Team:UESTC-China/Human Practices
Overview
In order to gradually improve our project, we have made a lot of efforts in human practices.
According to the requirements of the project, we divide our work into four parts: practical problems, science and technology, market industry and policy and law. Based on our understanding of the practical problems, we organize a stepped research work,
from point to surface and shallow to deep, covering multiple stakeholders from users to industry personnel. And we gradually establish a relatively perfect project research and development model according to their answers and suggestions.
At the science and technology level, we conduct in-depth exchanges with experts and scholars, and obtain various suggestions and opinions, which further promote and improve our project. Our project is based on people's real life, so
we write a business plan, hoping to have a preliminary contact with the market. In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we apply for a patent as soon as the project take shape, which shows our efforts in policy and law.
In addition to the project itself, we are also looking at the public. In order to make our products accepted, we design a series of activities to convey our project concept, including a series of activities for recycling waste paper, stage plays, popular
science videos and so on. Besides, we talk to various stakeholders and really understand the requirements from their perspective.
We also know the importance of cooperation. Not only do we establish a close cooperative relationship with CPU-China, but also we conduct in-depth communication and cooperation with many other iGEM teams, which makes our project and human practice work
more complete.
If you're interested in what we do, you can understand our efforts in detail below!
Integrated Human Practices
In the integrated human practice designed by us, we try to discover the unique value of the project from different social fields, and extend the value we find into a close network structure through further exploration of activities.
We choose practical problems, science and technology, market and industry, policy and law as the main areas of our exploration, according to different stages of research and development, logically organized rich content of investigation, communication,
practice and other activities. These activities are closely related and progressive, such as from business plan writing to winning entrepreneurship competition, from demand research to interviewing important people. Through this integrated
human practice, we draw on professional advice from many different fields, and have a positive impact and recognition in different fields.
Let's see what we've done！
Waste paper recycling Activities
From November 2020 to January 2021, we joined the Chengdu Ecological Environment Alliance in Sichuan Province and became one of the first ten universities. In combination with our project, we designed the waste paper recycling bin activity. The main content
of the activity is that we put more than ten waste paper recycling bins in the school office and teaching and research section, and invited teachers and students from the office and teaching and research section to
join our waste paper recycling operation. After confidential treatment, put it into the waste paper recycling bin we set up, and our team members will regularly recycle waste paper. The recovered waste paper will be
used in the experimental verification part of our project. After the event, we will return the new one in proportion which is used to improve people's awareness of waste paper recycling, establish the concept of turning
waste into treasure, and lay the foundation for the subsequent use of deinking machines. In the end, we collected more than 20 kilograms of waste paper, with more than 50 participants. We promoted the concept of environmental
protection and used the form of waste paper recycling bins to help students develop a good habit of saving waste paper.
Material:
Figure1. Team members are propagating activities.
Figure2. Group photo of the event.
Chengdu Environment Expo
"China International Expo Chengdu Exhibition" is the western China sub-exhibition of the world's largest environmental protection exhibition—Munich IFAT. Shanghai International Exhibition Co., Ltd. is the organizer. This exhibition mainly displays products
from various fields such as air treatment, water treatment, and waste treatment. It is an important exhibition in the field of environmental protection in Chengdu.
In this exhibition, we communicated with many exhibitors. Some companies agreed to our project, and some companies discussed with us the technical points of wastewater treatment after deinking. In addition, we have also learned about many large-scale
and mature environmental protection programs. The experience of participating in the exhibition provided us with ideas for forming a comprehensive treatment plan for office waste paper.
Material:
Figure1. Communicate with exhibitors.
Figure2. Group photo of Chengdu Environment Expo.
China-U.S. Young Maker Competition
How to get broader and more authentic feedback from all phases of hardware development, so that we can better develop, has been the focus of our work. To this end, we participated in the China-U.S. Young Maker Competition.
The China-U.S. Young Maker Competition is an innovation competition that requires continuous creation and is famous for its 48-hour non-stop creation marathon. In this competition, we need to complete the construction of our entire work within 48 hours.
On the other hand, we need to stand out from more than 160 teams and achieve good results in the subsequent live competitions of 50 teams. This pair It is a challenge for us.
We met many difficulties in the whole process of preparation. First of all, the sliding track is difficult to ensure absolute parallel, which causes great trouble to the movement of the board, so we decided to improve the baffle design. Carrier paperboard
also has problems, it cannot make the paper and the deinking structure seamlessly fit, so we chose to use more flexible materials instead. The fixation of the deinked structure also revealed a defect -- insufficient
strength, so we redesigned and assembled it using on-site materials. The problems we encountered were eventually solved.
Throughout the creation and presentation process, we are constantly communicating with people who are interested in our hardware, which provides a great opportunity for us to gather ideas. We even found that the idea of recycling office waste paper in
situ seemed to have a special charm, and the number of people who came to visit us was probably the largest in the whole party, including many curious children.
During the intense competition, we presented our work and the whole project to the judges. While receiving a lot of encouragement and praise, some judges pointed out the problems of wrinkles, efficiency and product concept for us, which eventually became
the focus of our hardware iteration consideration. Finally, we won the provincial second prize in this competition.
Material:
Figure1. Pre-game communication.
Figure2. Field fabrication.
Figure3. Communicate with visitors①.
Figure4. Communicate with visitors②.
Figure5. Communicate with visitors③.
Figure6. Project contribution.
Video1. Field video.
Figure7. Award photo.
Click to view follow-up HP associated activities
Zhongguancun Talent Maker Competition
At an HP roundtable, we learned that talking to more innovative and entrepreneurial teams would help us move forward, so we put this idea into practice.
Zhongguancun Talent Maker Competition is a major competition to attract innovative and entrepreneurial talents in Haidian District of Beijing, attracting a large number of innovative and entrepreneurial teams from colleges and universities. We first took
part in the school-level tryouts. In this competition, a jury composed of government officials from Haidian District in Beijing and our university leaders proposed the following keys to the success of our project:
A. Consider the ratio of the paper being printed to the paper being written, and determine whether the removal of laser-printed ink meets the needs of the public
B. Pay attention to the cost of paper recycling to avoid the cost of deinking paper is higher than buying new paper in the market
C. We need to do more in-depth market research and a deeper understanding of our target population
We made it to the global semifinals two months later and went to Beijing to compete with start-up team from all over the world. The judges of the global semi-final were mainly celebrities from the business community. Unlike the judges of the university-level
trials who focused on our problems, the judges of this competition asked questions about our projects and gave us some marketable suggestions. Among them, the biggest inspiration for us is that in order to make more
people understand our products, we can introduce the existing products to make appropriate analogy. For example, our works are similar to washing machines for paper processing, which can help more people grasp the main
points of our works faster.
In the end, we won the second prize of the university and the 15th place of the global semi-final.
Material:
Figure1. School level competition group photo.
Figure2. Global semi-final live report.
Figure3. Global semi-final live report.
Click to view follow-up HP associated activities
Interview with waste recycling station
The judges of the Zhongguancun Talent Maker Competition gave us many suggestions, including that we should understand the current situation of the renewable resource recycling industry through field visits, so we interviewed the waste recycling station.
The owner of the waste recycling station told us that the price difference between the recycling prices of various types of waste paper is not large, so there is no reluctance to recycle a specific type of paper. However, in the actual recycling process,
the recycling volume of waste cardboard and packaging paper is the largest, because they are relatively large, not easy to be contaminated, and the number is relatively large. The recycling points are also relatively
concentrated. Almost every household in the community will continue to produce this type of waste paper. And papers such as office waste paper, because they are scattered and often attached to other materials such as
tape, nails, plastics, etc., they need to be sorted carefully before they can be sold to the factory at a higher price, so the actual recycling volume is much lower than the packaging cardboard. During our visit, we
found that the amount of office waste paper is very small, usually mixed with waste cardboard.
Through this visit, we found that the statistics we collected on the Internet are basically consistent with the actual situation-the recovery rate of office waste paper is much lower than other types of paper, and the reuse of these renewable resources
is not optimistic.
Material:
Figure1. Waste recycling station entrance.
Figure2. Recycled cardboard.
Figure3. Talk to the owner of the recycling station.
Figure4. The owner of the recycling station is introducing waste cardboard.
Communicate with SCUT
South China University of Technology has the top knowledge of paper making and deinking. We encounter a lot of difficulties in the process of reading literature and experiments, so we manage to get in touch with teachers in SCUT and ask them for help.
The first professor we contact with was professor Zhang Chunhui.
Zhang Chunhui, PhD, professor and doctoral supervisor of South China University of Technology. He has undertaken or participated in more than 10 projects of national key research and development projects, national Natural Science Foundation of China, guangzhou key special projects and enterprise horizontal projects. He has published more than 60 papers and 1 monograph in academic journals and conferences at home and abroad.
Professor Zhang’s first reply is as follows：
1. First of all, find out the composition of ink/toner. MOW is usually laser printing, mainly toner;
2. For MOW, the role of lipase and laccase is usually insignificant, and cellulase and hemifibrase (xylosinase and mannosinase) should be focused;
3. It is difficult to control the time, pH and temperature of the action if directly apply the enzyme solution to the paper.
4. Not clear about the structure and working principle of the deinking part.
We thought over Professor Zhang's reply, then determined that we need focus cellulase and hemifibrase more when deinking and use lipase and laccase to treat the wastewater after deinking.
A few days later, we sent another e-mail to Professor Zhang. In this e-mail, three questions were raised.
1. Why did the whiteness of paper go down after pulping the paper and adding cellulase?
2. How to quantify the ink residue on the paper？
3. How to eliminate the burrs on the paper after deinking?
Professor Zhang was very eager to answer our questions. He pointed out that the reduced whiteness of the paper may due to the degradation of the fluorescent brightening agent contained in the paper and the size of the residuary ink. In addition, he suggested
that we can use the professional ink tester to determine the amount of residuary ink and add a squeeze process to the hardware to solve the burr problem.
After the COVID-19 eased, Professor Zhang Chunhui invited us to visit his lab. Zhou Ying, the head of our experiment, visited the lab on behalf of our team. In Mr. Zhang's lab, we saw a lot of precision instruments. Mr. Zhang said that he was very willing
to provide guidance and help on the relevant technical route, and he could help us test the relevant materials if we needed.
Thanks to Professor Zhang's patient guidance, which was of great help to our project.
Material:
Figure1. Visit the key laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering.
Figure2. Group photo —first from left Miss Cheung Chun-fai.
Interview with The Chengdu Yilukang Company
Yilukang is a high-tech industrial company based on the pharmaceutical industry, driven by RESEARCH and development, to provide customers with new product system solutions, is committed to pharmaceutical process technology innovation and commercial application,
forming technological achievements and new products.
We got in touch with the Yilukang company through our teacher. The purpose of this visit is, first of all, to get some suggestions on our project from experts with mature biotechnology commercialization experience. Secondly, we hope to better manage the
development of our projects by visiting the product development in the production process of the biotechnology company.
The first person to receive us is Mr. Li, the manager of Yilukang Company. We had a discussion with him about our product, and he gave us some important suggestions for some of the issues we raised.
A. About the evaluation index whiteness of recycled paper, if there is no comparison and reference standard found on the market, we can collect ten kinds of paper produced by different manufacturers on the market to obtain the average whiteness of a commercially
available paper as our recycled paper measurement index.
B.Our biomaterial packaging can use capsules
C. To consider our design from the point of view of the product, we need to pay attention to the problem of user choice. Including cost-effective issues -- Is it possible to reduce office costs through our equipment, convenience issues -- whether additional
labor costs need to be configured, benefit issues -- the number of times the paper can be recycled.
D. For publicity purposes, we can brand our products as "black tech."
E. Compared with new paper, our current recycled paper has problems such as discoloration and brittleness, which need to be solved. The criterion for judging whether a problem has been solved should be that it can be done without affecting the user's
use.
F.The form of waste paper pulping is too troublesome and inefficient, so it is not recommended to try.
G. We can change the spray structure to a penetrating structure, which can make the deinking material contact with the paper more evenly.
H. It is acceptable to obtain recycled paper the next day, because the company’s paper is recycled in a specific location.
After in-depth exchanges with President Li, we visited the company's production and R&D workshop under the leadership of the company's production and R&D director, and learned a series of instruments and knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry. Our main
gains include:
A. It won't happen without a record!
B. Our laboratory should also have an obvious alarm clock to facilitate time management.
C. Some technical details such as packaging.
This valuable visit has played a guiding role in our project construction, R&D strategy, R&D management and other aspects. I would like to express my gratitude to Yilukang for its generous help.
Material:
Figure1. Communicate with the boss of the company.
Figure2. Visit the production and r&d workshop.
Figure3. The company's waste paper recycling corner.
Figure4. Group photo at the door of the company.
Interview with Dean Lou
Lou is the dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of UESTC, and also served as the judge of the Sichuan division of sino-US Maker Competition. We contacted Dean Lou, hoping to learn about our shortcomings in the competition and suggestions
for improvement of our project through him. Here's our interview:
UESTC_China: What do the judges think of Deinker's work of recycling office waste paper in situ based on bioenzymes?
Lou: The theme of China-U.S. Maker Competition is "Creating the Future together". Participants are encouraged to focus on sustainable development fields such as community, education, environmental protection, health, energy and transportation, and combine innovative ideas and cutting-edge technologies to create brand new works with social and industrial value. Deinker's work fits well with the theme of the China-U.S. Young Maker Competition. The recycling rate of waste paper in China is lower than that in western developed countries. In the past ten years, all countries in the world attach great importance to the utilization of waste paper resources. Waste paper recycling can greatly reduce pollution and protect the environment. Many waste paper processing technologies are also constantly improved and perfected, but Deinker differs from other technologies in that it can be recycled in situ. Waste paper in offices can be recycled and reused, which is very fast and convenient. Deinker's work uses the technology of biological enzyme, which is a kind of non-toxic and environment-friendly biocatalysts, in line with the theme of environmental protection and health of China-U.S. Young Maker Competition, and the team's innovative concept is well expressed.
Lou: The theme of China-U.S. Maker Competition is "Creating the Future together". Participants are encouraged to focus on sustainable development fields such as community, education, environmental protection, health, energy and transportation, and combine innovative ideas and cutting-edge technologies to create brand new works with social and industrial value. Deinker's work fits well with the theme of the China-U.S. Young Maker Competition. The recycling rate of waste paper in China is lower than that in western developed countries. In the past ten years, all countries in the world attach great importance to the utilization of waste paper resources. Waste paper recycling can greatly reduce pollution and protect the environment. Many waste paper processing technologies are also constantly improved and perfected, but Deinker differs from other technologies in that it can be recycled in situ. Waste paper in offices can be recycled and reused, which is very fast and convenient. Deinker's work uses the technology of biological enzyme, which is a kind of non-toxic and environment-friendly biocatalysts, in line with the theme of environmental protection and health of China-U.S. Young Maker Competition, and the team's innovative concept is well expressed.
UESTC_China: Deinker finally won the 8th place in the competition area. We expect to know the disadvantages and shortcomings of the work. What are the shortcomings and room for improvement?
Lou:
A. The product cannot be mass-produced at present, and the production efficiency is relatively low. You can refer to the mass production process of other waste paper recycling products.
B. The product has relatively simple functions and can only be used for waste paper regeneration at present. If other functions can be added, it may increase its competitiveness in the same product, such as printing function.
C. It will be better to reduce costs as much as possible, optimize technology, simplify operation steps, and make it easy for ordinary users to operate.
Lou:
A. The product cannot be mass-produced at present, and the production efficiency is relatively low. You can refer to the mass production process of other waste paper recycling products.
B. The product has relatively simple functions and can only be used for waste paper regeneration at present. If other functions can be added, it may increase its competitiveness in the same product, such as printing function.
C. It will be better to reduce costs as much as possible, optimize technology, simplify operation steps, and make it easy for ordinary users to operate.
UESTC_China: What do you think of Deinker's work?
Lou: Deinker is a healthy and environmentally friendly product. It uses the cutting-edge technology of biological enzymes to recycle waste paper in situ, which is fast and convenient, reduces pollution and protects the environment. It has great development space in the future.
Lou: Deinker is a healthy and environmentally friendly product. It uses the cutting-edge technology of biological enzymes to recycle waste paper in situ, which is fast and convenient, reduces pollution and protects the environment. It has great development space in the future.
UESTC_China: What kind of application scenarios do you think Deinker could have?
Lou: In offices, schools, printing rooms and other places where paper products are consumed, waste paper can be quickly recycled in situ.
Lou: In offices, schools, printing rooms and other places where paper products are consumed, waste paper can be quickly recycled in situ.
UESTC_China: What other details of Deinker's development do you think are worth noting?
Lou: The function of the product is relatively simple. Other functions can be added appropriately, such as printing function and mass production. As far as possible to reduce the cost, optimize the technology, simplify the operation steps, make the product more convenient, better than similar products.
Lou: The function of the product is relatively simple. Other functions can be added appropriately, such as printing function and mass production. As far as possible to reduce the cost, optimize the technology, simplify the operation steps, make the product more convenient, better than similar products.
UESTC_China: How to optimize and improve our works ina better and more appropriate way under the circumstance of limited resources?
Lou: Product demand is the core of the essence. Only by figuring out what the product needs to do, how to do it and who to do it, and whether the step-by-step derivation process is reasonable and convincing yourself and others is the most fundamental. Any product is a commercial tradeoff to meet the needs of users. Therefore, you should not be limited to your own vision. A good product needs to be constantly updated, do a good job of public opinion monitoring and analysis, and constantly update from the perspective of user demand, so that the optimization will not be ineffective optimization, waste of resources and time.
Lou: Product demand is the core of the essence. Only by figuring out what the product needs to do, how to do it and who to do it, and whether the step-by-step derivation process is reasonable and convincing yourself and others is the most fundamental. Any product is a commercial tradeoff to meet the needs of users. Therefore, you should not be limited to your own vision. A good product needs to be constantly updated, do a good job of public opinion monitoring and analysis, and constantly update from the perspective of user demand, so that the optimization will not be ineffective optimization, waste of resources and time.
UESTC_China: To make an innovative product, how to find its positioning?
Lou: You can find positioning from inside and outside, and then make a comprehensive swot analysis. Internal: Analyze their own resources and advantages, shortcomings and disadvantages, from the technology, product design, operation, promotion, brand and other dimensions of the analysis team. F: Analyze the big market first, observe the general development trend, and then gradually subdivide to the vertical field to see whether there are unicorns and form a red sea. Finally, subdivide and focus again to analyze the market size trend, study user groups, analyze competing products and find out the blue sea to cut into. Swot analysis: based on the above analysis, product positioning, advantage positioning and strategic planning can be determined.
Lou: You can find positioning from inside and outside, and then make a comprehensive swot analysis. Internal: Analyze their own resources and advantages, shortcomings and disadvantages, from the technology, product design, operation, promotion, brand and other dimensions of the analysis team. F: Analyze the big market first, observe the general development trend, and then gradually subdivide to the vertical field to see whether there are unicorns and form a red sea. Finally, subdivide and focus again to analyze the market size trend, study user groups, analyze competing products and find out the blue sea to cut into. Swot analysis: based on the above analysis, product positioning, advantage positioning and strategic planning can be determined.
UESTC_China: To make an innovative product, how to find the standard to measure the merits and demerits of the product in the case of no comparison object?
Lou: What makes a product good or bad
A. Customer satisfaction B. Product core competitiveness C. Product commercial liquidity
Here's another way to think about it:
A. Whether basic requirements of users are met; B. Whether to solve user pain points; C. Whether users are satisfied? D. What are your business goals? Can it be achieved?
Lou: What makes a product good or bad
A. Customer satisfaction B. Product core competitiveness C. Product commercial liquidity
Here's another way to think about it:
A. Whether basic requirements of users are met; B. Whether to solve user pain points; C. Whether users are satisfied? D. What are your business goals? Can it be achieved?
Material:
Figure1. The opening ceremony of the competition -Dean Lou third from left.
Figure2. Dean Lou came to learn about our hardware.
Patent Application
We once again invited Mr. Liang, a professional patent attorney, to negotiate with us about patent applications. He gave us a good suggestion to protect our intellectual property rights: "Inventions are not accomplished overnight, and every small advancement
should be protected." We realize that although our products are still in the research and development stage, this process should not give up patent applications.
In the research and development process of an innovative company, the project will be simplified at the initial stage to form the initial intellectual property rights, and every subsequent step of optimization and improvement can be specially applied
for patent applications. Otherwise, it is possible to miss the best time to protect intellectual property rights.
We immediately decided to summarize the project and applied for "Automation Equipment Based on Biological Enzyme Deinking", "A Whole Paper Mixed Enzyme Deinking Process Suitable for Home Office Scenes", and "Whole Paper Deinking Mixed Enzyme Ratio" Three
invention patents. Our patent is currently under review.
In the process of communicating with the patent attorney, based on his years of patent attorney experience, he also provided good suggestions for the improvement of our hardware equipment, such as the miniaturization of the equipment, the selection of
the material of the sticky cylinder, and so on.
Material:
Figure1. Discussing with Teacher Liang.
Figure2. Take a photo with Teacher Liang.
Interview with Deputy Director Pei
Deputy Director Pei originally learned about our work through the demand questionnaire we released earlier, and expressed his support and recognition to our guidance coach. Therefore, we took this opportunity to contact Deputy Director Pei, hoping that
through his communication, we could understand his views on our project and gain some knowledge related to environmental protection policies. After our brief presentation of the project, we entered the interview segment.
Here's our interview:
UESTC_China: What do you think of the innovative concept of paper deinking machine for in-situ regeneration? What aspects of it do you care most about? Which of its indicators do you think are most important?
Pei: This is a good environmental protection project, starting from the reuse of office waste paper to solve environmental problems. To evaluate Deinker, I think the most important indicator should be quality, which mainly includes four points: (1) Similar to the quality of commercially available paper used; (2) use cost should not be too high; (3) on deinking process does not cause of poisonous and harmful chemical residue, such as fluorescent whitening agent; (4) efficiency is guaranteed, the time of deinking should be within the range of continuous use of paper.
Pei: This is a good environmental protection project, starting from the reuse of office waste paper to solve environmental problems. To evaluate Deinker, I think the most important indicator should be quality, which mainly includes four points: (1) Similar to the quality of commercially available paper used; (2) use cost should not be too high; (3) on deinking process does not cause of poisonous and harmful chemical residue, such as fluorescent whitening agent; (4) efficiency is guaranteed, the time of deinking should be within the range of continuous use of paper.
UESTC_China: We noticed that you mentioned deinking efficiency. In fact, during our research and development and investigation, we often find that our products cannot perfectly meet objective needs. For example,
it is difficult for us to deink a sheet of paper a minute as most people hope. Environmental innovation is difficult and even thankless. What do you think of our experience? Do you have any suggestions for us?
Pei: I think this situation is understandable and there is no need to get too tangled up. First you need to identify which critical constraints you have, and then you need to look extensively for solutions, or go to the factory to see if there are solutions available.Since most of the work I have done is done within the government, technically I cannot provide you with many solutions.
Pei: I think this situation is understandable and there is no need to get too tangled up. First you need to identify which critical constraints you have, and then you need to look extensively for solutions, or go to the factory to see if there are solutions available.Since most of the work I have done is done within the government, technically I cannot provide you with many solutions.
UESTC_China: If we successfully productize our project, what do you think we need to do to promote this environmental innovation?
Pei: I think the development, production and promotion of products should be gradual. It is not too difficult to go step by step, because your products are in line with national policies. I can offer a good path, is that the government is vigorously support like you had the environmental quality of innovative products, If your technology matures, you can try to cooperate with the government, the government can even higher than the market price to buy your equipment, help you to grow up step by step to upgrade, because the government itself value for environmental protection and energy saving. On the other hand, you can try to cooperate with big companies, because big companies have great social responsibility, and they attach great importance to this aspect.
Pei: I think the development, production and promotion of products should be gradual. It is not too difficult to go step by step, because your products are in line with national policies. I can offer a good path, is that the government is vigorously support like you had the environmental quality of innovative products, If your technology matures, you can try to cooperate with the government, the government can even higher than the market price to buy your equipment, help you to grow up step by step to upgrade, because the government itself value for environmental protection and energy saving. On the other hand, you can try to cooperate with big companies, because big companies have great social responsibility, and they attach great importance to this aspect.
UESTC_China: You just talked to us about the fluorescent bleaching agent. In the process of making this innovative product, we found it difficult to find a quality standard reference for the target product, such
as how to set emission targets. So we want to ask you, how can we find a standard that suits us?
Pei: This question is actually relevant to me, because I served as the director of the Standards Division many years ago, and was mainly responsible for the formulation of environmental and emission standards. Let me just talk about one interesting phenomenon, maybe not entirely. China traditionally believes that the whiter the paper, the better, but in the West they actually think that the more yellow the paper, the better, this is because according to science, yellow paper may use less chemical reagents, low harm to children, and is also helpful for vision protection, so which standard is better may be difficult to set. If you want to establish production standards, the main consideration is to reduce the health impact on users. If you don't have a reference, you can try to make your own standards, which are your product standards. If there are more entrants in your industry in the future, perhaps you will work together to set industry standards.
Pei: This question is actually relevant to me, because I served as the director of the Standards Division many years ago, and was mainly responsible for the formulation of environmental and emission standards. Let me just talk about one interesting phenomenon, maybe not entirely. China traditionally believes that the whiter the paper, the better, but in the West they actually think that the more yellow the paper, the better, this is because according to science, yellow paper may use less chemical reagents, low harm to children, and is also helpful for vision protection, so which standard is better may be difficult to set. If you want to establish production standards, the main consideration is to reduce the health impact on users. If you don't have a reference, you can try to make your own standards, which are your product standards. If there are more entrants in your industry in the future, perhaps you will work together to set industry standards.
UESTC_China: We learned that you actually did some work related to paper industry when we were doing background information about you. Could you please introduce the paper industry to us?
Pei: Around 2008, the emissions from the paper industry were very serious. At that time, the GDP of the paper industry was not much, but the COD emissions basically occupied half of the country, especially the rivers near the factory were seriously polluted. Our current regulations on paper industry, mainly designated in 2008, include 10 indicators such as PH value. In particular, the management of cumulative hazardous substances is emphasized. Now I mainly work in the Comprehensive Department, so my understanding of paper industry may not be so advanced. I can only talk about it in general. Since the reform of that time, the concentration of the paper industry has significantly increased, and the barriers to entry have also been raised, as environmental protection requirements have raised the production costs of factories and eliminated outdated capacity. The end result is that China's paper production greatly improved, but the emission of pollutants can be significantly reduced.
Pei: Around 2008, the emissions from the paper industry were very serious. At that time, the GDP of the paper industry was not much, but the COD emissions basically occupied half of the country, especially the rivers near the factory were seriously polluted. Our current regulations on paper industry, mainly designated in 2008, include 10 indicators such as PH value. In particular, the management of cumulative hazardous substances is emphasized. Now I mainly work in the Comprehensive Department, so my understanding of paper industry may not be so advanced. I can only talk about it in general. Since the reform of that time, the concentration of the paper industry has significantly increased, and the barriers to entry have also been raised, as environmental protection requirements have raised the production costs of factories and eliminated outdated capacity. The end result is that China's paper production greatly improved, but the emission of pollutants can be significantly reduced.
UESTC_China: We also want to know more about the difference between waste paper pulp and raw wood pulp. Could you please introduce it to us?
Pei: In the whole paper industry, pulping is the most polluted. Compared with raw wood pulp production, waste pulp is indeed more environmentally friendly, and the government also encourages waste pulp. In order to be more environmentally friendly, we also control the source of waste paper. In 2018, we proposed "zero import of foreign waste", so far, the import of foreign waste has decreased a lot. At present, the paper industry has also launched the "Forestry and paper integration", which is also encouraged by the government. Specifically, a fast-growing forest has been planted in Hainan, which alleviates the environmental impact caused by the production of raw wood pulp. On the other hand, the waste paper is actually reused for many times, the strength of the recycled fiber inside will not be enough, so the subsequent need for corresponding technology, to solve this problem.
Pei: In the whole paper industry, pulping is the most polluted. Compared with raw wood pulp production, waste pulp is indeed more environmentally friendly, and the government also encourages waste pulp. In order to be more environmentally friendly, we also control the source of waste paper. In 2018, we proposed "zero import of foreign waste", so far, the import of foreign waste has decreased a lot. At present, the paper industry has also launched the "Forestry and paper integration", which is also encouraged by the government. Specifically, a fast-growing forest has been planted in Hainan, which alleviates the environmental impact caused by the production of raw wood pulp. On the other hand, the waste paper is actually reused for many times, the strength of the recycled fiber inside will not be enough, so the subsequent need for corresponding technology, to solve this problem.
UESTC_China: We would like to ask you if there are any defects in our waste paper recycling system, or if there are any advanced systems in western countries.
Pei: Compared with foreign countries, recycling is still very good in China. In our country, there are a large number of people who voluntarily make money by using waste, including many people who are engaged in the business of recycling renewable resources. Another part is that the elderly have a strong sense of thrift and will actively recycle waste. But through the application of your technology, office paper, which is produced in large quantities in the office environment, can also be recycled, which is a good supplement to our environmental protection work. If your technology mature in the future, there will be a very good effect, the government will also recognize.
Pei: Compared with foreign countries, recycling is still very good in China. In our country, there are a large number of people who voluntarily make money by using waste, including many people who are engaged in the business of recycling renewable resources. Another part is that the elderly have a strong sense of thrift and will actively recycle waste. But through the application of your technology, office paper, which is produced in large quantities in the office environment, can also be recycled, which is a good supplement to our environmental protection work. If your technology mature in the future, there will be a very good effect, the government will also recognize.
UESTC_China: What are the shortcomings of environmental protection in China? What can we college students do to help?
Pei: The law-abiding problem of Chinese enterprises is quite prominent. Foreign fines are relatively large, and the punishment is closed loop, many enterprises do not dare to violate laws and regulations. However, due to the system is still under construction in China, the law-abiding consciousness of some enterprises is not strong enough, and our public awareness needs to be improved. The other is that backward industries still exist in some regions, which need to be phased out. Your help may be to expand your achievements in many fields and help our traditional industries to improve. For example, can your deinking materials reduce the pollution caused by factory production? Of course, the first is to excel in your current field.
Pei: The law-abiding problem of Chinese enterprises is quite prominent. Foreign fines are relatively large, and the punishment is closed loop, many enterprises do not dare to violate laws and regulations. However, due to the system is still under construction in China, the law-abiding consciousness of some enterprises is not strong enough, and our public awareness needs to be improved. The other is that backward industries still exist in some regions, which need to be phased out. Your help may be to expand your achievements in many fields and help our traditional industries to improve. For example, can your deinking materials reduce the pollution caused by factory production? Of course, the first is to excel in your current field.
UESTC_China: Can you give us some examples of the role or impact of technological innovation in environmental protection? What role do you think government policy plays in the process of technological innovation
driving environmental protection?
Pei: There are plenty of such examples. Let me just give you two. The first is the reform of China's automobile industry around 2000, which made strict requirements on exhaust emissions and so on. The auto industry resisted, saying the new standards would kill the industry. In fact, the expectation was very bad, but the result was very good. Strict policies promoted technological progress, and the three-way catalyst that we now know as the catalyst began to make technological breakthroughs, which eventually led to the upgrading of the entire industry.Today, we are the world's leading car production area and one of the countries with the most car users, but the pollution problem caused by our cars is not serious. The second is the reform of China's thermal power industry, which also has strict requirements for ultra-low emission transformation. The thermal power industry, too, could not accept the policy, saying it would bring the whole industry down. Later, natural gas became an alternative energy source and began to be used in large quantities. The thermal power industry became anxious and immediately began a large-scale technological upgrade. Competition between the two industries has resulted in our thermal power sector achieving roughly the lowest emissions targets in the world, at about one-twentieth of international levels.
Pei: There are plenty of such examples. Let me just give you two. The first is the reform of China's automobile industry around 2000, which made strict requirements on exhaust emissions and so on. The auto industry resisted, saying the new standards would kill the industry. In fact, the expectation was very bad, but the result was very good. Strict policies promoted technological progress, and the three-way catalyst that we now know as the catalyst began to make technological breakthroughs, which eventually led to the upgrading of the entire industry.Today, we are the world's leading car production area and one of the countries with the most car users, but the pollution problem caused by our cars is not serious. The second is the reform of China's thermal power industry, which also has strict requirements for ultra-low emission transformation. The thermal power industry, too, could not accept the policy, saying it would bring the whole industry down. Later, natural gas became an alternative energy source and began to be used in large quantities. The thermal power industry became anxious and immediately began a large-scale technological upgrade. Competition between the two industries has resulted in our thermal power sector achieving roughly the lowest emissions targets in the world, at about one-twentieth of international levels.
UESTC_China: Based on your work experience, do any college students have done anything impressive in the field of environmental protection? What role do you think college students play in our environmental technology
innovation? What hard qualities are needed for college students to carry out practical environmental innovation?
Pei: College students are active and have a strong sense of social justice. We also came from that time. In those days, we also had a special association for environmental protection and distributed leaflets on environmental protection Day. Nowadays, college students are becoming more and more professional, such as mountaineering clubs. However, there are still few students who achieve technical innovation. I think it is the first time for me to see such a professional undergraduate, because undergraduates are more focused on general education. My advice is, first of all, you should learn textbooks well, second, you should read more literature, and third, you should go to the production line to see the reality. To lay a solid foundation, choose your favorite field, the best is to meet both personal interests and the needs of the country. Mr. Hu Shi has a good saying "bold assumptions, careful verification".
Pei: College students are active and have a strong sense of social justice. We also came from that time. In those days, we also had a special association for environmental protection and distributed leaflets on environmental protection Day. Nowadays, college students are becoming more and more professional, such as mountaineering clubs. However, there are still few students who achieve technical innovation. I think it is the first time for me to see such a professional undergraduate, because undergraduates are more focused on general education. My advice is, first of all, you should learn textbooks well, second, you should read more literature, and third, you should go to the production line to see the reality. To lay a solid foundation, choose your favorite field, the best is to meet both personal interests and the needs of the country. Mr. Hu Shi has a good saying "bold assumptions, careful verification".
Material:
Figure1. Deputy Director Pei
Figure1. Online meetingOnline meeting
Communicate with teachers in Chengdu Institute of Yeast
Having encountered many difficulties in yeast cultivation and fermentation, and sorting out the problems other teams rose during Yeast Meet-up, we went to Chengdu Institute of Biology for help.
When we arrived there, Teacher Jia was conducting experiments on the strain, but still received us with open arms. We were too eager to solve our problems that we came straight to the point and asked our questions.
In the process of expression product’s extraction, we have tried to use ammonium sulfate to concentrate. But not only the demand of materials was very large, the result was also not ideal. Teacher Jia agreed with us and said that she had some experience
with us. She tried to find a suitable ammonium sulfate precipitation to concentrate too but failed. So now she changed to use the thickening tube, and she showed us a thickening tube and taught us how to use it, which
gave us a great deal of inspiration.
Then we discussed culture medium. In the process of discussion, we compared our protocols with Teacher Jia’s and corrected our shortage, which cleared the obstacles for our subsequent cultivation.
As we were puzzled by the repeated contamination of miscellaneous bacteria in the experiment for a long time, Mr. Jia suggested that we check from the various parts of the experiment, and complete the sterilization and disinfection of the experimental
apparatus and materials. She also mentioned to clean the inside of the pipette gun, which we had ignored.
Material:
Figure1. Communicate with teachers in Chengdu Institute of Yeast.
Figure2. Group photo in front of Chengdu Institute of Yeast.
