The city government of Shanghai announced that 5,000 of its diesel buses will be getting emission filters before 2015 ends as part of its intensified efforts to combat air pollution.
Last year, authorities have attached similar devices to 200 buses and have seen significant improvement since then. The filters were able to reduce PM2.5 particle emission by over 95 percent, prompting officials to carry on with the initiative throughout the city.
According to Huang Wenming, the one in charge of the scheme, "Shanghai has about 8,000 buses that run on diesel, though 3,000 of them are set to be taken out of service next year and will be excluded from the refit program."
Huang is also an engineer with the Shanghai Ba-Shi Public Transportation Group.
"Any new vehicles that we buy will be powered by clean energy, which means the diesel vehicles will be gradually phased out. In the meantime, however, the addition of the filters will help to reduce the emissions from the existing fleet," he remarked in an interview with Shanghai Daily.
"With the new filters fitted, there's hardly any smoke," Huang stated.
PM2.5 particles are responsible for the black fumes coming out of diesel-powered buses' exhaust pipes.
Apart from reducing these particles, the emission filters can also decrease carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon discharges by 60 and 70 percent, respectively, said the Shanghai Motor Vehicle Inspection Center.
As the city government has set a target of reducing PM2.5 particles by 20 percent by 2017, it also eyes to attach the emission filters in diesel trucks utilized by postal and sanitation companies.