CLEEN Ltd’s Finnish-Chinese joint project works for cleaner air

CLEEN’s research program is taking Finnish environmental expertise to China in the form of the China Testbed project. This project develops applications for monitoring air quality in cooperation with companies and research institutes.

- In Europe, diseases resulting from the quality of air cause the death of hundreds of thousands of people every year, and by a rough estimation this number is many times higher in China. One of the future aims of China Testbed, which focuses on measuring fine particles and developing air quality forecasts, is to develop services for pulmonary edema patients and asthmatics, says Team Manager Heikki Pentikäinen from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

One element of China Testbed involves students from Shenzhen University, who are helping to produce data by sending outdoor air observations to the researchers via mobile methods. Interest in air quality issues has increased at the state level in China, and one target of the project is to develop competence relating to air quality monitoring, measurement and forecasting in China.

- The MMEA program with its 46 consortium members and the China Testbed project form a genuinely open and cross-industrial platform for collaboration through which new technologies and services are generated for global markets summarizes Jatta Jussila-Suokas, who is the responsible leader for the MMEA program at CLEEN Ltd and CTO of the company.

Big results for a small investment                                                                                            

China Testbed was set up last year as part of the MMEA (Measurement, Monitoring and Environmental Efficiency Assessment) research program. The goal of the program is to increase and improve the efficiency of Finnish environmental technology business at the international level.

- One area in which Finns are strong is data processing. Environmental technology is very advanced in our country, and I believe that the project will open up business opportunities for the parties involved, says Lauri Hietaniemi Managing Director of Green Net Finland.

Finland’s partners in China are ZTE, Shenzhen University, and Green China Living Lab. Along with VTT the Finnish participants are Finnish Meteorological Institute, Aalto University, Vaisala, DigiEcoCity, Fatman, Cubio, Dekati and Pegasor. All of the participants in the MMEA research program will be able to use the results.

- It can be difficult for companies to achieve long-term, international, and extensive cooperation with research institutes on their own. This type of program can be very productive, as it simultaneously brings together large- and small-sized companies and research institutes at the domestic and international level, explains Jussila-Suokas.

- Good ideas lead to results and cooperation when we’re persistent in the Finnish way, sums up Hietaniemi.

For further information:
Heikki Pentikäinen,Team Manager, VTT, Tel. 020 722 5959
Jatta Jussila-Suokas, CTO, CLEEN Ltd, Tel. +358 40 825 6500
Lauri Hietaniemi, Managing Director, Green Net Finland, Tel. +358 40 553 2764

CLEEN Ltd. was established in 2008 to facilitate and coordinate world class industry driven research in the field of energy and environment. CLEEN Ltd. is a wide and heterogeneous consortium which has 44 shareholders consisting of the major companies and research institutes which have significant energy and environmental related R&D activities in Finland. www.cleen.fi

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