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The symposium was held at Yokkaichi city in Japan during November 26 - 27, 1998, which was organized by CAETR (the Conference for Advancement of Environmental Technology Research, AIST, MITI), NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) and ICETT (International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer).
The symposium gathered more than 180 participants, consisting of about 50 researchers
and scientists from foreign countries. In addition to the 13 participants invited from
Korea, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, others came from
Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt and other countries, who are staying at ICETT, local
governments, universities, and national institutes as trainee or student. Japanese
participants were from national institutes of AIST, universities, organizations related to
environmental technology research like RITE (Research Institute of Innovative Technologies
for the Earth), APEC Virtual Center, as well as from private industries.
On the first day of the symposium, Mr. Kurushima from NEDO gave the opening address and Mr. Nakui represented the welcome address in which the aim of this symposium was pointed out. Mr. Inoue, Mayor of Yokkaichi City, talked about the history of serious environmental problems and much efforts for solution and expressed his wish that the symposium will contribute to promoting international collaboration for research and development of environmental technology in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. Kuriyagawa, Director-General of NIRE represented the activities of Japanese institutes for research and development of energy-environmental technology.
Seven invited lectures by foreign researchers were given, under the theme of environmental issues in the Asia-Pacific region and urgent needs for R & D of environmental technology. Dr. Lee from Korea mentioned the importance of R & D responding to global warming and proposed possible international collaborative projects such as biomass gasification, pre-combustion decarbonization and so on. Dr. Chen from China explained why air pollution takes place in China (emission of SO2 due to utilization of coal as the major fuel) and pointed out the urgent need to develop flue gas desulfurization and dust collection technology for small-medium sized coal-fired boilers. Dr. Silverio from Philippines talked about environmental issues around Laguna Lake area, especially the contamination of water by toxic and heavy metals (due to wastewater and wastes from electroplating industry). He pointed out the importance of collaborative R & D on the pollution control technology, based on the concept of "Cleaner Production". Dr. Dinh Van Sam, who was the first participant in ETERNET-APR from Vietnam, overviewed the environmental problems in his country. Most of pollutants are emitted from national industries with old production processes, but sufficient countermeasures have not been performed, mainly due to the lack of money. It is strongly required to develop highly cost-effective environmental technologies with international cooperation. Dr. Wisjnuprapto, Institute of Technology Bandung talked about water and air pollution in particular areas in Indonesia. He proposed bilateral and/or multilateral collaboration among ETERNET-APR members for R & D of biological methods to treat wastewater and air.
Dr. Yeoh from Malaysia overviewed environmental issues (water pollution, hazardous wastes, air pollution, and marine pollution) and technological approaches to tackling them. He summarized R & D needs for international collaboration in Table 6 of his paper, and pointed out the importance of "Cleaner Technology". Dr. Klinsukont expressed his suggestions and comments on the functions, activities and/or roles of ETERNET-APR, while he pointed out specific environmental issues needed for R & D in Thailand (Table 1 in his paper).
As the last invited lecture, Dr. Ohi explained the aim of APEC Virtual Center
(promotion of environmental technology exchanges and business relationships among the APEC
economies by using the Internet) and the status of APEC-VC Japan. The web site links to
about 2700 web sites having information on environmental technology, policy, plan and
others and the information is categorized to facilitate searching. The participants were
requested to access this web site and utilize the information.
By the invited lectures all the participants could identify what research needs are present in each country and what research subjects may be common to every country. The participants were divided to two working groups (WG 1 of air quality management and energy utilization technology and WG 2 of water quality management and wastes management and/or treatment technology). At each WG selected participants presented their papers on their own research activities and their desires for international collaborative study. There have been excellent presentations with many questions and comments. The participants of each WG were further divided to smaller groups according to a specific research category such as measurement technology. Each group conducted enthusiastic and fruitful discussion in order to prepare proposals for international collaborative study.
On account of their great efforts, several proposals came out from each WG, as listed in Tables 1 and 2.
For air quality management, some participants expressed interests in assessment technology for dispersion of particulate matters. For treatment of air pollutants, advanced technology using photocatalysis, low temperature plasma and microwave attracted much attention, because of the possibility to develop cost-effective treating methods for air pollutants (SO2, NOx, CO, VOCs). It is to be noted that reduction of SO2 emission due to combustion of coal is the common research subject for Asian countries.
For water pollution and wastes problems, R & D based on biotechnology is most
favored by the participants, because N and P in water as well as hazardous wastes may be
removed at room temperature with lower costs. Production of valuable chemicals and energy
from organic wastes as well as biomass is also considered as an interesting research
subject.
At the closing session, the summary of the WG 1 and 2 as well as the proposals for international collaboration were reported by the coordinator of each WG. There have been no objection against the proposals, and it was agreed that the proposals should be disseminated by using the web site of ETERNET-APR, which will make it possible for those who are interested in the proposals to attend future joint researches. It was also recognized that more exchange of information and more discussion are needed to prepare concrete research projects.
The secretary of ETERNET-APR showed Figure 1 in order to discuss the future activities of ETERNET-APR. First of all, enrichment of the data base of researchers and research projects was pointed out. Although the number of the data has been remarkably increased for last five years, more data could be provided by some member countries. More efforts by focal persons and institutes in each country as well as by the secretariat of ETERNET-APR were requested. All the members can propose ideas of international collaborative study through the exchange of information using the ETERNET-APR web site. The propositions will be received and be evaluated or coordinated by the Network Planning and Steering Committee, which is organized by AIST national institutes, NEDO and ICETT in Japan as well as foreign focal institutes.
The Committee will organize workshops to which those who have proposed international collaborative researches will be invited. Each participant will have an opportunity to discuss the proposal with the possible counterpart (researchers) and to prepare a concrete research plan for collaboration. A short stay at the institute of his/her counterpart will be very helpful for realizing the international collaborative study in near future. The last issue for initiating the joint research is to obtain a research budget. It is rather difficult for researchers of developing countries to obtain the budget, and thus researchers and institutes in developed countries (Japan, Australia and New Zealand) should make much efforts for this. At the same time the efforts (such as the request to the government of each developing country) will be requested. The initiation of a joint research by using ETRERNET-APR or a success story may enhance the concern of the members and lead to the expansion of the network.
This symposium had a great success on account of cooperative works of all the participants. It is believed that all the participants built closer connection and relationship with colleagues and contributed many ideas to international collaboration on environmental technology research and development. We shall continue to exchange information through the ETERNET-APR web site and Internet and to have face to face interaction at a symposium or workshop.
Table 1. Proposals from WG 1 (Air Quality Management and Energy Utilization Technology)
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Table 2. Proposals from WG 2 (Water Quality Management and Wastes Management and Treatment
Technology)
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