Honda Motor Co is considering the commercialization of its algae-growing technology, which can be used to absorb carbon and create biofuels, plastics and other products, the Nikkei Shimbun reported.
The automaker is to test mass production of the organic material in the fall and build a new facility of about 1,000m2, the report said.
Honda is to use the algae at its own production facilities in Japan and Southeast Asia to offset carbon emissions, from the latter half of next year, Nikkei said.
The company is ramping up efforts to go green as it pledges to phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2040 and achieve net-zero emissions for its entire supply chain by 2050.
Honda’s scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions for its fiscal year through last year were 4.5 million tonnes, according to its sustainability report.
Companies are seeking ways to use algae as a potential replacement to traditional biomass fuels such as corn and soybeans, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing up the price of biofuels.
Honda has improved its algae’s resistance to infection, enabling it to grow more efficiently, Nikkei said.
The organic material can multiply 32 times in a single day, compared with once or twice for ordinary algae, it said.
The automaker is considering using biofuels made from algae for its HondaJet airplane, as well as for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, which it aims to commercialize in the 2030s, it said.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS