The international collaborative research project “The Next Generation of Activated Carbon Adsorbents for CO2 Capture in IGCC Processes” jointly funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) UK was officially lunched at the Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICC-CAS) on 11th January, 2011.

The project marks the beginning of the third collaboration between ICC-CAS and University of Nottingham and its UK partners, following the earlier collaborations under Innovation China-UK (ICUK) and EPSRC China collaborative programmes.

Dr Chenggong Sun, a former employee of ICC-CAS, and his colleague at University of Nottingham, Dr Hao Liu, have played major roles in initiating and promoting these collaborative activities between ICC-CAS and the leading UK Universities.

This latest UK-China collaborative project is led by ICC-CAS and University of Nottingham, with partners including University College London (UCL), University of Birmingham, University of Warwick and Tsinghua University. The project proposal was ranked No. 1 by the joint panel of China NSFC and UK EPSRC, highlighting the strong partnership of the project consortium and the great interest of both countries in this strategically important research area.

Organised by ICC-CAS, the launch event was attended by representatives from partner institutions/universities and local government officials, including Prof. Colin Snape, Dr Hao Liu and Dr. Chenggong Sun of University of Nottingham, Prof. Z Xiao Guo of UCL, Prof. Jihong Wang of University of Warwick, Dr Joe Wood of University of Birmingham, Prof. Junfu Lv of Tsinhua University, and Mr. Yuangong Zhang, the Director for International Collaboration of Shanxi Province’s Science and Technology Department. Representatives from leading national and international companies also attended the launch event, including Mr. Chunwu Song, Deputy General Manager of Shanxi Xinhua Chemical Co. Ltd and Dr Jun Wang, Project manager of Emerson.

Prof. Colin Snape and Prof. Kaixi, Li, the respective UK and Chinese project leader, started the morning session of the launch event by outlining the major activities and milestone targets that individual project partners need to timely achieve during the course of the project. The morning session was concluded after partners had agreed on the detailed research plans and how to best facilitate the execution of these plans to maximise the output of the collaborative project.

The afternoon session was highlighted by the official launch ceremony chaired by the Deputy General Secretary of ICC-CAS, Mr. Jingping Li. Speaking at the ceremony, Prof. Jianguo Wang, the Director of ICC-CAS, first expressed his warm welcome to all delegates from both the UK and China, and then briefly introduced the major R & D activities at ICC-CAS and emphasized the global importance of mitigating carbon emissions from fossil energy utilization. He concluded that a successful execution of the latest collaborative project between ICC-CAS and its national/international partners is of both strategic and practical significance, which will serve as an important part of joint international efforts to tackle the problems associated with the soaring energy demand and global climate change.  

Prof. Colin Snape, the Director of Energy Technologies Research Institute at Nottingham first thanked ICC-CAS for organizing the launch event and the efforts received from both ICC-CAS and other partners during the proposal stage. He pointed out that the effective reduction of carbon emissions needs coordinated global efforts and, as a part of these efforts, the collaborative project will help the successful development and deployment of the cost-effective carbon capture technologies in IGCC processes.

Mr. Yugong Zhang, Director for International Collaboration of Shanxi Province’s Science and Technology Department, and other delegates also made short speeches to congratulate the successful launch of the project.

The launch event was finally concluded by a series of informative research presentations in the broad field of low-carbon energy technologies, made by both the UK and Chinese researchers, and attended by dozens of ICC-CAS researchers and students.