Two Taiwanese firms won top prizes at the prestigious Edison Awards in New York on Thursday.
Biochemical start-up Green Cellulosity Corp (鼎唐能源科技公司) won the gold award in alternative energy for its biobutanol technology — called ButyFix — mainly for use as transportation fuel using nature’s most abundant biomass, cellulose, as feedstock.
“ButyFix bio-butanol technology is the first to meet negative carbon footprint in its lifecycle resulting from a superior carbon yield,” the Edison Awards said on its Web site.
The technology was developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and transferred to the start-up in 2014.
Butanol is considered better than ethanol, the most common biofuel in the world, because it has a higher energy content
ButyFix requires 20 to 30 percent fewer materials to produce biobutanol compared with bioethanol, the ITRI said.
The company is able to produce biobutanol for less than NT$20 per liter on a commercial scale, making it competitive in the face of low crude oil prices.
“Innovations are like light bulbs in our civilization. The Edison Awards are a lighthouse which, hopefully, can guide innovators. I am looking forward to seeing our biofuel technology become a flourishing green energy technology,” Green Cellulosity founder and chairman Alex Tong (童遷祥) said.
The other Taiwanese winner, Lumos Technology Co (承奕科技), received a silver medal in the forensics and security category for its creation of the world’s first photo-oriented forensic light solution.
The camera kit developed by the company is made up of an illumination device that has multiple light sources, including ultraviolet, infrared and visible light, with tunable wavelengths.
The camera can be used to process crime scenes, as its lighting device can enhance the detection of latent fingerprints and body fluids, which are invisible to the naked eye, but become fluorescent when exposed to ultraviolet or infrared light.
The camera kit can immediately transmit data of a crime scene to a crime laboratory anywhere in the world, so data matching can be instantly performed and senior investigators can direct the crime scene investigation remotely.
Established in 1987, the Edison Awards recognize innovative products, services and business leaders around the world each year to encourage the development of new products and services, marketing, ergonomic design and innovation.
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