Using microwave heating, researchers at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) said they have developed a way to turn waste cooking oil into biodiesel and hope to commercialize the technology within a year through cooperation with local businesses.
NCKU distinguished professor Liao Jiunn-der (廖峻德) and visiting professor Aharon Gedanken of Israel announced their finding, which relies on strontium oxide as a catalyst, on Thursday.
With the catalyst, used cooking oil can be transesterified into biodiesel and glycerol in a modified microwave oven in 10 to 40 seconds, they said.
The strontium oxide can then be reused, making the recycling method highly efficient, Liao said.
The process can turn waste into a resource that contributes to the environment and economy, especially in Taiwan, where cooking and eating habits mean restaurants, homes and schools produce a considerable amount of waste oil, Gedanken said.
Liao said he hoped the method would help Taiwan, where diesel fuel currently consists of 2 to 3 percent biodiesel, to meet the EU’s target of having biodiesel make up 20 percent of all diesel used by 2020.
The university is working on applying a patent for the technique, he said.
The modified microwave developed by Gedanken is able to handle an estimated 500kg of waste oil per day, Liao said.
The results proved that the transesterification of waste cooking oil to biodiesel using strontium oxide as a catalyst is a commercially viable way to decrease the costs of biodiesel production, he added.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching