A Taiwanese team is to introduce natural wood pellets to the market as a low-emission alternative to coal for barbecues in an effort to recycle wood waste from local farmers and reduce air pollution.
The wood pellets are 100 percent natural, as they are sourced from subtropical trees, such as lychee, pomelo, lime, wax apple and bamboo, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology department of wood science and design assistant professor Long Way (龍暐) said.
Wood pellets of different trees would bring unique smoky flavors to barbecued food, Long added.
Photo: Chiu Chih-ju, Taipei Times
The product was jointly developed in a collaboration between academia, government and industry by the university, the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and Ynidyi Enterprise Co.
The development team hopes that the product can help address air pollution issues, Long said, citing high levels of atmospheric aerosol particles in Pingtung County, most of which are caused by the burning of agricultural waste.
Between May and December each year farmers trim wax apple and mango trees in their orchards, burning the branches and twigs, even though such practice is prohibited by law, Long said.
To help farmers recycle and reuse agricultural waste, the team has developed technology to turn waste wood into high value-added biomass pellets, Long said, adding that a percentage of the revenue generated by the product would be given back to farmers.
The product was introduced to European markets two years ago at a price of 2 euros (US$2.24) per kilogram, he said, adding that sales have been steady, with about 100 tonnes of wood pellets being exported to Europe each year.
Taiwanese customers would be able to purchase the product via a fundraising platform as soon as the end of this month, Ynidyi Enterprise general manager Hsu Kun-yuan (徐坤源) said.
The team has also developed a barbecue grill designed for wood pellets, which is to cost NT$3,000, Hsu said, adding that 2kg of wood pellets would be included with the grill.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS