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May 13th, 2012:

Virgin Atlantic, LanzaTech partner for aviation biofuels in India, China

In the UK, Virgin Atlantic has teamed with LanzaTech to create renewable jet fuel that will power planes Shanghai and Delhi to Heathrow within two to three years. LanzaTech is working on producing its fuel in India and China, making those two destinations easy targets for implementation of the ‘green fleet.’

A flight demo with the new fuel is planned in the next 18 months, and the project will also include Boeing during the trial phases.

Within two to three years Virgin Atlantic plans flights with the new fuel on its routes from Shanghai and Delhi to London Heathrow as LanzaTech and partners develop facilities in China and India. The technology is currently being piloted in New Zealand, a larger demonstration facility will be commissioned in Shanghai this year, and the first commercial operation will be in place in China by 2014. Following successful implementation, a wider roll-out could include operations in the UK and the rest of the world.

LanzaTech estimates that its process can apply to 65 % of the world’s steel mills, allowing the fuel to be rolled out for worldwide commercial use. The energy company believes that this process can also apply to metals processing and chemical industries, growing its potential considerably further.

Virgin Atlantic will be the first airline to use this fuel and will work with LanzaTech, Boeing and Swedish Biofuels towards achieving the technical approval required for using new fuel types in commercial aircraft. A ‘demo’ flight with the new fuel is planned in 12-18 months.

The next generation technology overcomes the complex land use issues associated with some earlier generation biofuels – and detailed analysis suggests the fuel will produce around a 50% saving in lifecycle carbon emissions. The Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), the leading international body to ensure the sustainability of biofuels production, will advise the team to ensure the fuel produced meets key environmental, social and economic criteria.

Virgin Atlantic believes that this development will take the airline well beyond its pledge of a 30% carbon reduction per passenger km by 2020. The investment in renewable fuels is part of our widerprogramme to reduce carbon through measures such as using new, more fuel-efficient aircraft and supporting a global carbon cap and trade scheme, through our involvement in Aviation Global Deal group.

Solena Fuels sets biojet facility construction plan in motion

In California, Solena Fuels expects to put in its planning application with the City of Gilroy for construction of its first biojet facility sometime within the coming year. The company says it still has a lot of development work to do on details and consultations with the community before it asks for permission to build the 16 million gallon per year, $350 million facility.
Solena, SAS partner for aviation biofuels project at Stockholm Airport
admin | October 11, 2011
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Solena and SAS announced a partnership to develop a waste-to-jet fuel project at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, with a goal of establishing similar projects in Denmark and Norway.
The Arlanda project will gasify waste biomass, including municipal solid waste, and process the resulting syngas it into bio-based synthetic paraffinic kerosene, or renewable jet fuel. Solena, which had previously announced a 14 million gallon biofuels project with British Airways, in which BA would take an equity stake, and said that the SAS project would have similar characteristics. Solena and Qantas also recently announced a development effort.
http://www.solenafuels.com/node/25
AvioNews – Agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group
Rome, Italy – To start a study on the reconversion of metropolitan solid waste in bio-fuel for  aircraft
(WAPA) – Alitalia’s CEO Rocco Sabelli, CEO of Solena Group Robert Do and the one of Solena Italia Stefano Bugliosi, signed a letter of intent with which Alitalia and Solena Group commit themselves to start a feasibility study about the building of a plant capable of converting urban solid waste (promiscuous bio-masses) in a relevant share of the jet-fuel required for aircraft of Alitalia, ensuring the reduction of greenhouse gases and the stability of supplies. The signing of the agreement was attended by the Honorable Willer Bordon, president of Enalg SpA, company partner of Solena Group SpA and holding of Solena Italia SpA.
The study is finalised to assess the feasibility of a plant capable of converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of urban solid waste (promiscuous bio-mass) in bio fuel for aircraft, in order to meet part of the fuel needs of Alitalia, reducing the consumption of conventional jet fuel with the consequent reduction (up to 96%) of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
The use of Solena Group’s technology will allow to produce alternative fuel for aircraft, through an high temperature gasification process of the waste that will be transformed into a so-called “Syngas”. This gas then will be converted into liquid thanks to an industrial chemical process called Fischer-Tropsch.
Alitalia and Solena Group think that this innovative technological process for the reconversion can contribute to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) generated by aircraft.
Solena Group wants to involve in the realization of the plant also institutions at local and international level. The technology offered by Solena Group can also be considered as a solution to the problem of the dispersion of urban solid waste in dumps, avoiding gaseous emissions harmful to health and environment.
The agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group is part of the innovative program called Green Sky which already saw Solena Group reaching an agreement with British Airways Group for the conversion of significant shares of urban solid waste of London’s metropolitan area in jet fuel for the aircraft operating at the airport of Heathrow. (Avionews)

In California, Solena Fuels expects to put in its planning application with the City of Gilroy for construction of its first biojet facility sometime within the coming year. The company says it still has a lot of development work to do on details and consultations with the community before it asks for permission to build the 16 million gallon per year, $350 million facility.Solena, SAS partner for aviation biofuels project at Stockholm Airportadmin | October 11, 2011ShareSolena and SAS announced a partnership to develop a waste-to-jet fuel project at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, with a goal of establishing similar projects in Denmark and Norway.The Arlanda project will gasify waste biomass, including municipal solid waste, and process the resulting syngas it into bio-based synthetic paraffinic kerosene, or renewable jet fuel. Solena, which had previously announced a 14 million gallon biofuels project with British Airways, in which BA would take an equity stake, and said that the SAS project would have similar characteristics. Solena and Qantas also recently announced a development effort.http://www.solenafuels.com/node/25
AvioNews – Agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group

Rome, Italy – To start a study on the reconversion of metropolitan solid waste in bio-fuel for  aircraft

(WAPA) – Alitalia’s CEO Rocco Sabelli, CEO of Solena Group Robert Do and the one of Solena Italia Stefano Bugliosi, signed a letter of intent with which Alitalia and Solena Group commit themselves to start a feasibility study about the building of a plant capable of converting urban solid waste (promiscuous bio-masses) in a relevant share of the jet-fuel required for aircraft of Alitalia, ensuring the reduction of greenhouse gases and the stability of supplies. The signing of the agreement was attended by the Honorable Willer Bordon, president of Enalg SpA, company partner of Solena Group SpA and holding of Solena Italia SpA.

The study is finalised to assess the feasibility of a plant capable of converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of urban solid waste (promiscuous bio-mass) in bio fuel for aircraft, in order to meet part of the fuel needs of Alitalia, reducing the consumption of conventional jet fuel with the consequent reduction (up to 96%) of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

The use of Solena Group’s technology will allow to produce alternative fuel for aircraft, through an high temperature gasification process of the waste that will be transformed into a so-called “Syngas”. This gas then will be converted into liquid thanks to an industrial chemical process called Fischer-Tropsch.

Alitalia and Solena Group think that this innovative technological process for the reconversion can contribute to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) generated by aircraft.

Solena Group wants to involve in the realization of the plant also institutions at local and international level. The technology offered by Solena Group can also be considered as a solution to the problem of the dispersion of urban solid waste in dumps, avoiding gaseous emissions harmful to health and environment.

The agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group is part of the innovative program called Green Sky which already saw Solena Group reaching an agreement with British Airways Group for the conversion of significant shares of urban solid waste of London’s metropolitan area in jet fuel for the aircraft operating at the airport of Heathrow. (Avionews)

AvioNews – Agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group

http://www.solenafuels.com/node/25

Rome, Italy – To start a study on the reconversion of metropolitan solid
waste in bio-fuel for
aircraft

(WAPA) – Alitalia’s CEO Rocco Sabelli, CEO of Solena Group Robert Do and
the one of Solena Italia Stefano Bugliosi, signed a letter of intent with
which Alitalia and Solena Group commit themselves to start a feasibility
study about the building of a plant capable of converting urban solid
waste (promiscuous bio-masses) in a relevant share of the jet-fuel
required for aircraft of Alitalia, ensuring the reduction of greenhouse
gases and the stability of supplies. The signing of the agreement was
attended by the Honorable Willer Bordon, president of Enalg SpA, company
partner of Solena Group SpA and holding of Solena Italia SpA.

The study is finalised to assess the feasibility of a plant capable of
converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of urban solid waste
(promiscuous bio-mass) in bio fuel for aircraft, in order to meet part of
the fuel needs of Alitalia, reducing the consumption of conventional jet
fuel with the consequent reduction (up to 96%) of CO2 emissions into the
atmosphere.

The use of Solena Group’s technology will allow to produce alternative
fuel for aircraft, through an high temperature gasification process of
the waste that will be transformed into a so-called “Syngas”. This gas
then will be converted into liquid thanks to an industrial chemical
process called Fischer-Tropsch.

Alitalia and Solena Group think that this innovative technological
process for the reconversion can contribute to drastically reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) generated by aircraft.

Solena Group wants to involve in the realization of the plant also
institutions at local and international level. The technology offered by
Solena Group can also be considered as a solution to the problem of the
dispersion of urban solid waste in dumps, avoiding gaseous emissions
harmful to health and environment.

The agreement between Alitalia and Solena Group is part of the innovative
program called Green Sky which already saw Solena Group reaching an
agreement with British Airways Group for the conversion of significant
shares of urban solid waste of London’s metropolitan area in jet fuel for
the aircraft operating at the airport of Heathrow. (Avionews)

Qantas’ search for a fuel it can grow at home

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/qantas-search-for-a-fuel-it-can-grow-at-home-73710

The big question for some as they watched Qantas Airways’ first sustainable biofuels flight last week was this: Will the airline that likes to call Australia home be able one day to call the fuel it uses Australian?

The answer for the first flight was no – the fuel that made up one half of the 50/50 mix on one engine on a commercial flight from Sydney to Adelaide and back last Friday, and on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Hobart and back today – was derived from used cooking oil from the US; from a fast-food chain in Kansas, of all places.

And the chances are that even if Qantas does decide to embrace one or more biofuel feedstocks in coming years – be it cooking oil, algae fuel, urban and household waste or crop stubble – it will be several decades before it accounts for the majority of its fuel intake.

Qantas consumes nearly 5 billion litres of jet fuel a year (a bill of around $4 billion a year) and while its first biofuel flight means it is one of the first airlines to test out sustainable fuel alternatives, the reality is that its ambitions go no further than the industry average – which for the International Air Transport Association is to achieve carbon neutral growth by 2020 and reducing emissions by 2050.

Compared to what the science says about reduced emissions, and the ambitious targets set by the US Air Force and Navy, that may seem conservative. “This is not a quick or easy fix. We have got to start a whole new industry,” says John Valastro, the head of risk and resilience at Qantas. “We have got to jump a whole bunch of hurdles.”

As part of a project linked with its demonstration flights with fuel provided by SkyNRG, Qantas is doing a study with the Australian government and Shell to analyse what alternatives are available for the company in Australia. It is an extension to a detailed report conducted by the CSIRO last year that suggests Australia could source 5 per cent of its jet fuel requirements from bio-stock by 2020, rising to 40 per cent by 2050. That trajectory is considerably more ambitious than the IATA goals, and is predicted to deliver a 17 per cent cut in annual greenhouse emission per annum for business-as-usual by 2030, along with a $2 billion reduction in the annual bill for imported fuel, and the creation of 12,000 new jobs.

For that to happen, Qantas needs to establish that the feedstocks are scaleable and “rateable”, and that they will not compete with food or have an impact on biodiversity. Valastro says that for the moment, sustainable fuels are more expensive, but they will over time, and with scale, reduce their costs considerably. “We don’t see that (cost issue) as insurmountable. When you have scale and efficiencies, you will be able to drive that price down.”

Valastro says the airline is still considering joint ventures with Solena (waste to fuels) and Solazyme (sugar to energy), and is in discussions with other companies offering alternative solutions. He is fond of using the expression that there is “no silver bullet”, just a “silver shotgun” for sustainable solutions. Which effectively means that Qantas will likely source sustainable fuel from a variety of sources into the future. It’s a case of managing those inputs and costs.

Qantas will have no shortage of potential providers. One of those, Algae.Tec says algae fuels is a very real short-term prospect for aviation fuels. “This is a very welcome demonstration of the potential for biofuels to transform the way our transport industries use renewable and sustainable fuel,” Algae.Tec chairman Roger Stroud said of the demonstration flight.

Algae.Tec has already signed an agreement with Lufthansa to develop aviation fuels from algae, which can be harvested from feed-stocks such as carbon dioxide emissions, and has its first Australian project underway near Nowra in NSW, and has other ventures in Sri Lanka and China.

Valastro says the cooking oil from Kansas represented a 60 per cent reduction in emissions from jet fuel over the life cycle. Obviously, that reduction would be greater if the sustainable fuels could be sourced from Australia. “What we are saying is that this was a great start. Now we want to be specific, about the potential feedstocks, their reliability, their seasonality, and the refining capacity. We need to learn what each party within the value chain – feedstock providers, refiners, process, aggregators, and government – can offer.”

So where is the biomass in HKG ?

Which biomass?

One of the main costs in biofuel production, in terms of both economics and environment, is the biomass feedstock. The choice of feedstock is central to the controversy surrounding biofuels today, with current technologies associated with the use of food as fuel and large scale changes in land usage. For biofuels to have any meaningful impact on energy, biomass feedstocks must be widely available at low cost and without negative environmental impact. Lignocellulose – the non-food component of plants, fits this description. Future technologies are based on harnessing the energy locked within lignocellulose, converting the carbohydrate components to biofuel.

Lignocellulose Structure

Lignocellulose biomass includes:

  • ·     Agricultural waste such as straw, corn stover and bagasse.
  • ·     Industrial waste such as sawdust and paper pulp.
  • ·     Woody biomass from forestry.
  • ·     Municipal solid waste including food and garden waste and paper products.
  • ·     Specific non-food energy crops such as switchgrass.

Conversion to biofuel first requires hydrolysis of the biomass to yield a fermentable susbtrate. This step often involves a combination of physical, chemical and enzymatic treatments. Complete hydrolysis of the polysaccharide polymers yields glucose from cellulose and a complex mixture of sugars from hemicellulose including pentoses (xylose and arabinose) and hexoses (glucose, mannose, galactose and rhamnose). The second step is to ferment the hydrolysate to biofuel. In order for a lignocellulose process to be efficient, it is desirable for the microbes to utilise all of the carbohydrates. It is here that solventogenic clostridia have the advantage, enabling complete conversion of lignocellulosic sugars to butanol and co-products.

Tackling international air pollution

http://www.healthcanal.com/environmental-health/29154-Tackling-international-air-pollution.html

A panel led by Professor Martin Williams of the Environmental Research Group at King’s has reached an international agreement to update the ‘Gothenburg Protocol’, setting more ambitious targets to reduce trans-boundary air pollution across the northern hemisphere.

Description: pollutionimage

The Executive Body of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) have revised objectives for the Protocol that will see a reduction in EU emissions of around 60 per cent for sulphur, 40 per cent for nitrogen oxides, 30 per cent for volatile organic compounds, 6 per cent for ammonia and 20 per cent for particulate matter by 2020 compared with 2005.

The Protocol, adopted in 1999, set emission ceilings for pollutants on the basis of scientific assessments of pollution effects and abatement options.

The revised text of the Protocol includes national emission reduction commitments for main air pollutants to be achieved in 2020 and beyond. An emission ceiling for fine particular matter – the pollutant whose ambient air concentrations notoriously exceed air quality standards throughout Europe – will be included for the first time. It also sets tight limits for specific emission sources such as electricity production, cars and lorries.

Professor Martin Williams, Chairman of the Executive Body, said: ‘We made several important strides in a historic agreement last week in Geneva where Parties to the Gothenburg Protocol agreed an amended version, breaking new ground in three important areas.

‘It is the first international treaty to deal with the so-called ‘short-lived climate pollutants’ – toxic air pollutants which can also significantly affect the earth’s climate; secondly, for the first time, an international agreement sets emission ceilings for PM2.5 the most important air pollutant in terms of human health; thirdly the agreement should be sufficiently flexible that Eastern European countries, including the Russian Federation should be able to join the Protocol, which already includes the 27 EU countries, Norway, Switzerland and the USA among others.’

It is thought the new revisions will have a major global impact on health, the environment and climate change.

For further media information please contact Emma Reynolds, Press Officeremma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk

For further information about King’s, visit our ‘King’s in Brief’ page.

Glencore proves investors can’t undermine the board if they’re not allowed to dig too deep

Clear the Air says: I wonder if Anson Chan was there ? she joined Murray on the board of then major BAT investor Richemont until exposed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/13/glencore-investors-undermine-board?newsfeed=true

Series: Business leader

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Glencore proves investors can’t undermine the board if they’re not allowed to dig too deep

The London-listed commodities giant got through its inaugural AGM unscathed – perhaps because it took place in a small theatre in Switzerland with questions submitted in advance

David Simonds Glencore 13.05.12

Glencore could not have chosen a more closeted venue for its stage-managed AGM on Wednesday – its first shareholders’ meeting since its flotation on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges a year ago. Thecommodities firm picked a small theatre in Zug, Switzerland, for its executives’ first outing: a slick show that – remarkably for a FTSE 100 company at a time of unprecedented shareholder protest – ended with polite applause.

Glencore, however, took no risks that its executives might be blindsided by awkward investors, telling shareholders that “for good order” they should submit their questions to the company in writing at least two days before the meeting. It even took the precaution of trying to identify who was going to turn up by asking if they planned to arrive in town by train.

Only a few dozen people bothered to take in the delights of Zug, which promises “unique sunsets” and “world-famous Zug kirsch cake”. Among them were protesters publicising Global Witness’s allegations that Glencore may have had a role in the secret and possibly corrupt sale of stakes in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but they were outnumbered by policemen. There were only four shareholder questions – a situation the chairmen of other FTSE companies like BP and Marks & Spencer, who annually run the gamut of organised protests, would probably relish.

Perhaps the special measures were designed to protect Glencore’s gaffe-prone chairman Simon Murray, who has shown he cannot always be relied on to make sensible off-the-cuff comments in public (his remarks about the dangers of hiring women in case they get pregnant spring to mind).

Two of the questions concerned the DRC allegations, to which Murray responded that Glencore had behaved properly and regarded bribery and corruption as totally unacceptable. But he dismissed the suggestion of an independent inquiry into the allegations.

The other two questions concerned Glencore’s opaque tax affairs and implied the company should reveal more about how much tax it actually pays. Good news there too, Murray said: Glencore fully obeys the law in all the countries in which it operates – a glib catch-all that will not have satisfied those who say Glencore is too secretive for anyone outside the company to assess whether it is avoiding tax or not, and that no company should claim credit for merely obeying the law.

The only encouraging part of Murray’s answer was his acknowledgement that there is now a debate about how much companies should reveal about their finances. Many campaigners want multinationals to be forced to disclose much more data, to help tax authorities detect if a firm is shifting profits out of the countries where they are earned and into tax havens such as Switzerland. One possible solution would be for multinationals to set out profits made and taxes paid on a country-by-country basis.

So Glencore came through its first AGM remarkably unscathed, albeit after using a few obvious strategies to exclude virtually all its critics from the first public gathering of shareholders. But such a controversial, vast business – which could get larger still if it merges with Xstrata – warrants far more scrutiny. Between now and its next AGM, shareholders should shame it into holding the meeting in London – and ensure that they are better prepared for its stage-management.

Hong Kong’s KMB electric buses to hit the road next year

Clear the Air says: the obvious choice is to use hybrid buses that can run all day and need no charging stations ! better still hydrogen fuel cell buses – (Dream On !)

http://asiancorrespondent.com/81408/hong-kongs-kmb-electric-buses-to-hit-the-road-next-year/

Out with the old, in with the new.

As Hong Kong makes a fond farewell to its beloved vintage buses, new ones offer a hint of the future are fitting symbols of transition in a city well-known for transport efficiency.

Kowloon Motor Bus recently submitted a proposal to the Transport Department that would pave way for the first commercial operation of electric buses in the city. The new route 5M, afive-kilometer stretch between Ping Shek bus terminal in Kwun Tong, Eastern Kowloon and Eastern Road, near the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon City, utilizes single-deck electric buses. Along its route are two charging stations which allows these buses to operate without disruption. Single-journey fare is pegged at about HK$3 (US$0.38).

Although these zero emission buses are more desirable to run at Hong Kong’s polluted roadsides, they are more expensive to procure than their diesel counterparts. Yet, KMB is gracious enough to keep fares in line with other similar routes on conventional double-decker buses.

The bus was developed by a Zhejiang, China-based coach maker, in cooperation with German bus manufacturer Neoplan. After a full charge, it can run up to 10 kilometers and sustain a continuous supply of air conditioning for up to an hour. This is better than another prototype developed by a joint venture between Volvo and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, which can support uninterrupted operation for only 3.5 kilometers.

While the adoption of electric buses isn’t as quickly as we hoped, this development still helps the objective of reducing air pollution, and enable Hong Kong to join early adopters such as Canada, Spain and Japan.

Attention Expats: Singapore Is Better Than Hong Kong

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/attention-expats-singapore-is-better-than-hong-kong/

Description: A haze over Victoria Harbor and the North Point district skyline in Hong Kong.

Jerome Favre/Bloomberg NewsA haze over Victoria Harbor and the North Point district skyline in Hong Kong.

HONG KONG — Singapore and Hong Kong are engaged in a constant battle: which, oh which, is the more important Asian financial center? And which is more capable of attracting the top-quality workers that are needed to run the trading floors, logistics operations and universities that make both cities global players?

This week, once again, Singapore came out clearly ahead of Hong Kong, in an annual ranking of living conditions (as seen through the eyes of expatriate staff) compiled by ECA International, the management consultancy.

The assessment is designed to help companies determine what, if any, additional compensation or benefits they should offer employees they are sending abroad, and takes into consideration factors such as climate, health services, housing, leisure facilities, infrastructure, safety, political tensions and air quality.

Singapore was ranked as the best Asian city to live in (for the 13th year in a row), ahead of Hong Kong, which came in third, after Kobe, Japan.

Hong Kong’s positioning was an improvement from the previous year, when it ranked fifth within the region. But the 2-notch rise was nothing for Hong Kong to be proud of: It was the result of two other Japanese cities, Tokyo and Yokohama, dropping in the ranking because of the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

All in all, of course, Hong Kong does a good job in many respects: the transport infrastructure is awesomely efficient; health and education services are good; and on the personal safety front…well, name another city of seven million where a woman can go jogging on her own at night, as I do.

Still, where Hong Kong falls down — vis a vis urban rival Singapore — is air quality.

This may sound banal, but it is not. Pollution has worsened over the years (in part because of smog from neighboring mainland China), and, as I have reported, the government’s inability to reverse the trend (by giving out incentives to promote cleaner engines or cleaner fuel, for example) is drawing increasingly outspoken criticism.

Hong Kong, said Lee Quane, regional director for Asia at ECA International, has the third worst score for any of the 49 Asian cities assessed by the consulting firm, after Beijing and New Delhi, and now ranks among the worst locations worldwide for air quality, along with Santiago, Mexico City, and Cairo.

Air pollution, Mr. Quane said, could be a critical factor for an employee trying to decide whether to relocate here. “In this respect, Singapore has a clear lead over Hong Kong, giving it an advantage in terms of attracting business from overseas.”

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, Baghdad, Kabul, Port-au-Prince and Karachi are the worst cities to live in, according to the ECA ranking.)

So, tell us, why do you live in Hong Kong?

LCQ19: Data on concentrations of fine suspended particulates

http://7thspace.com/headlines/411999/lcq19_data_on_concentrations_of_fine_suspended_particulates.html

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – Following is a question by the Hon Kam Nai-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council meeting today (May 9):

Questions:

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) monitors the concentrations of air pollutants through its air quality monitoring network (including 11 general and three roadside air quality monitoring stations (AQMSs)), and on March 8, 2012, EPD started to collect and report on a real time basis the data on the hourly concentrations of fine suspended particulates (also known as “PM2.5”).In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the reasons why EPD only publishes the data on pollutant concentrations in the past 24 hours and does not keep the past relevant data on its web site for perusal of the public;

(b) of the details in table form of the unprocessed data directly recorded by all the 14 AQMSs in Hong Kong in each time slot since March 8, 2012;

(c) given that of the 14 AQMSs of EPD, only three are roadside ones, and the other 11 general AQMSs are installed at building rooftops over 19 metres above the ground on average, whether the Government will install more roadside AQMSs (including in areas with high pedestrian flow such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei, etc.); if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(d) given that some members of the public have indicated that EPD carried out instrument upgrade work at the AQMS in Causeway Bay this year and, as a result, reports of data on concentrations of fine suspended particulates were suspended for several days, of the details of the incident; how the Government ensures that these instruments can function properly and the data are accurate; and

(e) given that some members of the public have reflected that it is difficult for them to find real time data on concentrations of fine suspended particulates on EPD’s web site, and they have found that the web page entitled “Past 24 Hours Pollutant Concentration” on the web site does not contain real time data on fine suspended particulates, how the Government ensures that the public can easily access the relevant information; whether it will consider releasing the information through weather reports of the media; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

(a) In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data of the air quality monitoring stations (AQMSs), the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) will verify and confirm the raw data collected at various AQMSs in accordance with a stringent quality assurance process before the publication of the official data. When verifying the raw data at various AQMSs each month, the EPD will examine factors such as the operation records of the instruments at the AQMSs during the relevant period, whether the instruments have been interfered by any external factors, for example, construction works in the vicinity, and whether there are any abnormal variations in specific monitoring data. The verification process takes time to complete due to the huge amount of monitoring data involved.

To cater for the public’s interest in the latest air quality information, the EPD has in parallel a special arrangement to publish on an hourly basis the real time concentrations of air pollutants recorded at various AQMSs for the past 24 hours on its website. Such real time data are raw data taken directly from the monitors at various AQMSs. As they have not been verified or confirmed, they are for preliminary reference only and would not be kept on EPD’s website. After verification of the data every month, we will upload the confirmed data onto the EPD website (epic.epd.gov.hk/ca/uid/airdata/p/1) for public’s consumption.

At present, the verified data at various AQMSs from January 1990 to January 2012 are available on our website. Since March 8, 2012 when we began publishing the data on PM2.5, such data have been included in our data verification process and the validated PM2.5 data would be uploaded onto our website.

(b) The unverified concentrations of PM2.5 recorded hourly at AQMSs from March 8 to April 30, 2012 are at the Annex.As the data have yet to be verified, there may be some deviations from the final verified data.

(c) All of the three existing roadside AQMSs in Hong Kong are located in built-up urban areas with heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic to monitor roadside air quality. The three roadside AQMSs are in Causeway Bay, Central and Mong Kok. They cover the most common types of land uses with a relatively high density in urban areas, including commercial, commercial-cum-residential and financial districts. Therefore, the data from these roadside AQMSs are representative of the roadside air quality in typical places with heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the urban areas in Hong Kong. As such, we currently have no plan to increase the number of roadside AQMSs.

(d) The publication of data on PM2.5 concentrations recorded at the roadside AQMS at Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay, was suspended from March 12 to 28, 2012 due to replacement of instrument. The replacement mainly involved replacing existing PM2.5 monitor with a new model of greater precision. In tandem we replaced other related facilities, which included conversion of the outdoor equipment cases, replacement of vibration-proof installation, conversion of sampling pipes, etc. Since the old and new monitors could not operate in parallel during replacement works due to the site constraint, we had to remove the old instrument before installing the new one. Data reporting resumed after the new instrument had been assessed and confirmed to be operating normally and reliably. The EPD had announced on its website that the reporting of data on PM2.5 concentrations at the said AQMS was suspended temporarily during the period.

To ensure the proper operation of instruments and the accuracy of data, the EPD has adopted internationally recognised operating procedures and strictly implemented a quality control and quality assurance system to ensure that the air quality data are highly accurate, reliable and representative. The monitoring network has been accredited with ISO17025:2005 and ISO9001:2008.We will continue to strictly implement the relevant quality control procedures in operating the PM2.5 monitors so as to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data.

(e) On the EPD website there is a dedicated webpage providing data on air pollution (www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/data/air_data.html).It provides, among other things, past 24-hours concentrations of fine suspended particulates and other major air pollutants recorded at AQMSs (www.epd-asg.gov.hk/english/24pollu_fsp/24pc_fsp.html).To facilitate public access to past 24-hours concentrations of fine suspended particulates and other major air pollutants and verified past data, we have added links to the air pollution index webpage to provide the public with an additional channel to the above webpage. The real time data on the EPD website, which are updated hourly, provide the public with the most up-to-date information on air quality.

Source: HKSAR Government