3 million yuan this month, but our production capacity is unable to meet the huge demand, so we had to stop taking orders," said Ran Hongyu, the company's founder and president. "We expect sales revenue to reach more than 30 million yuan this year," he added.

The company is supplying more equipment and manpower to its factories to increase productivity. It has also set a target to raise 30 million yuan, leading a number of venture capital firms to express interest. Ran said the company will develop several air purifiers to fit different room sizes and will later begin large-scale production of air quality monitors, which are currently imported from the US.

"Every year, about 5 million air purifiers are sold in the US at an average price of $200. About 25 percent of US families have air purifiers," he said. "Here in China, the number of families is much larger and the level of air pollution in cities is much higher. The Chinese market for such products should be three to four times bigger than in the US."

Beiang Technology is not the only company witnessing huge changes. In 2012, Hebei Sailhero Environmental Protection Hi-tech Co sold air-quality monitors to monitoring stations in 23 Chinese provinces, and the company estimates that net profit increased by 14 to 29 percent year-on-year.

Since the Chinese authorities imposed stricter standards on air-pollution monitoring last year, government investment in each monitoring station has almost doubled, rising from 500,000 to 600,000 yuan to more than 1 million, said Liu Guoyun, assistant to the president of Hebei Sailhero. Many monitoring stations have already added visibility-depth monitors and environmental photography systems to their equipment.

Hebei Sailhero is conducting R&D into combined air-pollution monitors, which can identify both turbidity and the concentration of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals in the atmosphere. The company is also conducting a pilot project in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, to build a combined air-pollution monitoring and early warning platform.

The platform will collect data from key monitoring areas such as factories and main roads, before identifying the source of the pollution and providing local environmental protection bureaus with suggestions on the appropriate measures to take.

"Given that our company holds more than 30 percent of the domestic industry's market share, and the PM2.5 monitoring network will be expanded to 113 cities from 74 this year, we expect sales revenue to increase by more than 20 percent," said Liu.

Completing and maintaining a world-class air-quality monitoring network nationwide is just a first step, according to David Vance Wagner, senior researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation.

"I think the more important long-term challenge for China is to implement stringent emission controls that will effectively reduce the emission of pollutants and improve air quality," he said.

Wu Wencong and Zhang Yuchen contributed to this story.

Contact the reporters at yuwei12@chinadailyusa.com, cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn, zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn and jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn