Nations link up on carbon challenge

European and Chinese scientists have joined forces to combat climate change in a new partnership that has committed an initial 2.1 million pounds ($2.7 million) in research funding for low-emissions innovations.

The five-year collaboration will form a "research bridge" between labs in the United Kingdom, China, and Germany, developing new technologies in power storage, renewable energy, and biofuels.

Partners include the University of Birmingham in the UK, the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, or JITRI, in Nanjing, China, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental Safety and Energy Technology, or the UMSICHT, in Germany.

The three institutions have raised a total of 2.1 million pounds in initial funding for the project, including 499,000 pounds from Research England, which is part of the UK national funding agency UK Research and Innovation.

"Of all the challenges to sustainability that the world faces, energy is the most important because, given an abundant source of low-cost, clean energy, most of the other problems can be solved," said JITRI president Liu Qing. "Energy storage is a particularly critical part of this challenge, given the intermittent nature of most clean, renewable energy sources."

JITRI is one of China's top industrial technology research centers that specializes in advanced materials, high-end manufacturing, and energy conservation, among other fields. The Nanjing-based institute has 39 departments staff ed by 6,000 personnel and will provide the new research partnership with access to technology, equipment, and brainpower, according to Liu.

"Jiangsu province is traditionally the manufacturing heart of China, but also has the highest concentration of energy companies," said Liu. "The need for sustainable energy solutions crosses national borders, and I believe this new partnership will enable new solutions with global impact."

The University of Birmingham's Centre for Energy Storage, or BCES, will also play a major role in the new partnership. Because several low-carbon power sources, including solar and wind power, have a variable and intermittent output, innovations in energy storage will be key to phasing out fossil fuels.

David Eastwood, vice-chancellor at the University of Birmingham, said the partnership with JITRI will lead to "commercially viable solutions to the world's energy challenges".

Birmingham has already brought new technology to the market in China. Last year, the BCES worked with Chinese rail company CRRC Shijiazhuang on a prototype for a low-emissions freight container that stays cold without the need for fuel-generated refrigeration. In August, CRRC sold 49 of the containers to a manufacturer in China.

The UMSICHT will head up research into the field of biofuels. Some climate change experts argue that deriving fuels from agricultural waste and other forms of biomass can play a role in reducing fossil fuel extraction as society moves toward a low-carbon future.

"We are able to provide high-quality CO2-neutral fuels from waste biomass and critical raw materials from end-of-life products," said Andreas Hornung, director of the Sulzbach-Rosenberg branch of the UMSICHT. "Our goal is to implement our solutions for the energy and raw material transition all around the world. With this international research partnership, we strongly believe we will come a good step closer to this goal."