Spotlight
Net Zero Day Showcases Hydrogen Innovation and Green Financing Solutions
ITRI convened the 2024 ITRI Net Zero Day in Taipei, accelerating industry’s transition to net-zero emissions. The event highlighted key innovations and successful business cases, focusing on the groundbreaking Hydrogen Innovation Hub and the crucial role of green finance. Prestigious enterprises and organizations, such as the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, TÜV Rheinland, TSMC, and Techman Robot, were invited to share insights on the challenges and opportunities presented by the net-zero transition.
The innovations and green financing solutions showcased at the event have gained widespread support from industry and society.
ITRI Chairman Chih-Kung Lee emphasized ITRI’s ongoing commitment to net-zero solutions through Net Zero Day, now in its third year with widespread industry and societal support. Recognizing hydrogen energy as a critical area, the Institute is leading the establishment of the Hydrogen Innovation Hub, fostering collaboration across the hydrogen supply chain. Moreover, ITRI is actively building a cross-disciplinary net-zero cooperation model with financial institutions and promoting intangible asset monetization. This aims to facilitate green financing for startups and small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) based on net-zero patents, enhancing industry competitiveness in critical areas like technology, talent, patents, and access to green finance.
ITRI President Edwin Liu noted significant progress in renewable energy and clean technologies, as highlighted in the IEA’s 2023 update to the Net Zero Roadmap. This advancement, particularly the decreased proportion of technologies in prototype stages, is crucial for achieving the 2050 net-zero emissions goal. ITRI has developed a plan for Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050, fostering sustainable development and startups like Blade Hydrogen Green Technology. This company specializes in hydrogen fuel cell technology and clean energy generation, collaborating with industry leaders such as TÜV Rheinland. Another upcoming venture, POXA Energy, launching in 2025, will provide software-based energy asset performance management solutions to optimize electricity usage and power trading efficiency, reducing electricity consumption by up to 20%.
Over 30 key technologies and industrial services were showcased at the event, including:
- Water Electrolysis Technology for Hydrogen Production: Utilizing patented nickel-based catalyst materials and low-impedance alkaline membrane electrode design, ITRI’s electrolysis equipment produces hydrogen at 57 kWh per kilogram, outperforming the global standard of 60 kWh, while achieving higher efficiency and lower setup costs.
- Hydrogen Equipment Safety and Health Monitoring System: This system safeguards hydrogen production, transportation, and storage by providing early leak detection through real-time fault diagnosis and predictive maintenance technologies. Unlike existing technology that warns only after a leak occurs, it triggers immediate warnings when hydrogen concentration reaches a mere 0.004%, one-thousandth of the lower explosive limit.
- Kilowatt-Level Cooling Solution for AI Servers: This solution is designed to solve kilowatt-level heat dissipation of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) chips as well as the power usage efficiency (PUE) bottleneck of data centers. By integrating a vapor chamber lid into the chip module, it achieves a heat dissipation capacity of over 1,000 watts, three times higher energy-saving than the global average.
- Fabric Sorting and Decoloring Technologies for Garment-to-Garment Circularity: Leveraging Raman spectroscopy and AI models, ITRI’s textile sorting technology identifies the material and blend ratio of a piece of clothing in just 0.7 seconds. Post-sorting, polyester purity exceeds 95%. This sorting technology can couple with ITRI’s water-based polyester fabric decoloring technology, PureTex, which effectively restores polyester fabrics to their original color within 2-4 hours in an eco-friendly way, to achieve closed-loop garment recycling. The decoloring technology was shortlisted for the 2023 R&D 100 Awards, recognized by the 2024 Edison Awards, and is currently undergoing industry-wide validation with textile manufacturers for its potential in textile recycling.