Hong Kong’s automotive air pollution sensors assist it clear its air in world first

Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide air pollution have fallen sharply in Hong Kong because it launched a world-first scheme to detect and restore automobiles with the very best emissions

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A busy street in Hong Kong

picturelibrary / Alamy Inventory Photograph

Hong Kong has improved its air high quality through the use of roadside sensors to detect automobiles with the dirtiest fumes and forcing house owners to get them fastened.

Autos that run on petrol and diesel emit dangerous chemical substances like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. New vehicles have expertise for lowering these emissions, however they'll change into extra polluting over time. Many older vehicles which can be nonetheless on the roads are heavy emitters.

To determine the worst-offending automobiles, Hong Kong put in sensors on freeway ramps that use infrared and ultraviolet beams to detect carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon ranges in tailpipe exhausts of passing automobiles.

Cameras seize the licence plates of probably the most polluting automobiles so their house owners might be notified. House owners should restore their automobiles and cross an emissions take a look at, paid for themselves, earlier than their automobiles are allowed again on the street.

Because the enforcement programme started in September 2014, greater than 16,000 high-emissions automobiles have been detected and 96 per cent have been fastened and handed the obligatory emissions take a look at, in keeping with an evaluation led by Yuhan Huang on the College of Expertise Sydney in Australia.

The scheme has quickly improved air high quality in Hong Kong. In 2015, unbiased monitoring discovered that common concentrations of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides at roadside areas had dropped by 26 and 27 per cent respectively in comparison with 2012 ranges.

Figures from a separate monitoring programme, the Hong Kong Air Pollutant Emission Stock, additionally present that carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from street transport declined, by 50 and 34 per cent respectively, between 2012 and 2015.

A number of European international locations are experimenting with utilizing roadside sensors to observe automobile air pollution, however Hong Kong is the primary to make use of them for enforcement functions, says Huang.

He believes the expertise must be adopted in different international locations since it's comparatively low price and provides a fast and easy approach to clear up the air. “I believe it’s an particularly good thought in massive cities like Beijing, which have severe air air pollution issues from transport,” he says.

Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl7575