Sustainable Manufacturing in China

On Monday I am going to attend this workshop. You can have a look at the  programme: 2010_08_13_CAS-UoN Workshop Programme.

Some of the presentions promise to be very interesting. However, for my personal taste, the event looks a bit too Chemistry-led. Then again, I am sure I will learn some exciting new facts.

When venturing out today I did not expect to find a new ‘alternative’ source of energy.  The more I was surprised making my discovery during shopping which you can see below:

by Dr Richard Farr

At some point in the recent past, you have probably found yourself squeezing the last little bit out of a toothpaste tube, or standing a shampoo bottle upside-down in an effort to get at the dregs. Another good trick is to hold an exhausted can of shaving foam under the hot tap; the resulting expansion of the gases inside makes it work one last time, and gets us on our way to work looking adequately groomed.

We may be experts on logistics and planning, but we all run out of toiletries from time to time. At times like these, it’s interesting to see just how small a quantity of toothpaste we really need to brush our teeth, and the same is true of shampoo and so on. When these things are in short supply, we managed to get by with relatively little.

When the tube Read the rest of this entry »

Friday I attended the First International Symposium & Workshop on Low Carbon Technologies held at the Conference Centre at UNNC. I think the conference sign together with its background sums it all up.

Here are more pics that I took to give you an impression of the event:

Today we visited Ningbo Kingbell Powder Metallurgy Co., Ltd. The factory tour was arranged for our Mechanical Engineering Students as part of the Materials and Materials Forming Module that I lecture. The students could see how what they had learned in last week’s lecture about powder processing and sintering looks in practice.

During the trip I was very happy to see the sheer enthusiasm Read the rest of this entry »

I had joined the Earth Hour movement by announcing  it on this blog (in one of the widget text boxes on the right side) and in the past I had indeed switched off all lights for Earth Hour. Now, Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I spent a night in Shanghai. In fact, I am writing this post on the coach on my way back to Ningbo. We are all aware of what is called ‘the triple bottom line’: Sustainability is not just about being green and environmentally friendly, it should consider social and economic factors as well. Now, in Shanghai, I saw the sign below. It was arranged in front of the entrance stairs to a major Chinese bank. Although the social aspects of sustainability are subjective, sometimes controversial, and certainly hard to measure and normalise, I think offering good access for disabled people is definitely one of the social aspects companies should (have to) consider.

Anyway, the sign might make you smile (at first…):

In all fairness, Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I attended a really interesting talk about Gas Turbine Aero-engines. Dr Paul Withey, Rolls-Royce Group plc, outlined the environmental challenges that Rolls Royce is facing in the development of aero-engines. They have to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions while also reducing the levels of noise caused by the engine. Fuel efficiency seems to be the main market driver as it is outweighing the original engine cost (from a customer point of view). Read the rest of this entry »

Have a look  at the Endurance car summary sheet designed for the Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2010 held in Kuala Lumpur and the World Expo taking place in Shanghai this year.

Having completed the design the students are now looking at building the car. For that purpose the team is still looking for sponsors.

The Engineering Division at UNNC is currently providing a number of PhD research topics related to green manufacturing in China. Here, I would like to introduce the following topical area (if you are interested or would like to have more information, please do not hesitate to contact me directly by phone or email – see contact page):

Resource and energy efficient polymer processing in the Chinese context

Supervisors: Dr Carsten Tietje, Dr Kuan Yoong Chan (Supervision between the campuses to be settled for each individual student)

The energy consumption and efficiencies of various production systems and processes in place in China Read the rest of this entry »