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DTU scientists propose solution to city pollution problems

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June 11th, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

Team develops technology to reduce NOx emissions

Hydrogen tablets could reduce emissions of mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx) from city buses by up to 270 tonnes a year, the engineering trade magazine Ingeniøren reports.

Practically all buses and lorries are equipped with catalytic converters that reduce the emission of the toxic NOx gasses, but a 2012 report from the International Council on Clean Transportation found that emissions were still up to four times the permitted limit.

Status quo not good enough
It is now believed the catalytic converters only function properly when the exhaust fumes are over 200 degrees Celsius, which is seldom the case when the vehicle makes regular stops.

The hydrogen tablet, developed by a team from Denmark’s Technical University (DTU), could solve this problem by allowing the process to occur at lower temperatures.

Tue Johansen, the technical head of Amminex, a company that develops catalytic converters based on hydrogen tablet technology, told Ingeniøren that the technology could remove up to 300kg more NOx per bus every year (a total of 270 tonnes) if it was installed on all of Movia’s vehicles.

 “All that’s required to change the existing vehicle approval rules is political will,” he said.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”