INDUSTRY News
Consumers think of German cars as sustainable,
yet they are the biggest polluters, say fi ndings increase of 125%. “The average CO2
Many consumers believe the German luxury cars BMW and Mercedes-Benz are the most environmentally-friendly vehicles around, yet new findings by German-based services company Handelskontor show the opposite. New Mercedes-Benz cars have average
CO2
emissions of 140.9g/km, “landing them in the inglorious number-one spot”, according to Raphael Lulay from Handelskontor. “This compares to an average of 97.5g/km for Japanese car maker Toyota, which comes in at the other end of the scale.” Audi and BMW have fared equally as bad as Mercedes-Benz, state the findings, with Volkswagen being slightly better. French brands Citroen, Peugeot and Renault also produce significantly lower CO2
emissions compared to the German
premium car makers. Nowadays, however, manufacturers
are increasingly developing vehicles with sustainability in mind – this has been a major topic of discussion at some 320 investor conferences in 2019, compared to just 142 in 2015, representing an
emissions produced
by cars from German premium manufacturers are probably so high not least because they sell comparatively few small cars. However, the companies are eager to turn things around and to increasingly focus on ecology,” says Handelskontor’s Lulay. “While some initial successes are already apparent, Mercedes & Co. are still far from being at the forefront of sustainability in the automotive sector. The tide could quickly turn, however, given that the German automotive industry has demonstrated its ability to reinvent itself several times. Nevertheless, Toyota is streets ahead in terms of sustainability.” Manufacturers have started to show their commitment to producing environmentally-friendly cars already: emissions from the 1.2 million new cars sold in the first half of 2020 were 4.4% below that of the previous year. Almost all brands showed improvements, including the traditional German
Mercedes-Benz cars are not as environmentally-friendly as widely believed [Photo: Gabriel Sollmann for Unsplash]
manufacturers: BMW reduced its CO2 emissions by 9% and Mercedes by 6.6%.
At Audi and Volkswagen the reductions were 5.6% and 4.8%, respectively.
“Why isn’t UV disinfection being used more
in the UK in the fi ght against Covid-19?” In the traditional fi ght with viruses, the most common methods work best: hand hygiene, room ventilation and UV disinfection. Yet, Jenton International is puzzled to fi nd that UV air disinfection is not being used as widely as it should in the fi ght against Covid-19.
Jenton International Managing Director,
Richard Little, asks: “Why isn’t UV disinfection being used more in the UK in the fi ght against Covid-19?
...Especially when there is a convincing argument backed by sound evidence for using it to improve air in a range of buildings and work environments, including doctors waiting rooms, schools, offi ces and food processing plants, as well as HVAC applications?”
UV has been used for disinfecting purposes for over 100 years, with proven effi cacy. It is mainstream for air disinfection in many HVAC installations in the US, Asia and the Middle East. “In the past, we have always been astonished at how unresponsive the
10 February 2021 | Automation
European market was in accepting the concept of simple wall units for NHS doctors’ waiting rooms, schools and so on. The proven proposition was to stop people catching colds, fl u and TB from each other,” says Little. “However, this is nothing to how surprised we are this year with how reluctant UK state agencies are to use our simple and eff ective UV units in waiting rooms, schools and offi ces. Plus, we have much bigger UV disinfection systems for HVAC and food processing plants.” Fresh air is important for diluting SARS-CoV-2 and reducing the risk of getting Covid-19; the HSE website recommends that recirculating air conditioning is turned off . “There’s no doubt that fresh air through an open window is best. Our proposition has been that where fresh air isn’t available or practical, in a food factory for example, UV disinfection is the next best thing, as eff ectively you are ‘making’ your own fresh air,” says Little.
A McGill university paper published in the Lancet in 2003 demonstrated that, on its own, UVC in ducting in HVAC- equipped offi ces could reduce sickness in buildings due to colds and fl u by 40%. This combined with handwashing and mask- wearing during the pandemic will prove signifi cantly synergistic. Meanwhile, a 2020 paper from Signify showed what was achieved in tests using UVC disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 at Boston University. This backs up previously calculated eff ects based on UVC’s performance against SARS-CoV-1 and variants which proved to be correct. “It is evident that SARS-CoV-2 can be easily disinfected with UV. Jenton’s products supply more than enough UVC to disinfect any SARS-CoV-2 passing through to 99.99%, and also many other viruses and bacteria,” said Little. “Jenton has also developed modelling software to allow prediction of performance in diff erent situations,” he added.
automationmagazine.co.uk
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