Nov 18 2005
The first independent engine test facility of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES) has started operations in Beijing. The facility, which has been established with financial and technical support from BASF, will monitor fuel qualities in China. It will also do research for developing future Chinese fuels and customized additives to focus on specific needs in China. Such modern “Chinese” additives improve fuel quality and significantly prolong engine life. In addition, their use reduces carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions to air and cuts fuel consumption by up to 2 percent.
“To choose good gasoline and additives is very important for environmental protection. This is also an important motive for us to promote technical advancement in this area and to cooperate with BASF,” said Professor Meng Wei, head of the CRAES. China wants the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to be remembered as the “Green Olympics” and has therefore set itself the goal of reducing emissions of traffic pollutants. Even now, there are more than two million vehicles on the streets of Beijing and a total of 27 million throughout China. Experts also forecast that vehicles will play an increasingly important role in China’s economy in the next 15 years. As vehicles enter more and more into people’s daily lives, there will be greater focus on the environmental impact of fuel consumption and vehicle emissions.
“We consider the establishment of an engine test facility in Beijing to be a contribution to sustainable development in the Chinese growth market – a market that is of considerable importance to BASF,” said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, BASF Board member responsible for the Asia Pacific region. BASF is one of the world’s leading producers of fuel additives and has customers throughout the petroleum industry. The company already markets its innovative Keropur® gasoline additives in China. They ensure more efficient fuel combustion, thus reducing consumption and emissions. At present, Chinese drivers must still add Keropur® to their tanks themselves. China now aims to develop additives that are added to fuel in standardized amounts at the refinery, as is the norm in western industrialized countries. Supplementary topping up with additives by drivers will then be a thing of the past.
Before operations were started in Beijing, the engine test facility was first set up and fine-tuned at BASF’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Here, several similar facilities are operated by BASF’s Performance Chemicals for Automotive and Oil Industry business unit. A delegation from the CRAES, which will independently operate the Beijing facility, received training in how to use the technology from BASF experts in Ludwigshafen in September 2005. The engine test facility was then dismantled, shipped to Beijing and rebuilt.
The joint development of the engine test facility in Beijing is based on an agreement between the CRAES and BASF that was signed in July 2004. The goal of this cooperation is to improve the quality of Chinese gasoline significantly and to adapt it to the requirements of the latest engine technology. Both partners plan to extend the cooperation in the form of further joint projects.
BASF has been conducting business with China since 1885. The company is now one of the country’s largest foreign investors and has more than 4,000 employees in China. A new Verbund site in Nanjing was officially inaugurated at the end of September 2005. The new site, which BASF operates together with its partner Sinopec, represents a joint investment of $2.9 billion. By 2010, BASF aims to generate 10 percent of its global sales and earnings in its chemical businesses in China.
http://www.basf.com