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Future of Petrochemical Industry: The Age of Bio-Refineries
The concept of bio-refinery is based on using biomass from seaweeds and non-edible plant sources to produce various materials.
Bio-refineries has been looked into with increasing interest in modern times due to the advent of global warming (and the subsequent changes in the atmosphere) and the exhaustion of natural resources.
However past 20 years of research in metabolic engineering had a crucial limitation; the need to improve the efficiency of the microorganisms that actually go about converting biomass into biochemical materials.
In order to compensate for the inefficiency, Professor Lee Sang Yeop combined systems biology, composite biology, evolutionary engineering to form ‘systems metabolic engineering’.
This allows combining various data to explain the organism’s state in a multi-dimensional scope and respond accordingly by controlling the metabolism.
The result of the experiment is set as the cover dissertation of ‘Trends in Biotechnology’ magazine’s August edition.
2011.07.28 View 12203 -
Scientists develop highly efficient industrial catalyst
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/07/14/48/0501000000AEN20110714009600320F.HTML
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean scientists said Friday that they have developed a highly efficient nanoporous industrial catalyst that can have a considerable impact on chemical and oil-refining sectors.
The team of scientists led by Ryoo Ryong, a chemistry professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the solid zeolite compound developed in the laboratory has a reaction speed five to 10 times faster than that of conventional materials.
Zeolite, which is made from silica and aluminium, is frequently used as an absorbent, water purifier and in nuclear reprocessing, although it is mainly employed in the chemical industry.
The annual size of the zeolite market is estimated at US$2.5 billion with output using the material topping $30 billion. At present, 41 percent of all catalysts used in the chemical sector are nano-scale zeolite materials.
The KAIST team said that because the new zeolite is made up of different sized pores, the material can be used as a catalyst when existing materials are unable to act as a changing agent.
"Existing zeolites only have pores under 1 nanometer in diameter, but the new material has holes that range from 1 nanometer to 3.5 nanometers, which are all arranged in a regular honeycomb arrangement," Ryoo said. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.
He said the ability to have both micro- and meso-sized pores is key to the faster reaction speed that is an integral part of raising efficiency. The South Korean researchers used a so-called surfactant process to make the different sizes of pores.
The development is a breakthrough because researchers and companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. have been trying to build zeolite with different sizes of pores for the past two decades without making serious headway. There are more than 200 different types of zeolites in the world.
Ryoo, who received funding from the government, has requested intellectual property rights for the discovery, which has been published in the latest issue of Science magazine. He also developed another zeolite in the past that can transform methanol to gasoline up to 10 times more efficiently than existing catalysts.
Exxon Mobil has expressed interest in the two zeolites made by Ryoo"s team. Undisclosed South Korean petrochemical companies have also made inquiries that may lead to commercial development in the future.
"There are some technical issues to resolve, mainly related with mass production and stability," the scientist said.
He said full-fledge production will be determined by how much companies are willing to spend on research to speed up development that can bring down overall production costs.
The KAIST team said it took two years to make the new zeolite, which can be custom made to meet specific needs.
(END)
2011.07.15 View 12872
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KAIST Tops Patent List Among Domestic Universities, Chosun Ilbo, July 5, 2011
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KAIST took the first place among the universities in Korea registering patents from 2006 to 2010. For the article from Chosun Ilbo, please go to the below link:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/07/05/2011070500743.html
2011.07.05 View 10645
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University Alums go out directly in search of Creative Future Talents
KAIST decided to involve 140 alums in the interview process for the class enrolled in 2012.
The alums participating in the interview process will be focusing on the finding of creative science and technology talent and the characteristics of becoming a leader in the math and science fields. Those alums participating in the interview process are from all walks of life including representatives of industries, universities professors, researchers, and public servants.
The reason for the inclusion of the alums in the admissions process is to stress the togetherness of KAIST family and take another step to becoming a world class university.
2011.06.24 View 8991
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Yonhap News, Scientists Develop Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Supercapacitor, June 6, 2011
Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s wire news agency, reported that KAIST’s research team developed “a new type of power storage technology using nitrogen and graphene.”
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=591725
2011.06.08 View 9852
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President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal
President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal on the 6th of May in the DTU Annual Commemoration Day Ceremony.
The DTU has recognized the achievements, innovative ideas, and great effort made by President Seo in heightening the world level of engineering education and his success in improving the status of science and technology of Korea.
The Technical University of Denmark was established in 1829 and is known as the best engineering university in Scandinavia and awards a gold medal annually to a person that is recognized for their accomplishment in the field of science and technology.
2011.05.31 View 8726
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Korea Times on Mobile Harbor, May 29, 2011
The Korea Times mentioned KAIST’s Mobile Harbor in its recent article entitled “Korea-UAE partnership making big strides” dated May 29, 2011. While talking about the ongoing partnership efforts being made between Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in many areas of industry, economy, and education, the paper picked the mobile harbor as an example of Korea’s green growth technology being developed by KAIST. For the article, please copy and paste the link.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=87873
2011.05.30 View 11185
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'WWW2014' to be held in Seoul
WWW2014 (World Wide Web 2014) will be held in Seoul.
KAIST, Agency for Technology and Standards, W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) all worked in cooperation to have WWW2014 in Seoul. The announcement that WWW2014 will be held in Seoul was announced in the Closing Ceremony of WWW2011 India Conference. Seoul overtook Adelaide and Melbourne of Australia.
Hosting WWW2014 in Seoul will be a great opportunity to showcase Korea’s Web Technology and get a grasp on the current trend in the field of high tech web technology and services.
The WWW conferences are attended by over 1,000 experts all over the world and are the world’s largest international conference in the field of IT.
Efforts to host the conference in their own respective countries are made on a national scale. The WWW2011 was hosted in India with the President of India giving an opening ceremony speech and WWW2013 will be hosted in Brazil in part due to the President himself sending a letter to express their desire to host WWW conference.
2011.05.11 View 11271
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Lee Kang Gook Chief of Constitutional Court gives Lecture at KAIST
Chief of Constitutional Court Lee Kang Gook (66) gave a lecture on the 29th of April in Turman Hall on the topic of “Constitutional Trial: the Present and the Future”.
Chief Lee graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Law and was sworn into Chief of Constitutional Court on January of 2007.
He gave a lecture to those students enrolled in Leadership Program which is a program that aims at broadening the perspective and thought of KAIST students.
2011.05.11 View 7871
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World?'s First Automated Maritime-Docking between Naval Vessels
KAIST demonstrated the technology that allows automated maritime docking between naval vessels on the 26th of April at Busan, Korea.
The docking technology is seen as one of the key components for the mobile harbor as it prevents collision between two naval vessels upon docking. It was recognized as an important technology worldwide, but its technological limitations made it hard to commercialize.
The demonstrated included approaching a barge next to a cargo vessel, performing automated docking, and maintaining the docking and solutions in the advent of an emergency.
The mobile harbor is, in essence, is a ‘moving port’ and the automated docking technology is imperative to commercialize the mobile harbor. In order for a large container ship to unload cargo, the mobile harbor needs to approach the container ship and dock onto the side of the ship.
The technology required to keep the two moving vessels docked, out at sea, in an efficient and safe manner, is daunting. The conventional method involved sailors tying the two vessels together with rope which made it time consuming and hard to react quickly in emergency situations.
The KAIST mobile harbor research team developed the docking technology with ‘Mirae Industrial Machine’ Maritime Corporation, and ‘Ocean Space’. The mobile harbor will allow two vessels to perform loading and unloading of cargo regardless of wind and current, using robotic arms, vacuum attachment pads, wench, and are a complex, integrated system.
KAIST is planning on having a demonstration that encompasses all the technology required for mobile harbor: from the docking technology to the stabilizing crane technology.
Advancements made by KAIST are expected to speed up the commercialization and the real life application of mobile harbor.
2011.05.11 View 10486
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From Pencil Lead to Batteries: the Unlimited Transformation of Carbon
Those materials, like lead or diamond, made completely up of Carbon are being used in numerous ways as materials or parts. Especially with the discovery of carbon nanotubes, graphemes, and other carbon based materials in nanoscale, the carbon based materials are receiving a lot of interest in both fields of research and industry.
The carbon nanotubes and graphemes are considered as the ‘dream material’ and have a structure of a cross section of a bee hive. Such structure allows the material to have strength higher than that of a diamond and still be able to bend, be transparent and also conduct electricity. However the problem up till now was that these carbon structures appeared in layers and in bunches and were therefore hard to separate to individual layers or tubes.
Professor Kim Sang Wook’s research team developed the technology that can assemble the grapheme and carbon nanotubes in a three dimensional manner.
The team was able to assemble the grapheme ad carbon nanotubes in an entirely new three dimensional structure. In addition, the team was able to efficiently extract single layered grapheme from cheap pencil lead.
Professor Kim is scheduled to give a guest lecture in the “Materials Research Society” in San Francisco and the paper was published in ‘Advanced Functional Materials’ magazine as an ‘Invited Feature Article’.
2011.05.11 View 11928
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Genetic Cause of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) Found
The cooperative research team consisting research teams under Professor Kim Eun Joon and Professor Kang Chang Won of the department of Biological Sciences discovered that ADHD arises from the deficiency of GIT1 protein in the brain’s neural synapses.
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is found in around 5% of children around the world and is a disorder where the child becomes unable to concentrate, show over the top responses, and display impulsive behavior.
The research team found that the difference between children with ADHD and those without it is one base in the GIT1 gene. The difference of a single base causes the underproduction of this protein, and those children with low levels of the protein had a higher probability to develop ADHD.
In addition, further evidence was provided when the research team conducted mice experiments. Those mice with low levels of GIT1 exhibited impulsive and exaggerated reactions like humans with ADHD, had learning disabilities, and produced abnormal brain waves. And upon injecting these mice with cure for ADHD, the symptoms of ADHD disappeared.
The impulsive behavior of ADHD children disappears as the child enters adulthood and a similar pattern was found in mice. A mice with low levels of GIT1 showed impulsive behaviors when 2 months old, but these behaviors disappeared as it got older to around 7 months old (equivalent to 20~30 years old for humans).
Professor Kim Eun Joon commented that there has to be equilibrium between mechanisms that excite the neurons and mechanisms that calm the neurons, but the lack of GIT1 leads to the decrease in the mechanisms that calm the neurons which causes the impulsive behavior of ADHD patients.
In addition, Professor Kang Chang Won commented that the results of the experiment has been receiving rave reviews and is being seen as the new method in the production of the cure for ADHD.
The result of the experiment was published in the online edition of Nature Medicine magazine.
2011.04.30 View 11566