ITRI Wins R&D 100 Awards for Cement and LED Technologies

The Taiwan government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has won the R&D 100 Awards of 2014 for two unique technologies for cement and LED industries, becoming the  seventh consecutive yearly recipient of the notable prize given by R&D Magazine of the U.S. for global high-tech industries.

According to ITRI, the calcium-looping technology for cement is the first affordable, energy-efficient solution to capture up to 90% of carbon-dioxide emissions by using calcination and carbonation methods, ultimately turning thermo-power into clean energy to enable industrial plants to significantly reduce such emissions.

The LED technology reduces time needed for LED thermo- resistance testing by more than 90%, improving LED productivity, performance, packaging and lifespan, by completing 12,000 LEDs hourly at one diode per 0.3 second, or 2,000 times faster than traditional methods.

ITRI has licensed the carbon-dioxide reduction technology to Taiwan Cement Corp. and the testing technology to LED maker MPI Corp.

Taiwan Cement will build the world's biggest pilot calcium-looping plant to capture carbon-dioxide from its cement plants to grow haematococcus pluvialis, from which it will extract oil and astaxanthin.

Tim Studt, the Editorial Director of R&D Magazine, credits ITRI for developing the technologies and showing their advantages, which have been proven by industry partners to be marketable and commercially successful. (KL)