Environmental and Climate Technology

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Introduce

Many serious environmental issues have global impacts such as climate change, air quality deterioration, and increasing wastes. To meet the expanding needs of global communities for safer, cleaner, and sustainable environments and development, the Track aims to build up a research and education platform focused on climate change mitigation technology and energy-related environmental technology. The Track will serve as a national hub for education and development in the area of sustainable and carbon-neutral technologies.

Why should we study this track?

The global and local environmental problems are becoming highly diversified and more complicated at an unprecedented rate. As the diverse issues of energy, environment, food, and wastes are being interconnected more and more, we need creative solutions with thinking out of the box. In response, the research fields of environmental and climate-change-mitigation technologies are rapidly expanding and merging with other science and engineering disciplines to deal with new emerging issues. The sustainable development of current and future generations depends on the humanity’s ability to meet their needs of energy and resource with minimizing the environmental footprint. The Track will train students so that they understand the current energy-environment nexus issues including climate change comprehensively, learn core science and engineering principles and master technical skills to address such issues competently, and ultimately grow to be leaders in environmental and climate technologies.

What do we learn from this track?

The Track’s core interest lies in the quest for engineering solutions that tackle environmental problems linked to energy/resource use and conversion. The track provides the education & research programs for undergraduate and graduate students to train them to understand the fundamental environmental and climate change problems coupled with the global consumption of energy/resources. Students will develop their practical abilities to identify and approach the problems and to find ultimate and sustainable solutions. The Track provides education curricula and research programs in the following specific areas.

Catalytic and Electrochemical Conversion & Processes: Abatement of air polluting emissions (VOCs, NOx, CO2, PMs), environmental catalysis, CO2 conversion and utilization, electrofuels, resource conversion and recycling (waste/wastewater/biomass)
Solar Energy Conversion, Materials & Processes: Artificial photosynthesis, solar fuels, solar photo(electro)catalysis
Bio-processes: Biofuel, biomass conversion and utilization, biorefinery
Hybridization and Process Development: Hybridization of the above technologies, reactor-process-system development/engineering/scale-up
Artificial Sun: Superconducting magnet, cryogenic structural material, blanket technology, fusion reactor design

Not other institutes but KENTECH

As the emerging environmental and climate issues are being highly diversified and complicated, the traditional education and R&D systems classified according to traditional academic disciplines (e.g., chemical engineering, materials engineering, environmental engineering) are not efficient any more in addressing the non-traditional problems such as climate change. KENTECH consists of five key institutes with the problem-solving missions, which cross over various academic disciplines. KENTECH is designed to provide the out-of-the-box education and to nurture the experts and leaders of environmental and climate technology for the preparation of the sustainable and carbon-neutral society.

What will it mean for my future and career? / What study we can do after graduation?

As the experts on environmental and climate issues are needed in almost every part of the society, the graduates from the Track are expected to work in various sectors of the society. Their career will not be limited to R&D activities and can be extended to diverse options which include university, national and public laboratories, industrial laboratories, venture business, government and public organizations, international organizations, oversea companies, consulting business, and media companies.