Going Green Sustainable Solutions in Canine Cuisine
Going green: How NUS is protecting the future with sustainable solutions
Together with Prof Chan Siew Hwa (NTU), Prof He Qian (NUS) and Prof Zhang Huangwei (NUS), Prof Yan has been working on using ammonia as a clean energy source. Consisting of only nitrogen and hydrogen molecules, ammonia seems like the perfect solution.
It sounds good and exciting. We produce it from nitrogen, which makes up 78 per cent of the air, and we dont produce any carbon dioxide when we use it, he explained.
The team is working on two approaches to ammonia as an alternative energy source. The first is to decompose ammonia to obtain hydrogen, which can be utilised cleanly for energy; the second method is to co-burn ammonia with natural gas and use it as a fuel directly.
This promising no-carbon energy initiative has already received substantial funding from the Low-CarbonEnergy Research Funding Initiative (LCERFI), as well as support from NUS.
Prof Yan and his team are now working on building a burner that will co-burn up to 50 per cent of ammonia with natural gas.
We will make new scientific discoveries, but they must not remain only on paper. We hope to test our research and then scale it up, he said.
Despite limitations in the current technology, he is confident that the industry will recognise the glaring need for such sustainable solutions. The consensus of society is that excessive carbon dioxide emission is a big problem, and low carbon or even net zero carbon technologies need to be implemented. Even though the solution may be costlier, it is worth it, he added.
As NUS presses on to tackle climate change, Prof Liu stressed that patience will be critical as ideal decarbonization solutions take time to develop.
Using the example of tree planting to cool the campus and improve air quality, she said: We need to know where to plant, what type, which can absorb carbon dioxide most efficiently, how will the trees grow and provide shade in the future. We need science and data, to guide us systematically towards our ultimate goal.
This is the third instalment of the Greening the Future series on sustainability and climate change.
Read about Prof Koh Lian Pin's work in championing sustainability and researching solutions that harness nature as a tool in the fight against climate change.
Read NUS President Prof Tan Eng Chye's commentary on the role that universities play in driving climate change action.
Sweden and sustainability
Sustainable housing
On the edge of Stockholms urban park, the new eco-quarter of Norra Djurgrdsstaden,Stockholm Royal Seaport, is using an old gasworks to build thousands of eco-friendly homes complete with biogas produced from food waste, as well as providing electric car chargers and planning a new tram line. But the real innovation is behind the walls and under the ground.
Swedes use three times as much energy as the global average to combat the cold climate and power their high-tech society, but living in cities is potentially more energy-efficient too. Stockholm Royal Seaport is a test bed fora globally innovative smart energy gridin partnership with energy companies, universities and homebuilders.
Future transport
Urban innovation is making waves in other parts of Sweden too. In Karlshamn in the south, the council now uses electric cargo bikes for some of its deliveries, rather than lorries. It's a solution with two-fold benefits: it's more environmentally friendly and safer for school children and people living in the area.
In Stockholm around 850,000 people use public transport on a normal day.The entire underground system runs on green electricity, and since 2017 all buses have been running on renewable fuels, which was actually the target for 2025.
The city of the future could look a lot like a Swedish city. The real challenge is building these state-of-the-art solutions quickly enough to keep up with the rapid growth of both Swedens and Europes urban populations.
The green innovation generation
Stina Behrens is a graduate of the Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. A few years ago, she and her classmates were frustrated about the lack of sustainability in industry, so they set about changing it.
After graduating, Behrens joined the board ofCradle Net, a national multidisciplinary network working to implement and spread information about the circular economy. At the time of writing she was employed by the design agency Transformator as a service designer. Through service design, the agency helps companies change the way they work from traditional to innovative new methods. In the last few years, Transformator and its contemporaries have seen a growing number of major companies interested in sustainability.
We see a great amount of potential in helping large companies move towards a circular economy, Behrens says. We can help by moving to completely new consumption models. Right now, some really big companies are rethinking how they do business.
