Keep Moving Forward for An Era of Sustainable Development
The issues related to the energy for development and environment protection have become equally concerned by the international society due to their closed interconnections and being treated within the same topic. They are critical to our future and wellbeing and even more the core value of us representing the role and responsibility to the world. We have constantly devoted to the research in civil application of nuclear technologies, looking for the balance between energy and environment coming from the principle where we stand. Some achievements have been made after years of endeavored efforts.
In recent year, we have had following advancements from different aspects:
In the energy saving technology, in order to take the NIR-blocking effect, the Ag-doped transparent conductive oxide (TCO) is applied in the structure of energy-saving electrochromic glass. Electrochromic glass reduce energy consumption up to 20%, and often reduce the size of the HVAC system required for the building. We have also integrated the wireless control function to the electrochromic glass. Occupants can remotely use the mobile app to fine tune tint zones for specific lighting effects from anywhere in the building — so they can control the status of the glass no matter where they are. Customized light-zoning strategies can be developed through the use of dynamic control following the climate conditions so that occupants can always strike the ideal balance between comfort and interior lighting.
The CO2 reduction technology has been developed for several years in our institute. The CO2 capture systems with different kW level were investigated to fit for varied conditions of CO2 capture. Our CO2 capture system has applied on the recycling industry of plastic waste. The result indicates the CO2 removal efficiency can be achieve above 90% of international indicator, under the stream condition with CO2 concentration 10-40%. The CO2 capture technologies in INER have been planned to cooperate with domestic environmental industry, and develop the technologies of recycling and reusing of the coal, bio-mass and organic waste. The gas stream resulted from the gasification of organic waste can be used for CO2 capture and be separated/purified to produce the syngas with high economic value. Actually, the CO2 capture technologies have widely been used for the cycling of organic waste. The efficiency of resource reuse can be remarkably enhanced and beneficial to the environment sustainability.
Moreover, we have long committed to develop biorefinery technologies. Cellulosic ethanol and cellulosic lactic acid production have reached the leading-edge of technology globally. Currently, we have signed a technology authorization agreement with domestic industry. It is planned to build the first biorefinery plant in Taiwan to approach the vision of localizing this innovative industry in the homeland. The plant will be located in the Chianan Plain, southwest part of Taiwan. Meanwhile, our institute is planning to assist domestic start-up companies to develop cellulosic biorefinery industry in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, strengthen along with our previous technology patent layout in Southeast Asia. We were proud that the biomass depolymerization technology and its various applications of INER’s biorefinery process had been awarded the 13th National Innovation Award. It demonstrates our biorefinery technology possessed innovative contribution and strong economic competitiveness.
In the aspect of developing distributed power systems and intelligent control technologies, we had helped Taipower Company(TPC), Penhu County Government, etc. to plan and build intelligent microgrid in 2016, including: (1)to transfer the management and control technology of intelligent energy source to Controlnet Corp., as well as to cooperate with TPC to build a preventative microgrid in Fushan Community of Wulai, New Taipei City; (2)to cooperate with Tatung Corp. to build an 18kW preventative microgrid in Wulai District Office; and (3)to cooperate with Chung-Hsin Electric and Machinery Mtg. Corp. to build an off-shore islanded microgrid in Dongji, Penghu.
Since there was no public available tool for energy security and risk analysis in Taiwan, we have established an energy security information platform. The Energy Security Web provides an online energy security information platform for professionals or interested users, and provides flexible combinations of index and weighting. The Energy Security Information Platform is designed to provide a flexible index combinations and weight assignments that allow users to define and establish their own energy security index. Energy Security Information Platform has built a set of major energy, economic and environmental data of Taiwan, which will be regularly updated. In the future, the energy security risk index data analysis, energy model, economic model and social intentions survey will be integrated for providing energy and economic strategy recommendations.
In addition to the energy security information platform, our institute and the MIT JP (MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change) have jointly developed the first global CGE model for environmental-policy simulating purpose in Taiwan since 2016, which was named Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) -Taiwan. At the same time, INER cultivates human resources for CGE-modeling capabilities that are valuable and rare in Taiwan.
The United Nations raised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to integrate the efforts from member states and organizations to deal with desperate issues we are facing with. Most of them linked to the advanced development and use of energy to preserve a sustainable future. We, as a national research institute, are in a position taking the responsibility to catch the international focuses and trends in both energy and environment, helping our country get involved the global effort in resolving the mutual and imminent critical problems.