Month: March 2021

Benin is Africa’s largest cotton producer with 714,714 tons of cotton production last year. The China-Benin agricultural pilot center at Seme-Kpodji, about 20 km southeast of Cotonou, has initiated a one-month training session for 225 agricultural operators in Benin on Chinese expertise in farm machinery operation which aims to improve cotton productivity in the country. The objectives is to achieve a productivity of one million tons of cotton by 2023. Xinhua news release, March 24, 2021 

The reactor will serve Karachi Unit 2 and connect to the power grid. It will generate nearly 10 billion kWh every year, and supply electricity to 1 million people. Japan JST China news, March 24, 2021

China approved a recombinant protein subunit vaccine against COVID-19 for emergency use. The vaccine was developed by the CAS Institute of Microbiology and Anhui Zhifei Longcom and is manufactured using CHO cells. It is the fourth vaccine approved in China for emergency use against COVID-19. It is currently in phase III clinical trials in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Ecuador and Indonesia, with plans to inoculate a total of 29,000 volunteers. China Daily, March 16, 2021

DENG Dehui from CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and WANG Ye from Xiamen University have achieved hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol at low temperature and with high efficiency. In situ characterizations combined with theoretical calculations demonstrated that in-plane sulfur vacancies on MoS2 were the active centers for catalyzing a highly selective hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol and helped to suppress undesired reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) and excessive hydrogenation of methanol to CH4. At 180 ℃, methanol selectivity reached 94.3% at a CO2 conversion of 12.5%. Activity and selectivity were steadily maintained for over 3000 hours. Jingting HU et al., Nature Catalysis volume 4, pages242–250 (2021)

According to the 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Long-term Goal Outline Draft, China will formulate and implement a 10-year basic research action plan, focusing on developing Basic Research Centers and basic research expenses. The ratio will increase to 8% or more. China Science and Technology News, March 8, 2021

The off-the-grid solar power plant in Gambella, Ethiopia, financed by the World Bank ‘s African Development Plan and undertaken by a consortium of the State Grid Corporation of China China Electric Power Technology Equipment Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Nanrui Insurance Process Technology Co., Ltd. was inaugurated. The installed capacity of solar power generation of the project is 175kW, and the annual design annual power generation is 800,000kWh. It can provide stable clean electric energy to more than 400 local households. Japan JST China news, March 16, 2021

40 g of rice seed paddy was mounted on Chang’e 5 and landed on the moon in November 2020. Approximately 23 days later, after a “moon orbit trip” of 760,000 kilometers, it was returned to the National Plant Space Breeding Project Technology Research Center of South China Agricultural University and cultivated. This rice will be harvested at the end of June, and then the next generation will be sown. Japan JST China news, March 15, 2021

China in 2020 showed the largest increase (9.9%) in patents filed at the EPO in 2020 and is number 2 in non-European applicants, after the USA. The ranking was USA > Japan > Germany > China > France > Korea > Switzerland. https://www.epo.org/about-us/annual-reports-statistics/statistics/2020/statistics/patent-applications.html#tab2

Wuhan Asia-Europe Logistics Co. has launched a new extended route for freight service, from Wuhan, Hubei Province, via China’s Alataw Pass and Germany’s Duisburg, arriving in Milan within 21 or 22 days  The first X8015 train was loaded with electronic products, auto parts and epidemic-prevention supplies. This is the 30th China-Europe freight train that has departed from Wuhan this year. In 2020, Wuhan witnessed a total of 215 China-Europe freight-train trips. The China-Europe freight-train service has remained a reliable transportation channel amid the COVID-19 outbreak across the two continents. Xinhua news release, March 20, 2021

According to the China Hydrogen Alliance http://h2cn.org.cn/en/index, by the end of 2020 China had 7352 fuel cell vehicles and 101 hydrogen fuel stations in operation, ranking second in the world after Japan. By 2050, China’s hydrogen demand is estimated at about 60 million tons. Sinopec, one of the largest petroleum companies in China and owner of some 30,000 petrol stations, has announced to accelerate its new energy business with hydrogen energy at the core, and transform into the world’s leading clean energy company. To this end, 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations and 5,000 charging and swapping stations will be operational as early as 2025. People’s Daily, March 10, 2021