On October 29-30, C-CBC Director Xiaotao Bi, the Manager Siduo Zhang, Chinese members Prof. Guangqing Liu and and Prof. Huili Zhang were invited to attend the 7th China-Canada Joint Committee Meetings on Science and Technology Cooperation. The meetings were held in Beijing. On the 29th, C-CBC representatives participated in the Session Meetings on Clean Technology and Researcher Mobility. The 30th was the all-members summary meeting co-chaired by the Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology also Director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, Mr. Jianguo Zhang, and the Vice Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Mr. David McGovern.
On October 30th, a delegation from the Asia Pacific Foundation (APF) led by its President and CEO Stewart Beck met with C-CBC Directors Xiaotao Bi and Tianwei Tan at Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT). They discussed bioenergy's role and contribution to the overall energy portfolio in the two countries, and prepared for the next Track II Energy Dialogue meeting between Canada and China.
The 6th International Symposium on Gasification and Its Application (ISGA-6) was held in the City of Chengdu, China on Oct 25th to 28th. C-CBC member Prof. Guanyi Chen is the Chair of the Symposium and Professors Guangwen Xu and Xiaotao Bi are the Co-Chairs. Dr. Wenli Duo also attended the Symposium.
On October 19th, at the invitation of C-CBC member Dr. Hui Li, 4 Canadian members visited Hunan Academy of Forestry (HAF) in Changsha, China. The 4 members are Prof. Jim Lim, C-CBC Manager Siduo Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Ziliang Wang, and PhD student Long Cheng. HAF is one of C-CBC's founding member institutes and so far the only academic member organization in Hunan Province. Up to now, HAF has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of British Columbia, co-published 7 SCI papers, and facilitated 18 scholar exchanges and visits.
The 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE 2018) was held in Wuhan successfully from October 16 to 19, 2018 to further explore the future development of the biomass energy industry and promote the exchange and innovation of biomass energy academia. The conference was jointly organized by the China Renewable Energy Society - Biomass Energy Committee, The China Biomass Innovation Alliance, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. C-CBC is one of the co-organizers. Over 20 C-CBC members served on the conference committee or attended the conference. The co-chairs of the conference are also our members.
On Oct 14th, the Shenzhen Talent Training Institute held a symposium on energy and environment. C-CBC Director Xiaotao Bi was invited to exchange ideas with distinguished talents in Shenzhen and to discuss global environmental protection and new energy technology development trends.
C-CBC member Dr. Shahab Sokhansanj received the inaugural Arun S Mujumdar Medal in Drying Science at the 21st International Drying Symposium (IDS 2018) held from September 11 to 14, 2018 in Valencia Spain.
C-CBC researchers and students won two Best Poster awards at the Research Day of UBC BioProducts Institute (BPI) on September 12th. PhD student Ruixu Wang and Post-Doc Ziliang Wang won the first price for presenting “Performance of a prototype pulsed fluidized bed reactor for biomass residues torrefaction”. Post-Doc Eric Dening Jia won the second price on “Heat and mass transfer in pulsation-assisted fluidized beds”.
Prof. Xiaotao Bi has co-authored a recent publication in the journal of Science on global carbon intensity of crude oil production. It is a study led by Stanford University with collaborators from several other universities. The full article can be accessed from: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6405/851
On August 16th and 17th, C-CBC member Prof. Changzhu Li, Director of Hunan Academy of Forestry (HAF), and Prof. Lijuan Jiang from Central South University Forestry and Technology visited UBC and FPInnovations. C-CBC Director Xiaotao Bi and Manager Siduo Zhang, and C-CBC member Dr. Wenli Duo, received the visit. Prof. Hui Li, Deputy Director of the Institute of Biological and Environmental Engineering at HAF who is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UBC, accompanied the visit.
A meeting was conducted at UBC to review the collaboration work between HAF and UBC through C-CBC’s platform which includes joint funding application, student and scholar exchanges, affiliated industry program, etc. The attendees planned for the next steps to further the collaboration. HAF is strong in the field of turning woody energy plants into bioenergy and bioresources. The two organizations will develop joint research and development projects, train students and scholars, and commercialize promising new technologies by involving industry members.
On June 28th, a delegation from Xiamen University of Technology (XMUT), led by Zhicheng Lin, Vice Secretary of CPC Committee, visited C-CBC. The delegation had a meeting with Dr. Xiaotao Bi along with Haochen Li, Manager of UBC China Council, and Jonathan Hayes, International Relations Officer of UBC Office of the Vice-Provost International. The delegation introduced XMUT's latest development learned about the UBC engineering areas and C-CBC, and inquired about UBC's international collaboration programs on student and scholar development. XMUT will stay in touch with UBC for further conversations on potential collaborations.
On June 11th, Mr. Chen Wang, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress led a delegation to visit UBC and C-CBC. C-CBC Director Xiaotao Bi received the delegation along with the President of UBC Prof. Santa Ono, UBC Vice-Provost International Prof. Murali Chandrashekaran, Chinese Ambassador Mr. Shaye Lu, Chinese Consul General at Vancouver Ms. Xiaoling Tong, other staff members from the Chinese Embassy and Chinese Consulate General, and a group of C-CBC members. The delegation toured our Centre and the UBC Clean Energy Research Centre. The delegation was impressed by our achievement. Mr. Wang encouraged our members to strive for higher goals and enhance the collaboration between the two countries on clean technologies including bioenergy. Together we are confident to will make C-CBC as a leading international collaboration platform on bioenergy.
