Category Archives: Technology

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) Ivy Tech Community College Fort Waynes Automotive Technology Program recently received automotive sheet metal panels valued at approximately $17,000 from LKQ Corporation.

We chose Ivy Tech partially because we were contacted about it in the past, but also because they have a local auto body program that will hopefully graduate individuals who are engaged and want to participate in our industry, said Zach Richter, LKQ General Manager. I personally have attended Ivy Tech and know they are a well-established part of our community.

Ivy Tech Fort Wayne said it will use the donation to give students in auto body and collision repair classes more hands-on experience with real world learning opportunities. In the program, students learn to repair and refinish cars, trucks, vans and golf carts. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, automotive body workers can expect to earn a median hourly wage of $21.24/hr.

Were grateful for LKQs donation of sheet metal, which will be extremely useful for our students, said Dave Buell, Ivy Tech Fort Wayne automotive instructor. They will learn to prep parts for vehicles, fix dents, prep to prime, prep to paint, and more. These skills will prepare them to enter the workforce directly after graduation.

For more information on the program, visit IvyTech.edu/automotive-technology/ or contact Dave Buell at 260-243-3125 or Bob Huffman at 260-480-4293 or rhuffman10@ivytech.edu

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Ivy Tech receives $17k in sheet metal donation for Automotive Technology Program - WANE

Federal Inspectors General have the crucial task of agency oversight, often handling that job for large agencies while operating on relatively small budgets. To keep up with their responsibilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, IG offices have had to leverage new technologies and old technologies in new ways over the past year-plus, IG officials explained today.

For the IG offices at both the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), that has included help in overseeing the 2020 election and disbursement of CARES Act funds using a variety of new tools, representatives from both OIGs said Wednesday at an AFFIRM virtual event.

Election Mail

With all eyes on USPS for the 2020 Presidential election, the agency CIO developed an Election Mail application in three days that could be used on both mobile and web browsers to streamline data collection of how processing facilities and delivery units were handling election materials in real-time. This enabled the agency to keep up with oversight duties while limiting the amount of travel.

We knew this election was going to be scrutinized very closely. So, we knew that our project would be very important in that wed have to provide a wide scope of oversight for the Postal Service, Todd Watson, director of Network Processing at USPS OIG, said. We basically leveraged almost an entire organization to help us go out to our local postal facilities and complete observations of what the mail conditions are like there was there any election mail that was delayed at that facility, was the facility following their proper procedures for postmarking ballots, and reporting out in their internal systems.

Overall, the election mail app was pushed out in about a week, Alana Daly, a program analyst at USPS OIGs Network Processing Directorate, estimated. The tool was then provided to about 500 team members, allowing them to complete over 2,000 observations at USPS facilities leading up to, and during, the week of the 2020 Presidential election.

While the quick turnaround allowed USPS OIG to get operational quickly, Daly said they would not want to have to replicate the process. The type of application is replicable for other functions though, and she offered some ideas that would make the next process smoother.

I wouldnt want to try to build in three days again, or over, and I dont think anyone loves that. But I think just the biggest thing was even more preparation at the beginning, Daly said. So I think time was probably the biggest factor of just building it, and having everything prepped and ready before we actually started implementation.

HHS Funding Spike

For HHS, the pandemic era has been all about healthcare, but also about a tremendous increase in spending.

The OIG at HHS has seen the amount of spending it oversees rise drastically during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the OIG oversaw around $1 trillion in spending, but, between the CARES Act and subsequent COVID-19 relief bills, that number is now around $2.4 trillion, Renata Miskell, senior advisor to the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at HHS OIG, said at todays event.

As far as how the office is leveraging tech to help with oversight, Miskell explained that most of their projects in that area fall under one of three categories: leveraging cloud to detect fraud, helping boots on the ground, or leveraging AI.

On the first use, Miskell said, there are instances where that provider may be double-dipping, triple-dipping, or they might be inappropriately receiving those [PPP and other kinds of] funds and so what we did was leveraging our cloud platform, were able to bring in multiple data sources and sort of visualize. Then we could apply our regular sort of fraud flags on those, or risk flags and help our investigators [and] auditors target and look into those instances.

The second use, Miskell noted, was similar to the USPS app, where HHS OIG utilized a mobile app for a program titled Operation Care. Operation Care sent inspectors to over 600 nursing homes and emergency medical service providers to quickly get data in about whether facilities had appropriate Personal Protective Equipment and were following the necessary COVID protocols.

On the AI front, Miskell noted the agency is using the technology to help flag grants, and her colleague Nicole Willis, the chief enterprise architect and director of architecture and transformation in the office of the CIO within HHS OIG, added the agency is also using robotic process automation (RPA) for processes like flagging social media keywords to help detect COVID-19 fraud.

Were trying to balance using what we have, but with bringing in new technologies, Willis said. We had an opportunity to look at robotic process automation, because we have a lot of manual processes, and you could imagine some of these investigations and audits and evaluations can take many, many man-hours. So, we did an experiment with using RPA tool against social media to help identify incidences of COVID fraud, she said, adding, it actually got really successful and saved our workers many of hours.

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Fed OIGs Leveraging Technology to Adjust to Pandemic Landscape - MeriTalk

As the country slowly shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, we in the higher ed world wondered -- with not a little bit of worry -- what its impact would be on our professional lives and the lives of the students we serve.

The pandemic led to some profound changes among college-age students. Many decided they would look for schools closer to home or in state, or became more concerned with the cost of financing a college education. Attending a school located in a pandemic hot spot likewise became a concern. These pivots on the students parts made for a great bit of scrambling on college admissions teams.

After a traumatic spring and summer, the students returned to campus and things began to feel a bit more normal, or at least everyone settled into the new normal. But this was clear: COVID-19 would be a milestone event in the field of college recruiting.

After studying the lessons learned from an unprecedented recruiting season, were left to wonder how admissions teams might reach future students in a more effective, efficient and personalized way.

Theres been a lot of talk about how the business model of higher ed will change in the wake of the pandemic as predicting enrollment becomes more challenging, impacting colleges and universities overall fiscal well-being. According to a report from McKinsey & Company, four-year public institutions reap 26percent of their revenues from tuition and fees, while four-year private nonprofit institutions collect 35percent of revenues from those same areas. But enrollment is changing, making those numbers an unreliable source of revenue.

Data show that students are still showing up to some sort of higher ed institution. Forty-ninepercent of students who have decided not to pursue a full-time bachelors degree still plan to attend part-time or pursue a two-year degree, while 57percent of students who are now considering a full-time bachelors program were previously planning to attend a part-time or two-year program.

New Challenges -- and Opportunities

Thats all to say, admissions teams face a new challenge and fresh opportunities as norms in the higher ed world swiftly change. While theres no way to predict how college-age students might approach higher education post-pandemic, it is foolish to believe that current trends wont have some lasting effects.

One way to tap into new pools of potential students? Personalization and a deeper commitment to applying behavioral technology to the admissions process. The pandemic admissions experience marks a ripe opportunity for higher ed institutions to create a Gen-Z-centric recruiting experience that speaks to the unique needs of students now -- changing economic and geographic preferences, for example -- while continuing to sharpen this strategy in a post-pandemic world.

At the core of the transformation to personalized admissions is the need to adapt to technology that supports it, or what weve come to call intelligent admissions.

Through hyperpersonalization, admissions teams can pivot messaging as students needs change, with emails speaking to individual applicants across geographic, academic and financial segments. And behavioral tech will allow us to do so much more, making it easier for admissions teams to serve students during abnormal cycles while gaining an edge over all. When a students major is known, admissions teams can send the kind of detailed information traditional marketing materials are usually unable to cover. Or they might connect with a future student just ahead of a pivotal recruiting event.

In the future, with the development of the right technology, we might be able to detect what went wrong with a poorly received communication -- subject line? Body copy? -- and apply that learning to new emails and campaigns through an automated system. The end result: admissions pros getting the most out of their software so they can turn their focus on personal relationships with prospective students.

Amplifying Personal Touch

This personal touch becomes all the more important as higher ed rebuilds from the pandemic and the interruptions it caused. Clear communication has been a keystone to success and safety through the pandemic, as it continues to be, and higher ed is better for it. Even now, teams deal with messaging around in-person classes that might go virtual at a moments notice or learning how to connect with new pools of potential attendees. The numbers prove where the students concerns lie: the same McKinsey & Company study mentioned above noted that 52percent of students said conversations with faculty around remote learning or their academic major would make them feel more favorable about a remote fall semester, and 42percent wanted clear communication from their college or university.

For the time being, mainstays like heavily attended in-person open houses and marketing photos of smiling students huddled together in classrooms are out the window. So, beyond email, what tools will enrollment professionals rely on? And for how long -- till the crisis is over or indefinitely?

While there may be no clear answers at the moment, the possibility springs from experimentation. And with students showing a willingness to enroll in a higher ed program, even amid uncertainty, admissions and other higher ed teams can create an enriching college experience for them, which might include online mentoring, virtual clubs and other virtual or hybrid experiences. These possibilities make the need for smarter technology all the more important. The less effort an admissions team must dedicate to writing, designing and managing campaigns, the more time those members will have to look toward how the college experience can be reimagined.

The answer likely wont lie in an either-or scenario, but rather, much like weve seen our lives enriched through practical and transformative advances in various technologies, the tools and strategies we develop at this important moment will lead to a better, more fulfilling college experience for everyone.

Ardis Kadiu is the founder and CEO of Element451, a constituent relationship management platform for higher education admissions and enrollment marketing.

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Pre- and Post-COVID, Technology Is Reshaping Admissions Forever | Call to Action: Marketing and Communications in Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed

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Its time to end the elaborate staged events that are essentially infomercials for new technology products.

You probably know the ones Im talking about. Steve Jobs or the current Apple boss, Tim Cook, paces a dark stage and holds up a shiny slab of circuits to an enthralled audience. Apple on Tuesday teased a planned (virtual) event next week to do the stage-pacing thing for the latest iPads.

Mary Kay-style demonstrations for the 400th edition of an iPad are clearly not the most serious problem in technology or the world. Most people will never even watch these things, thank goodness. But they are an example of how we and tech companies dont stop enough and ask: Why does it have to be this way?

Apples influence has spread these staged product launches and they are mostly overhyped and unnecessary. Elon Musk does them for Tesla cars and brain implants. Media companies have borrowed this trick for hourslong presentations for their plus-sign video streaming services. An infomercial about a website is really a step too far.

The Jobs-esque product demonstrations are also an unintentional signal of how tech companies see their customers. To them, we are blobs with wallets that can be persuaded by the Silicon Valley equivalents of a fast-talking guy on TV hawking a mop.

My biggest beef with these elaborate infomercials is that theyre at odds with what technology is now. Its no longer confined to a shiny thing in a cardboard box. Technology now is the stuff that we dont necessarily notice smarter software that alerts us to hazards while we drive or tech that gives small businesses the power of Amazon. It worms its way into our homes and lives, for better or worse.

Technology is also one of the most powerful forces in the world. And yet tech companies continue to hold product launches with the manic energy of an industry desperate to get noticed.

Whats the alternative? Well, Microsoft on Tuesday published a blog post that described the latest model of its Surface laptop and other products. Spotify also posted on its website about its new experimental gadget thats like a modernized car stereo remote.

The posts explained what the products were, and that was it. Maybe youve heard the line, This meeting should have been an email? Microsoft and Spotify showed that most product launches should be a blog post and a two-minute video.

Im not the first person to write that the staged tech product events that Apple spread everywhere need to go. Even Ive written about it before.

This is old hat for Apple, too. And on Tuesday it did what it has done forever: It released an intentionally vague message about what is expected to be a canned webcast presentation. This achieved its goal. People who care about technology talked about it.

And of course, thats one reason these tech Tupperware parties endure: They get attention. (At least they do for Apple.) Journalists like me are a big part of the problem, too.

But we can just quit doing this. The Microsoft and Spotify products seemed to get noticed and written about on Tuesday even without a two-hour hype machine.

These product launches are a stale habit festering long after its ceased being useful. It shows a lack of imagination from companies that are supposed to be imaginative and a disrespect for us, the customers. It doesnt have to be this way.

Bitcoin is real now. Congrats/Im sorry: Coinbase, which lets people buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is listing its stock publicly on Wednesday. My colleague Erin Griffith explained what Coinbase is, and why its stock listing is a validation for cryptocurrency believers. (Ill have a conversation with Erin about Coinbase in Thursdays newsletter.)

Is Facebook doing more harm than good? The Guardian has been publishing a series of articles about the ways that Facebook is abused by world leaders in countries such as Honduras, Mongolia and Azerbaijan to mislead and manipulate their own citizens. Its a familiar tale of Facebook both giving citizens a voice and silencing them.

Planning vacations is going to be exhausting: My colleague Brian X. Chen has a special pandemic edition of how to use tech to prepare for a trip. Youll probably have to navigate the virus testing rules of your destination and digital documentation for vaccinations.

Lets all look at some pretty fish on the Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp forest video feed.

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

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We Dont Need Tech Infomercials - The New York Times

Shares of Aurionpro Solutions hit a 31-month high of Rs 192.45 after rallying 17 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Thursday on the back of heavy volumes. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold with a combined 470,000 equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE, till 02:10 pm.

The information technology (IT) software products company's stock was trading at its highest level since September 2018. In the past six weeks, the stock has zoomed 134 per cent from the level of Rs 82.15 on March 4, against 4.5 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Aurionpro is a leading player in banking and fintech segment offering IP based solutions, which include transaction banking platform, iCashPro+ and lending platform smart lender and ACE platform.

On March 9, Aurionpro Solutions announced the signing of the strategic partnership with Future-Tech, UK for data center design and consultancy projects in India & South Asia.

The management said that Aurionpro has ventured into this business at a right time as Indian Data Centre market is likely to reach $4 Billion. Further, Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitisation and as the world is gearing up for the 5G technology, the requirement for the world class Data Centers will increase multi fold. Aurionpro, with its capacity, experience and best resources is poised to tap the immense opportunities in this space, it said.

In a press release, Aurionpro said that it has ventured into the Data Centre building, consulting and hybrid cloud services in recent years and has built a strong team of industry veterans, with over 20+ years of experience in the field, for this purpose.

Aurionpro has also signed up with one of the customers and is providing consultancy and assistance for rolling out of 100 MW Data Centers within next few years. Further, Aurionpro is also providing consultancy to the other industry leaders on Data Centre designs and implementation, it said.

Future-Tech, head quartered in Wokingham, England will bring further specialisation, engineering excellence and direct industry knowledge to the companys established and expanding team within India and South Asia. Future-tech has been engaged on providing more than 3GW of data centre capacity. The Future Tech is involved in the projects ranging from high density and micro-edge environments to multi-MW campuses, the largest so far being more than 270MW, the company said.

The management in 2019-20 annual report said, the IT sector had faced headwinds during the year 2020, however, sharp recovery may be witnessed during the year 2021. The increased digitization and technology adaptation will also boost demand for the enterprise security solutions like ISLA in coming years. Further, in order to boost the economies, impacted due to the pandemic, the governments are expected to boost spending on infrastructure in future. This will boost business opportunities in the smart city and smart mobility space, it said.

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This information technology stock has zoomed 134% in 6 weeks - Business Standard

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Leadership Quadrant of Millimeter Wave Technology Suppliers - 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The millimeter wave technology manufacture landscape is diverse and continually evolving. Major players in millimeter wave technology market have diversified product portfolios, strong geographical reach, and have made several strategic initiatives. The dynamics of the millimeter wave technology market extends beyond routine macro-economic elements of supply and demand. It is the relationship between buyer's needs and seller's capabilities as well as the macroeconomic forces at work that affect the market. It is how well and how efficiently the sellers meet the needs of the buyers that determine long-term success.

Over the years, the level of demand for millimeter wave technology has increased due to growing mobile data traffic and demand for bandwidth-intensive applications. Millimeter wave technology is used for a variety of end-use industries, such as mobile and telecommunication, consumer and commercial, healthcare, industrial, automotive and transportation, military, defense and aerospace, and imaging and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 35%. The major growth drivers for this market are growing mobile data traffic and demand for bandwidth-intensive applications, increasing use of millimeter wave in small-cell backhaul networks, and increasing demand for innovative applications in radar and security applications.

Firms that produce millimeter wave technology are approaching market opportunities with starkly different strategies. The analyst, a leading global management consulting and market research firm, has analyzed the global millimeter wave technology suppliers and has come up with a comprehensive research report, "Leadership Quadrant and Strategic Positioning of Millimeter Wave Technology Suppliers". Using its proprietary research methodology, the analyst has developed a comparative analysis tool, the 'Leadership Quadrant,' which identifies leaders, contenders, visionaries, and specialists in the millimeter wave technology market and rates each millimeter wave technology producer.

This report also offers a full competitive analysis from target markets to product mapping, from selling strategies to production capabilities. In this research study, eight companies such as Ridgewave, E-Band, Lightpointe, Siklu, Vubiq Networks, Loea, Renaissance, and Millivision. The eight profiled manufacturers are grouped in the quadrant. The leadership quadrant analyzes the relative strength among these players. The leadership quadrant addresses the need in the market for manufacturer evaluation based on objective data and metrics.

A total of 60 figures/charts and 6 tables are provided in this 140-pages report to help in your business decisions.

This report answers the following key questions:

Key Topics Covered:

1. Leadership Analysis

1.1: Market Description

1.2: Scoring Criteria

1.3: Leadership Quadrant Analysis

1.3.1: Leaders (Top Right)

1.3.2: Contenders (Bottom Right)

1.3.3: Visionaries (Top Left)

1.3.4: Specialists (Lower Left)

2. Competitive Benchmarking

2.1: Product Portfolio Analysis

2.2: Financial Strength

2.3: Market Share Analysis

2.3.1: Market Share in Various Segments

2.3.2: Market Share in Various Regions

3. Ridgewave Profile

3.1: Company Overview

3.1.1: Ridgewave Company Description and Business Segments

3.1.2: Ridgewave Company Statistics

3.2: Millimeter Wave Technology Business Overview

3.2.1: Millimeter Wave Technology Business Segment

3.2.2: Global Millimeter Wave Technology Operations

3.2.3: Key Differentiators and Strengths

3.3: Products and Product Positioning

3.3.1: Product Line Overview

3.3.2: Millimeter Wave Technology Product Mapping

3.3.3: Product Positioning in Market Segments

3.4: Markets and Market Positioning

3.4.1: Market Position in Global Millimeter Wave Technology Business

3.5: Revenue Breakdown by Market Segments

3.6: Revenue Breakdown by Regions

3.7: Production

3.7.1: Global Manufacturing Operations

3.8: Innovation and Market Leadership

3.9: Marketing, Sales, and Organizational Capabilities

3.9.1: Marketing and Sales

3.9.2: Management Commitment and Track Record

3.10: Financial Strength

4. E-Band Profile

5. Lightpointe Profile

6. Siklu Profile

7. Vubiq Networks Profile

8. Loea Profile

9. Renaissance Profile

10. Millivision Profile

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/y5wm06

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2021 Leadership Quadrant of Millimeter Wave Technology Suppliers - 8 Companies Included Such as Ridgewave, E-Band and Lightpointe -...

The technology used in two of the coronavirus vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration might enable scientists to develop flu shots in record time as well as make vaccines that could be more effective and protect against numerous flu strains for years at a time.

The messenger-RNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be a leap forward for flu shots, some of which still rely on a process developed in the 1950s involving chickens, petri dishes and dead viruses.

Researchers are hopeful that the success of those coronavirus vaccines will grease the wheels for mRNA flu shots and help expedite what is typically a lengthy process involving years of research, clinical trials and regulatory review and approval.

Its a very obvious progression given the success of the COVID-19 vaccine to move right to flu, said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

But researchers say the development and approval of an mRNA flu shot could take some time.

The idea that scientists can use messenger RNA for medical therapeutics is not new. Flu shots using mRNA technology have been in development for years.

In 2018, for example, Pfizer and BioNTech announced a partnership to start developing an mRNA vaccine that would prevent influenza. Moderna is working on a number of different mRNA vaccines, including one for the flu.

But using mRNA for vaccines shifted from experimental to critical last year. With a pressing need spurred by a global pandemic and billions of dollars in funding for vaccine development, scientists were able to repurpose their knowledge of mRNA to develop coronavirus vaccines.

People who were slogging away for many years had money thrown at them to get it done. And they became laser-focused to bring something to market that would have ordinarily taken years, said Paul Duprex, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Currently, the most common influenza vaccine that is available in the U.S. is manufactured using an inactivated, or killed, virus and administered via a shot in the arm. But there is also a vaccine that uses a live, but weakened, virus and is given in the form of a nasal mist.

The flu viruses for these vaccines are grown in chicken eggs or cells inside a petri dish. The viruses are then killed or weakened, and the resulting proteins the important ingredient in the vaccine are purified. When the shot is administered, the immune system starts making antibodies against those proteins.

But the mRNA vaccine is very, very different, Pekosz said, explaining that mRNA vaccines can teach the immune system to fight a virus without ever coming into contact with it. They can also generate a much stronger immune response than responses that are generated to the protein in a normal flu vaccine, he added.

One limitation of the current flu vaccines is that they take about six months to develop, meaning scientists must choose which strains they think will be prevalent in the next flu season even before the current one is over.

So, by the time the vaccines are ready for distribution, a different strain may have emerged as the better target.

An mRNA flu vaccine, on the other hand, can be developed in about a month or so, giving researchers plenty more time to determine which strains to protect against in the future.

All of this means you can much more accurately match an mRNA flu vaccine to the strains of virus that are circulating, Pekosz said.

Messenger RNA vaccines still present challenges. The Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines, for example, must be kept at extremely cold temperatures, making transport and storage a challenge. Its also not clear how long this vaccine-induced immunity will last.

And although most side effects to the vaccine are not serious, some people have reported several days of things such as fatigue, body aches and nausea as their immune systems gear up to attack the coronavirus.

Still, researchers say mRNA vaccines are a success. And because the mRNA vaccine platform that was used for the coronavirus vaccines is almost exactly the same platform needed for the flu, everything that has worked so beautifully for COVID-19 could theoretically work in exactly the same way for influenza, Pekosz said.

Researchers say mRNA flu shots are not likely going to be developed and approved in time for the upcoming flu season, and some researchers estimate that it could take several more years to get one on the market.

Even then, it will likely be a phased rollout with both traditional flu shots and mRNA flu shots available, Duprex said.

It will be gradual, he said. You just dont change technology overnight.

View post:

Coronavirus vaccine technology is paving the way for a whole new approach to flu shots - The Spokesman-Review

Some of the biggest industrial companies in Japan are working on a project that could trigger a wave of investment into one of the most controversial forms of carbon capture: methanation.

Shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. (MOL) is leading a working group of nine Japanese companies including steelmakers Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Steel Corp. to assess the viability of producing and using methane to power zero-emission ships instead of liquefied natural gas or other fossil fuels, including a fleet of new vessels that would transport carbon dioxide for processing.

Methanation is the most realistic solution for MOL to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, Takeshi Hashimoto, chief executive officer said in an interview. The challenge for the next one to two decades is whether the company could turn the technology into a sustainable and practical solution by reducing the cost, he said.

Discovered over a century ago by French chemists, methanation is a two-part process to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methane. The hydrogen can be produced by splitting water using renewable energy such as wind or solar power. The hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide and the resulting methane can be used as a fuel in ships or power plants.

Yet the costs of producing and transporting the gases and the technical hurdles have so far kept the process largely at an experimental level. That may change as demand for carbon-neutral energy increases.

One of methanes advantages over alternative fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen is that it can more easily use existing natural gas infrastructure, said Hashimoto. Another is that it can effectively store excess energy created by solar and wind power as methane. When the gas is burned to produce power, the carbon dioxide captured earlier is released back into the atmosphere, making it carbon neutral.

For shipping, the task of finding an emission-neutral fuel is critical because onboard solar and wind systems dont generate enough energy to propel large vessels. In 2018, the International Maritime Organization set a target to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in shipping 50% by 2050 and eliminate them completely as soon as possible this century. Japans land ministry wants zero-emission ships to be operating by 2028.

The working group aims to get the project in shape in seven to eight years to meet the land ministrys goal, said Hirohiko Oyabu, an assistant to the director of the technical division at MOL.

The MOL-led group is conducting a life-cycle assessment of methanation and is working to remove difficulties step by step to make the technology feasible, Oyabu said. It expects to produce a report on initial progress this summer.

Because renewable energy is expensive in Japan, the methane may need to be made overseas. That would mean developing special vessels to transport the carbon dioxide. Key to commercialization would be the viability of shipping carbon dioxide long distances as well as the price of the hydrogen.

Balanced against those expenses is the rising cost of failing to curb emissions as regulations tighten. That may propel the technology to the next stage, including commercialization, Oyabu said. Fuels with less carbon dioxide emission will be valued more in the future.

A competitor to methane is LNG, which emits 20-30% less carbon dioxide than vessels using oil allowing shipowners to cut emissions with proven technology. Of the 804 vessels MOL operated as of December, 96 were fueled by LNG.

The number of LNG-fueled ships, including those on order, is expected to double worldwide by 2027 from 2019, the company said. That could make LNG an interim choice until a true emission-neutral solution emerges.

A zero-emission fleet is only commercially viable if zero-emission energy sources are competitive with traditional fuels, said Johannah Christensen, managing director of the Global Maritime Forum.

There were around 38 active methanation projects around the world as of 2019, mostly in Europe and the U.S., according to research at the Technical University of Applied Science in Regensburg, Germany. Three pilot plants were set up in Germany, Italy and Switzerland after four-years of research into the technology under the EUs Horizon 2020 research effort.

Automaker Audi AG has been experimenting with methane-powered vehicles for almost a decade and sells versions of its A4 Avant and A5 Sportback that run on the fuel, made using wind power at a plant in Werlte in North Germany.

In Japan, interest in methanation increased after the government established a $19.2 billion green innovation fund last year, looking at technologies spanning everything from carbon recycling to ship propulsion as part of its 2050 zero-emissions goal.

Oil and gas company Inpex Corp. and industrial conglomerate Hitachi Zosen Corp. have built a pilot facility at Inpexs Koshijihara gas production plant in Niigata Prefecture. Commissioned by state-run New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, the four-year-old project makes about 47 tons of methane a year, and Inpex plans to ramp it up to commercial operation of about 350,000 tons after 2030.

Compared to ammonia or liquid hydrogen, methanation could be implemented with considerably lower capital investment, as we can use many existing facilities, said Tatsuki Wakayama, a principal project engineer at Inpexs renewable energy and new business division.

Utility Osaka Gas Co. is working on a way to produce methane by electrolyzing water vapor and carbon dioxide simultaneously using a Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell. The company claims the system is more efficient and announced a successful prototype in January.

Critics argue that even with advances in technology, methanation will struggle to compete with LNG. Imported LNG costs around $8 per MMBtu in Japan, a price methane would struggle to beat even if solar costs were free, said Syed Naqvi, executive director at IHS Markit. Methanation could be economical if hydrogen is obtained as a byproduct from somewhere, he said.

Inpex says renewable energy would ideally be around 2-3/kWh (2-3 cents) or less for commercialization, compared with a current price of about 13.6/kWh in Japan. In Saudi Arabia and Chile, solar power costs as little as 2-2.5/kWh.

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Japan's ticket to zero carbon could be century-old technology - The Japan Times

TORONTO, April 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aberdeen International Inc. (Aberdeen or the Company) (TSX: AAB F:A8H, OTC:AABVF) is pleased to share an update regarding its recent acquisition, AES-100 Inc., from T2M Global (see press releases dated February 1, 2021, February 11, 2021, March 3, 2021 and March 10, 2021, April 8, 2021).

AES-100 has been selected by US Department of Energy (DOE) to be deployed at Hawaii Gas in order to improve overall efficiency of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) production and the extraction of pure hydrogen (fuel-cell-ready) from a low-purity waste syngas stream.The expected benefits are (a) an improved cost of production of natural gas for Hawaii Gas; (b) a reduced carbon footprint; and (c) a new revenue stream from the sale of hydrogen into rapidly growing markets for low-carbon fuel and industrial uses.

President of T2M Global, Pinakin Patel, said Hawaii has the highest electricity prices in the USA (30 to 40 cents/kWh). Recovering hydrogen from stranded dilute syngas can add millions of dollars in new revenue for Hawaii Gas and make it electricity-independent. It will also provide much needed hydrogen for a growing fleet of fuel-cell vehicles in Hawaii, as well as forklifts provided by Plug Power Inc.

The project is expected to open a pathway for AES-100 to address worldwide dilute syngas-to-hydrogen market of over $50 billion: Hawaii Gas currently produces natural gas from the cracking of naphtha (an oil derivative); the natural gas is then consumed by over 1 million customers in heating, cooking, and energy applications. In the production of natural gas, there is a resulting low-purity hydrogen waste stream (syngas). Using the modular AES technology, which selectively separates high-purity hydrogen from this waste stream using an electrochemical process, Hawaii Gas will be able to create a new revenue stream, while concurrently improving the quality, energy, and emissions intensity of existing natural gas production.

The DOE-sponsored project is intended to prove AES-100s capabilities as a scalable solution to not only improving plant efficiencies and carbon footprint - at a time when the energy sector is under growing pressure to decarbonize - but also pivoting product offerings towards the forecast $2.5 trillion hydrogen market.

ABOUT ABERDEEN INTERNATIONAL INC.

Aberdeen International is a global resource investment company and merchant bank focused on small capitalization companies in the rare metals and renewable energy sectors. AES-100 Inc., an Aberdeen portfolio investment, owns the exclusive rights and all intellectual property pertaining to T2M Globals Advanced Electrolyzer System (AES-100) for the production of hydrogen from dilute syngas.

For additional information, please visit our website at http://www.aberdeen.green

For further information, please contact:

Ryan Ptolemy Chief Financial Officer Aberdeen International Inc. ryanp@fmfinancialgroup.com +1 416-861-5882

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding: the potential uses of the AES technology by the US Department of Energy; the merits and applications of the AES technology; the potential cost savings and cost advantages of the AES technology; the renewable energy sectors, including hydrogen; and the Companys future plans. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at http://www.aberdeen.green/. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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ABERDEEN INTERNATIONAL (TSX:AAB, FR:A8H, OTC:AABVF) Technology Partner T2M Global Selected by the US Department Of Energy to Use AES-100 Technology to...

Dublin, April 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Advanced Manufacturing Technology TechVision Opportunity Engine" newsletter has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) covers global innovations and developments related to manufacturing and industrial automation on a monthly basis.

The innovations profiled are focused on improving product traceability, energy efficiency and reducing environmental footprints, and integrating product design and manufacturing aspects for reducing time-to-market.

Research focus areas include rapid prototyping (additive manufacturing), lightweighting (multimaterial joining technologies, plastics and metals manufacturing, carbon fibre-based composite manufacturing), smart robotics (agile robots, consumer robots, swarm robotics, cobots), monitoring and control (wireless control networks, human machine interface), and simulation and modeling (design and simulation software).

This is a monthly alert that profiles 12 innovations every month, and provides strategic insights on the innovations, along with key patent holders in the profiled space.

Some technology areas covered in this TOE include lasers, 3D printing, 4D printing, robotics, multimaterial joining, composites manufacturing, machine vision, lean manufacturing, additive manufacturing, micro- and nano- manufacturing, deposition techniques, roll to roll manufacturing, automation and process related innovations, Industry 4.0, SCADA, PLC, DCS, Hydraulics, fluid control.

This TOE highlights innovation features, value propositions, industry impact of 12 monthly innovations along a particular theme, and includes strategic insights on the technology from a global perspective. Strategic insights include insights on IP, competitive landscape, key research focus areas, key success factors for technology adoption, and noteworthy funding details.

For more information about this newsletter visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tz2z17

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Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) TechVision Opportunity, Annual Subscription - Latest Global Innovations and Developments - Yahoo Finance UK