Across China: Small town companies offer ways to combat smog

Companies from a small town in north China have offered new ways to combat smog in this region.

"If installed with our purifying air conditioning system, the air indoors will not be impacted by the pollution outside," said Liu Aiqiang, chairman of the board of BNDNY, a private air-conditioning technology company, pointing at an energy-saving system jointly built by China and Germany.

The company in Jinzhou, 300km south of Beijing, is seeking to carve a niche in emissions and energy reducing products amid the country's drive to go green.

Liu said the ground-source heat pump (GSHP) technology, jointly designed with institutions in Europe, could help reduce air pollution in north China if it is used to replace coal-burning heating boilers.

The GSHP is a central heating and cooling system that uses the earth as a heat source or a heat sink.

So far, the products have been used in residential buildings, factories, department stores, hospitals and schools. They have also been exported to temples in Thailand, Liu said

The company extracts underground water and use it to generate heat up to 80 degrees Celsius during circulation.

The company has also developed another air conditioning system featuring an air-source heat pump, which can extract heat from the cold winter air and increase energy efficiency by at least 20 percent.

The company suggested using remote control to turn heat on and off or adjust temperatures, which also helps improve efficiency.

Another local company, Shenxing Cable Group, is also offering solutions to tackle smog. The company has invented an efficient carbon fiber cable.

Liu Zhongjie, chairman of the company, turned on a switch and in less than a minute, a carbon-fiber cable embedded board in his office began to feel warm.

The carbon fibers can increase the cable's electrical efficiency by 30 percent and the cable can be used in apartments, or on roads and bridges to help melt ice, Liu said. Endi