Sept. 13 – 16, 2025: 2nd International Conference on Green Carbon in Qingdao and online

Registration is open: https://conf.sciencemate.com/ICGC2025

ICGC aims to provide an interdisciplinary academic exchange platform and academic community for scientific and technological innovation in the area of CO₂ emission reduction and sustainable development. The conference will focus on carbon resources, carbon conversion technologies, carbon life cycle management, and breakthrough developments in green carbon science.

Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, CAS/Shandong Energy Institute (QIBEBT/SEI) is a research institute that is active in science and technology developments of bioenergy, fossil energy, hydrogen energy, energy storage devices, and energy informatics, see http://english.qibebt.cas.cn

more insights

A hydrogen-powered tugboat in Qingdao port

https://j.people.com.cn/n3/2025/0627/c95952-20333735.html

The tugboat was designed and built by Shandong Port Qingdao Port Group Co., Ltd. and is equipped with a hybrid system of “hydrogen fuel cells + liquid-cooled lithium batteries” to achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions. It can sail for more than 12 hours at a speed of 9 knots and has a towing force of 82 tons. With technologies such as fully automatic smart on-shore charging, it has become the country’s largest port tugboat in terms of horsepower and lithium battery capacity.

Qingdao operates an advanced 3D city map for smart urban management

https://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0530/c98649-20322033.html

A platform on real-scene 3D modeling of the city of Qingdao was launched in March 2021 under the leadership of the Qingdao Institute of Survey and Mapping

Qingdao’s varied topography – marked by hilly terrain and dramatic elevation changes – necessitated the use of oblique aerial imaging to capture raw imagery and build an accurate 3D model. The project team deployed manned fixed-wing aircraft equipped with 150-megapixel, five-lens oblique aerial cameras. The aerial survey covered the entire urban area, achieving a ground resolution of 15 centimeters and maintaining more than 70 percent image overlap to maximize accuracy.

In March 2022, following expert review, the project was officially launched for citywide application. Today, the platform covers Qingdao’s entire land area – 11,000 square kilometers – as well as 800 kilometers of coastline, 49 bays, and seven inhabited islands.

The 3D simulation platform has been shared with over 60 municipal departments. It supports more than 100 key functions, including disaster prevention and mitigation, urban planning, social governance, and urban renewal. The platform also underpins over 70 digital government service applications and records nearly 100 million uses annually. As an example, at the bureau’s headquarters, staff members examined two versions of a digital model for a former mining site in Qingdao’s West Coast New Area. The comparison revealed tangible signs of ecological restoration – more vegetation and a gentler slope. Qingdao is home to 898 legacy mine sites. In the past, inspecting these sites required a full month of on-the-ground efforts. Now, with the help of the 3D model, the same work takes just five days.

Since 2023, the city has carried out annual temporal updates to the city-scale 3D simulation platform, enabling it to track urban changes with precision and support data-driven lysis and evidence-based planning.

Sustainable energy harvesting from acidic wastewater through a COF-stabilized aramid nanofiber composite membrane

http://english.qibebt.cas.cn/ne/rp/202504/t20250407_909473.html

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c18730

A research team from the CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) has introduced a novel membrane design that mimics biological protein channels to enhance proton transport for efficient energy harvesting. Inspired by the ClC-ec1 antiporter found in Escherichia coli, which facilitates the movement of chloride (Cl⁻) and protons, the researchers developed a hybrid membrane composed of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) integrated with aramid nanofibers (ANFs). This ANF/COF composite forms a robust hydrogen-bonding network and features amide groups that selectively bind to Cl⁻ ions, significantly lowering the energy barrier for proton conduction.

In acidic environments, adding just 0.1% Cl⁻ ions (relative to protons) increased the membrane’s proton permeation rate threefold, reaching 9.8 mol m⁻² h⁻¹ for the efficient migration of H⁺ ions. Under simulated acidic wastewater conditions, the ANF/COF membrane achieved an output power density of 434.8 W m⁻²—one of the highest reported to date for osmotic energy generation. It also showed structural stability over 9,000 minutes (~150 hours) of operation in highly acidic media.

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