BEIJING, April 27 -- After five years of efforts to promote an energy-saving invention in East China's Anhui Province, Na Xuefang seems close to realizing his dream.

    He has found a big client in neighbouring Jiangsu Province for his powder, an additive to coal that helps it burn more efficiently. Na needs his product to be a success because by the end of last year, all the money he put into the project was spent.

    Na had to give up his office in Hefei, Anhui's capital, and move into a small room in a suburb for a rent of 100 yuan (US$12.5) per month, where he continued to promote his invention.

    "I hope the newly-released long-term scientific plan, which prioritizes energy-saving technology, will serve as a turning point for my invention," Na said.

    A nationwide call to turn China into a resource-saving country has sparked the zeal to make energy-saving technological advances.

    But some environmental experts say that innovations alone are not enough and that the government needs to set the proper foundation to take advantage of them through establishing the right laws and policies.

    In the National Guideline on the Medium- and Long-Term Programme for Science and Technology Development (2006-20), issued by the State Council in February, developing energy-saving technology is a high priority.

    In his report to the National People's Congress last month, Premier Wen Jiabao called on the nation to cut energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 per cent by 2010 from the 2005 level.

    China's high consumption of energy has raised widespread concern. According to a national guideline released in 2004 by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's energy consumption was 3.1 times the world's average per unit of GDP in 2002.

    To reach the energy-saving goal, policies are being drafted, including establishing an index to evaluate how local governments have cut energy consumption in relation to GDP growth.

    The policy to encourage energy saving promotes researchers seeking new approaches.

    Ceaseless efforts

    Na was one of them.

    Since 1991, Na, who was trained in chemistry, has been engaged in developing a way to make coal burn more efficiently.

    "I often saw after burning that much unburnt coal was left. This was a great waste," Na said.

    "In coal mining areas of Henan Province, people pour salt onto high-sulphur coal to make it burn more fully. That caused me to think about finding other chemical additives."

    In nine years of experiments, Na found that some chemicals would lower the temperature for coal to start burning, and that others produce oxygen in the stove. The two chemicals, when combined, resulted in more efficient burning. He also mixed some chemicals into his additive to dissolve sulphur dioxide, a major pollutant from high-sulphur coal.

    In the late 1990s, Na eventually succeeded in making the additive. According to Tang Hanyong, deputy director of the government-backed Anhui Technological Promotion Centre, Na's powder can make coal burn up to 20 per cent more efficiently and reduce the emission of sulphur dioxide, sulphur trioxide and carbon monoxide. It obtained an invention patent from the State Intellectual Property Office in 2000.

    "Considering the price of the additive, coal users will still save at least 12 per cent on their coal costs," Na said.

    However, he used up much of his money and could not get his invention into production. "Many investors are interested in my project, but all of them set conditions unacceptable to me," Na said.

    Returning to his hometown, Wuwei County in Anhui, in late 2000, Na hoped his product could win the favour of power stations and other major coal users in his hometown.

    But not one company in Anhui has committed to use Na's powder so far.

    "Once Na had earned some money, he spent it to have samples of his powder made and then took it to electricity generation factories or major coal users for a demonstration," Tang said.

    "Each time the expected effect was achieved, but still no one would use it."

    Na said the next step should be taken by the government. "Although State policy has stressed energy-saving, no punitive taxes have been waived to encourage people to truly reduce energy use," he said.

    "For private entrepreneurs, it makes sense even if the powder can reduce just 5 per cent of their costs."

    Solar-heated water

    Wu Lin, of Jiangsu-based Huihuang Solar Energy Co Ltd, is much luckier. The engineer of a solar energy water heater, Wu has long been puzzled by the heater's inherent problem: not enough hot water on cloudy or rainy days.

    The technology to store the captured solar energy within the heater has been developed, but the result is still far from ideal.

    "One day, we suddenly thought of storing the energy outside the heater," Wu said.

    Through thousands of experiments, Wu and his colleagues developed an energy collection system, which consists of a water-collecting plate and heat storage and transfer equipment below the floor of the bathroom and a link from the cold water pipeline to the heat transfer equipment.

    Used hot bath water, then, will raise the temperature of the cold water below the floor, and the newly heated water will then connect with the tap water for continuing bathing and/or washing hands or clothes.

    For a 100-square-metre flat that uses an electric or a gas water heater, the 1,900-yuan (US$236) equipment could save up to 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity worth 700 yuan (US$87) per year, Wu said.

    Wu's company has launched the equipment and plans to promote it among real estate developers. The Ministry of Construction requires that by 2010, the per capita energy consumption of China's buildings should be reduced by 50 per cent. "Our invention alone can contribute 13 per cent to that goal," Wu said.

    In a separate move, researchers in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, developed last year a cheap way to keep residents warm in winter using untreated sewage.

    The device extracts heat from sewage that is temporarily diverted on its way to the processing plant. "The device can reduce the cost of heating systems by 20 per cent," said lead researcher Sun Dexing, a professor in the environmental science department at Harbin Institute of Technology.

    Chinese scientists are pushing other basic research, as well. The Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been developing a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) inside which a chemical reaction produces high efficient and clean energy. "With the decreasing costs of the fuel cells, the application can be used more widely, and its highly efficiency will help us save a significant amount of fossil fuels," said Luo Hongjie, director of the ceramics institute.

    Low-carbon initiatives

    Other researchers have proposed measures to turn China into a country that uses less carbon.

    At a recent workshop on the development of low-carbon methods by the Research Centre for Sustainable Development under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chen Ying, the centre's deputy director, said that to reach this goal, China needed to launch various initiatives, like the UK-based Carbon Trust, that link government policies to industrial strategies.

    According to Michael Grubb, director of policy of the Carbon Trust, the non-profit organization that receives funding from the government but is operated by private entrepreneurs has been committed to offering long-term, low-interest loans to industry to reduce energy consumption, and to providing grants to institutes and companies for their energy-saving research.

    "The government has given big money for developing energy-saving technology to institutes or major enterprises, but because many institutes lack a sense of what market demands are, a lot of resulting inventions can hardly be applied," Chen said.

    She also advocated establishing a network consisting of public and private funds, consulting firms to offer energy-saving solutions for enterprises, and contracting research organizations to do specific energy-saving research.

    But she also put the ball in the government's court.

    "The network has to be supported by clear policies, such as imposing a high-energy consumption tax and reducing taxes for energy savers," Chen said.