수소에너지, 쌀 선물, 구더기를 이용한 음식물쓰레기 처리

[프란치스코]

중국
수소에너지 체인 로드맵
♡♡
China: Beijing unveils road map for hydrogen energy chain

Beijing aims to have over 10,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road and 37 hydrogen filling stations by 2025, as part of its ambitious plan to develop the hydrogen energy industry.

Beijing will also cultivate 10 to 15 leading hydrogen enterprises with international influence and three to four topnotch industrial research and development and innovation platforms by then, according to a hydrogen energy industry development blueprint released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology on Aug. 16.

The scale of the hydrogen energy industry chain in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will likely surpass 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) by then, it said.

An analyst said hydrogen is likely to play a more important role in cutting emissions in sectors like steelmaking, heavy-duty trucks, shipping and cement in China.

While hydrogen is mainly produced industrially from coal and natural gas, which will generate a certain amount of carbon emissions, the process will be greener as the country is in pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2060, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

“As China gradually drives down costs, it is expected the country will embrace a ‘green’ hydrogen era, one that is generated by renewable energy sources without producing any carbon emissions, by 2030,” he said.

“The government will also come up with a more detailed hydrogen energy industry development plan that covers hydrogen production, transportation and consumption.”

The output value of the hydrogen sector in Beijing reached 3 billion yuan last year. Cities across the country have shown enthusiasm for developing the clean energy. More than 40 cities have come up with local hydrogen energy industry development plans with a planned industrial scale exceeding 1 trillion yuan.

Many state-owned enterprises, including State Power Investment Corp. and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., are also laying out plans to tap into the hydrogen sector.

According to the Hydrogen Industrial Technology Innovation Alliance of China, the country’s hydrogen energy industry output value will reach 1 trillion yuan by 2025, while the demand for hydrogen will approach 60 million tons by 2050.

The alliance expects hydrogen will account for more than 10% of the country’s terminal energy mix and become a new growth pillar of the economy with annual output value of the industrial chain exceeding 12 trillion yuan by 2050
(China Daily, the Japan News)

.

일본

쌀 선물 상장폐지
♡♡
With rice futures to be delisted, find ways to boost transparency in pricing

It has been decided that rice futures, which so far have been traded on a trial basis, will be delisted. The government should consider other measures that make clear how the price of rice is determined.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has rejected a request for the permanent listing of rice futures filed by the Osaka Dojima Commodity Exchange, which has been renamed the Osaka Dojima Exchange.

The request was aimed at enabling rice futures to be traded for an indefinite period. The exchange has been trading rice futures since 2011 through the repeated extension of a two-year trial run. With the ministry decision, however, the exchange said it would not seek another extension.

Rice futures trading started during the Edo period (1603-1867) at an exchange set up in the Dojima district of Osaka, in what is believed to have been the world’s first futures trading. It is disappointing, therefore, that rice futures will be delisted.

In futures trading, the volume and price of rice to be sold or purchased in the future are determined in advance.

Rice crops depend on weather conditions. However, if rice is traded on the futures exchange, farmers can avoid losses from falling prices even if supply increases thanks to a good harvest. Farmers can calculate revenue ahead of harvesting, making it easier for them to work out farming plans. Consumers can also enjoy great benefits if futures prices are used as indexes for rice trading to improve transparency in pricing for the crop.

As its reason for rejecting the request for a permanent listing, the ministry cited an insufficient number of farmers and distributors participating in rice futures trading.

The lack of participants can be attributed to the fact that the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) Group, which controls 40% of rice distribution, remains cautious about futures trading. Farmers reportedly have persistent concerns that rice could become a target for speculative trading. The physical trading of rice from futures exchange trading has accounted for less than 1% of the overall market.

Of course, the price of rice, the nation’s staple food, should not fluctuate excessively due to speculative trading. However, the current pricing is said to not reflect the actual market situation because it is mainly determined by how much rice the JA Group sells to wholesalers, over whom the group holds a dominant position.

While the demand for rice has been decreasing year by year, interdealer prices were on an upward trend for the crop harvested up through 2019. This trend could have encouraged consumers to shift away from rice even further.

The JA Group seems wary that it could lose its dominance over rice pricing if more volume is traded at the futures exchange. Moreover, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party reportedly called for the ministry to take a cautious stance in deciding whether it would approve the request for a permanent listing.

When it comes to rice policy, the government has been carrying out reforms to increase the degree of freedom in production and distribution, and from the 2018 harvest on, it stopped a measure that had sought to maintain prices by reducing rice production acreage. Delisting rice futures seems to run counter to this reform trend.

The ministry said that instead of rice futures, it aims to create a spot trading system that will closely reflect the actual situation for supply and demand. The ministry must establish a system that will encourage farmers to exercise their ingenuity and produce appealing rice.
(The Japan News)

.

싱가포르

구더기를 이용한 음식물쓰레기 처리
♡♡
This Singapore startup is using insects to turn trash into treasure

Singapore-based farmer Chua Kai-Ning spends a lot of her day making sure that her animals are well fed and growing fast.

But she's no ordinary farmer, and these aren't ordinary animals.

Chua and her partner, Phua Jun Wei, founded startup Insectta in 2017. They are battling Singapore's food waste crisis with the help of an unlikely ally: the black soldier fly larva. 

"The concept behind Insectta is that nothing goes to waste," said Chua. "Waste can be reimagined as a resource if we change how we think about our production methods, and how we deal with waste."

In 2020, Singapore generated 665,000 metric tons of food waste -- only 19% of which was recycled.

Chua said the company feeds the black soldier fly maggots up to eight tons of food waste per month, including byproducts received from soybean factories and breweries, such as okara and spent grain.

Insectta can then flash dry the maggots into animal feed, and turn the insects' excrement into agricultural fertilizer.

While there are plenty of companies using insects to manage waste, including Goterra, Better Origin and AgriProtein, Insectta is extracting more than agricultural products from black soldier flies. With funding from Trendlines Agrifood Fund and government grants, Insectta is procuring high-value biomaterials from the byproducts of these larvae.

"During R&D, we realized that a lot of precious biomaterials that already have market value can be extracted from these flies," Chua told CNN Business. The startup hopes its biomaterials can revolutionize the growing insect-based product industry and change the way we look at waste.

The larvae can eat up to four times their body weight in food waste a day

Bugs to biomaterials

As the maggots grow into adults, they form a cocoon, emerging about 10 to 14 days later as a fully-grown fly. Insectta has developed proprietary technology to obtain biomaterials from the exoskeleton they leave behind.

One of these biomaterials is chitosan, an antimicrobial substance with antioxidant properties sometimes used in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Insectta aims to eventually produce 500 kilograms of chitosan a day and is now collaborating with Singapore-based Spa Esprit Group for the use of its chitosan in its moisturizers.

Insectta is also collaborating with face mask brand Vi-Mask, which hopes to use black soldier fly chitosan to make an antimicrobial layer within its products.

Currently, Vi-Mask uses chitosan from crab shells in the lining of its face masks. The company says that the switch to insect-based chitosan is an environmentally friendly move, as Insectta's chitosan is more sustainably sourced.

A more sustainable source

At present, crab shells are one of the primary sources for chitosan, according to Thomas Hahn, a researcher with the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Germany.

Hahn has studied insect-based chitosan production with chemical engineer and biologist Susanne Zibek. According to Zibek, chitosan could replace synthetic thickeners and preservatives in cosmetics.

The first products made with Insectta's chitosan are currently in development. Chua says the startup is now looking for further collaborations within the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

Chitosan extraction from shellfish involves chemical processes and large amounts of water. Chua said that Insectta's extraction techniques involve fewer chemicals, like sodium hydroxide, than traditional extraction processes, making it a more sustainable alternative.

Zibek said the insect biomaterial market will grow as companies look to lower their environmental impact.

"There's a change in consumer awareness, and people want sustainable products," she added. "We can support that by substituting synthetic products with chitosan."

Overcoming the 'gross factor'

To widen the market for its black soldier fly materials, Insectta needs to challenge the stigma against insects.

"When people think of maggots, the first thing they think is that they're gross and harmful to people," Chua said. "By putting the benefits first, we can transform people's 'gross factor.'"

Chua says black soldier flies do not bite and they grow very quickly, making the insects ideal for urban farming.

There is ongoing scientific debate about the consciousness of insects. But Phua said rearing black soldier flies is more humane and sustainable than rearing livestock, as insects need less water, energy and space to grow.

Rather than running its own farms, however, Insectta plans to sell eggs to local black soldier fly farms, and collect exoskeletons produced by these farms to then extract the biomaterials.

"We not only want insects to feed the world," Phua added, "we want insects to power the world."

(CNN)