An inter-university research team has developed a microalgae-based carbon capture technology and established the nation’s largest pilot microalgae farm at a university in Tainan in hopes of helping the nation conserve energy and reduce its carbon emissions.
Microalgae are the most productive organism for capturing carbon because of their high photosynthetic rate, said the team, headed by National Cheng Kung University professor Chang Chia-hsiu (張嘉修).
The goal of the team was to use the exhaust emissions and wastewater from factories to breed microalgae, which were first mutated from wild algae with special chemical formulas until they were capable of tolerating the level of heat emitted by factory chimneys, and use the bred microalgae to capture carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, the team said.
Photo: Tang Chia-ling, Taipei Times
“We hope to create a sustainable ecological system,” Chang said.
The team discovered that 1kg of microalgae is capable of absorbing 2kg of carbon dioxide, adding that the Chlorella and cyanobacteria often found in Taiwan’s rivers were most effective, Chang said.
If factories could dedicate one hectare of land for the breeding of microalgae, that one hectare would be able to capture 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, he said.
The team has established a breeding center for microalgae at the university’s campus in Annan (安南), Tainan, that is capable of holding 40 tonnes of microalgae, Chang said, with plans for building a bigger center that can breed 200 tonnes of microalgae.
The team has also developed the technology for extracting lutein, synthesizing succinic acid, synthesizing 2-Hydroxypropanoic acid and extracting biodiesel from microalgae, Chang said.
In addition, it has developed a process for breeding microalgae with rhodotorula rubra, Chang said.
Aside from producing biodiesel, rhodotorula can be made into healthcare products, the team said, adding that the carbon dioxide produced when it is growing can also be used by microalgae.
The inter-university team was commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology and also includes professors from National Sun Yat-sen University, Tunghai University, Fooyin University and National Chiao Tung University, as well as the Metal Industries Research & Development Center.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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