China To Get Tough On Air Pollution, But The Cows Keep Farting!

Throughout the world, greenhouse gases and carbon emissions are quite rightly taking centre stage. Unfortunately, all the noise generated by these well-intentioned people is drowning out the message from the X-1R Corporation who already has the proven technology to significantly reduce pollution and improve fuel consumption (paying for itself in savings - it’s not a cost); so, the question is...Are you ready to listen? 

Massive growth throughout China, with cities already overwhelmed with excessive pollution, are now faced with the beginning of the municipal heating season. Residents of cities in Northern China are bracing themselves for another season of choking smog which is reducing their life expectancy. Finally, China's leaders have made the uphill fight against pollution a priority, trying to reverse long-term damage done over decades of reckless manufacturing-driven growth at the expense of the nation's vital natural resources - the very air they breathe, the water their children drink and the ground they build their homes on. China’s air, water and soil quality are on life support.

(Read also: It's Smog Season In China, Therefore It's Time To Stop The Cows Farting And The Chinese From Eating Meat.) 

Literally, China’s natural resources are in jeopardy; a World Health Organisation (WHO) report back in March of this year linked seven million deaths per year to air pollution with some six million of these coming from the Asian region. At that time, the WHO’s Director of the Public Health and Environment Department, Dr Maria Neira, said, "The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes. Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution. The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe."

At the UN Climate Summit hosted by UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, China pledged for the first time to take firm action on climate change, telling the summit that its emissions, the world's highest, would soon peak. During his speech, Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli also said that China would make its economy much more carbon-efficient by 2020, in just six years.

The UN has previously warned that the impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible", leading to problems such as rising sea level, greater flood risks and changes to crop yields.

Zhang also told the Summit that by 2020, China would aim to reduce its emissions of carbon per unit of GDP by 45% compared to levels in 2005. He said that China wanted to have an emissions peak "as early as possible" and "as a responsible major country, China will make even greater effort to address climate change”.

Although, in an obvious bit of ‘leaving-the-door-open’ for a change of mind (should it suit), his speech contained the phrase "All countries need to follow the path of green and low carbon development that suit their national conditions, and set forth post-2020 actions in light of actual circumstances". However, this is the first time that China has publicly stated that it is willing to take firm action to cut carbon emissions and, thus, is a significant and welcomed move by Beijing.

In May of this year, China announced that they would be scrapping over six million vehicles that do not meet exhaust emissions standards by the end of the year, 300,000 from Beijing alone, after a government report linked 31% of air pollution to vehicle emissions. For now, this is a voluntary scheme but the central government has at least acknowledged that there is a problem and in fact has pledged some US$275 billion to address the issue over the next five years.

Help could be much simpler and nearer to hand than you may expect. At the recent 20th Annual Canadian Mining Council - Diesel Emission Reduction Conference (its primary focus was to reduce harmful diesel emissions in the mining industry), X-1R was honoured as the keynote presenters in the technical conference in Toronto, Canada; Jeff Ketchledge and John March of the X-1R Corporation outlined how the use of a polymer-based additive technology drastically reduces PM’s (particulate matter vehicular emissions) by as much as 64% during idling and 15% during normal operations (click here to access their presentation slides). In addition to reducing emissions in both diesel and petrol, it’s the only proven technology that has a positive impact on improving fuel economy, in multiples of its cost. The perception is that the technology is not a cost…WHAT? Drastic reduction of harmful emissions is achieved while the fuel economy savings pay for the cost of the technology in multiples! 
 

X-1R’s technology for both petrol and diesel utilises a patented environmentally-safe High Molecular Weight Polymer that has been modified to enhance fuel combustion and reduce emissions by making the fuel increasingly viscoelastic; this creates a more uniform misting of fuel in the combustion chamber and a more complete combustion.

Ketchledge, who is VP of X-1R Corp., told us that “the product was originally developed by the US Navy for use in their fuel for fighter jets, to reduce the explosivity and flammability of the jet fuel, when ground fire (rifles) hit a jet’s fuel tank”.

Later, after years of study, it was discovered that the polymer-based technology improves fuel economy and reduces harmful emissions in fuel (both petrol and diesel). As the technology was further developed and evolved, expensive testing costing over US$3 million was performed to qualify the technology as an approved diesel emission technology for the state of Texas' TxLED programme; further research led to a written letter of commendation by CARB (California Air Resource Board); then, the R20 Global Environmental Group also endorsed the technology and a letter was sent from the R20 Chairman, the then governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The product is formulated in different versions for diesel and petrol engines. For petrol engines, the technology will reduce combustion gas temperatures, reduce emissions of unburnt hydrocarbons, reduce CO, CO2 and NOx emissions, and significantly reduce fuel consumption and increase engine power.

It seems strange - such a simple solution is readily available but largely ignored by the world leaders. This has a great deal to do with so, so many companies who have made massive promises about their products - all detergent and lubricity-based technology that simply does not improve fuel economy.

X-1R Corp.’s VP of R&D, Shashank Nakhare, is a chemical engineer who has been with X-1R for over 10 years; and the former VP of R&D for Gulf Oil and Chevron USA, Dr Brian Taylor, leads X-1R’s R&D department. X-1R also developed lubricant technology, still in use by NASA in the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, that was awarded the dual recognition of “Certified Space Technology” and “Space Foundation Hall of Fame” awards for technology developed for NASA with benefits to the general public.

With comprehensive testing as its foundation for fuel and lubricant technology, the recognition by the likes of the state of Texas, California’s state environmental agency (CARB) and NASA confirm the integrity of X-1R’s product claims and credentials as effective fuel and lubricant technology.

At the end of the day, the public has to understand that they need to be a part of the solution and not just leave this up to the ‘big’ government; the average motorist needs to understand that they are now a part of the problem but, with a simple commitment to treatment, can be part of the solution. 

However, when China launched the Eco City Project six years ago near Tianjin in the northeast, it hoped to create a big city devoid of the pollution and congestion that trouble most other Chinese cities. But, so far, the city which has room for 350,000 citizens has only attracted a total of 12,000 residents; thus, it looks like the Chinese government has a lot of work to do to convince their population to consume less and hopefully stop the cows from farting.

images: latimes.com, eurocarnews.com, myco2.com