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PAN PACIFIC SYMPOSIUM
on Building and Urban Environmental
Conditioning in Asia, Nagoya, Japan
March.1995
HOW TO
PROMOTE INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATION?
Tamilmi Kusuda, Ph. D. ,
P. E.
ABSTRACT
The
key to the success of international collaboration is to identify and stick to
several promising areas, Which are global and remote from direct economic
competition. In order to achieve successful collaboration, it is necessary to
solve several problems such as the North/South conflict, intellectual property
issues, and communication barriers. The most important area of collaboration is
to build a satellite-based Pan Pacific information infrastructure for building
and urban environmental technology networks through which technological,
economic, and policy-related information can most readily be exchanged to build
efficient and pollution free building and urban energy systems.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Good
afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much Prof. Nakahara and Prof.
Kimura.
In
the Aug. 14 issue of Washington Post (Section C3), Dr. Ronald C. Davidson,
director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory wrote:
"in
this summer of abundant oil at the pump and no urban blackout, it is not very
fashionable to speak of an "energy crisis" (of the 1970s of which some of you
were not old enough to remember-- author's comment). But there is one
inescapable fact, and the fact is that well before the mid-21st century, the
world will face an energy deficit of extraordinary proportion. By 2040, the
population of the planet is expected to double-to about 10 billion. At the same
time, with the continued industrialization of Asia Africa and the Americas, the
world energy consumption is projected to triple-to 30 trillion watts-over the
same period. In spite of the development of energy efficient- technologies at
the present rate of consumption, the world's known oil supply will be depleted
in about 60 years, and natural gas in about a century. Coal reserves could
sustain some of the world's energy appetite for several centuries and the high
level of environmental pollution produced by coal-fired power plants would only
aggravate an already precarious ecological balance."
The
purpose of Dr. Davidson's article is to stimulate public awareness for the
development of fusion power reactor through increased government funding into
the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor program (ITEM). Although Dr.
Davidson believes that the long quest of clean nuclear power is proceeding
better than the public T. Kusuda is Consultant to the Japan Technology Program,
Technology Administration of the United States Department of Commerce,
Washington, D.C. thinks, the large scale commercial power plants based on this
nuclear technology is not in sight for a long time. (The first demonstration
reactor at his Tokamak Physics Experiment
is
scheduled for 2025).
The
reason for beginning my talk with Dr. Davidson's statement is to stress that
energy crisis and environmental pollution issues are real and will stay real for
a long time to come. Energy conservation and environmental protection are
especially important and critical subjects for the Pan Pacific countries,
because, they include the countries of the world's largest as well as the
fastest growing economies. It constitutes 36% of the world's total area, 60% of
the world's population, 50% of world production, 45% of world trade, 52% of the
world's GNP, 44% of world primary energy production, 44% of world petroleum
consumption, 47% of world coal reserves, and 53% of world electricity generation
by fossil fuels. Yet the region contains only 12% of world crude oil, and 24% of
world natural gas. It encompasses the fastest growing industries saddled with
problems associated with the world's largest environmental pollution and energy
consumption as well, because within its boundaries lie the world's richest
nations and world's most populous nations. Its destiny essentially controls the
entire world and humankind. Also let
us
keep in our minds that the building and urban sector is responsible for
approximately one third of energy consumption in this region. (in accordance
with 1992 LBL report, residential and commercial buildings in ASEAN currently
make up as much as 45% of the demand for electricity, and consumption has grown
almost six-fold even during 1970-1987)
It
is, therefore, most fitting that this symposium is going to conclude with
discussion on the matter of international collaboration on energy conservation
and environmental protection for building and urban designs, because the destiny
of the Pan Pacific region's well-being hinges upon how we collaborate with each
other in building and urban
technologies related to energy and environment in order to achieve a prosperous
and long lasting economy with a clean environment through intelligent
technological cooperation.
I
feel very much honored to be invited to this important conference by Prof.
Nakahara to talk about international collaboration on building and urban
environmental research, since my entire life has been dedicated somehow to the
tasks addressing the very same problems, and I feel I have some experiences to
share with you.
Before
joining the Office of
International
Program and Policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce, I was responsible for
conducting, and later managing, research on building environmental technologies,
specifically on the subjects related to building air, moisture and heat
transfer, energy conservation, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality, for 24
years at the Center for Building Technology of NBS (the National Bureau of
Standards, now the National Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST). During that period I
was often involved in collaborative programs with many foreign countries; e.g.
Japan, France, Korea, Norway, Israel, India, South Africa, Australia, China,
Egypt, and Brazil. I exchanged information and received visitors from the UK,
USSR, Sweden, Belgium, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, New Zealand, Poland,
Yugoslavia, and other countries. One of my proudest moment at NBS was when I
organized a successful international conference entitled the "First
International Symposium on the Use of Computers for Environmental Engineering
Related to Buildings" in 1970, to which over 400 people throughout the world
including Prof. Kimura attended. The second, third and fourth symposium under
the same title were held in Paris, Banff, and in Tokyo respectively, and this
symposium series has later been continued by a group called the International
Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) under the strong leadership
of Prof.
Ed Soul, the last meeting of which was held in Adelade Australia in August of
1993.
During
the course of these activities, many researchers, especially from Japan, France,
Brazil, and Korea came to my laboratory and worked side by side with the U.S.
researchers for as long as two years, mostly for a year, in the area of building
environmental simulation and experimental validation. I also visited
laboratories, sometimes for a stay of as long as several weeks, at the National
Building Research Institute of South Africa, CSIRO of Australia, CSTB of France,
NRC of Canada, National Building Research Institute of Japan, Building Research
Establishment of UK, and KERI of Korea. Unfortunately I have never had
opportunities to visit China yet, and hopefully this deficiency will be remedied
sometime soon.
As
far as I can remember, all these international programs have been successful in
terms of technical accomplishments and the lasting personal contacts established
among those who were involved. We still exchange seasonal greeting cards and
visit each other occasionally, introduce friends and recall the experience with
nothing but happy memories. In fact, I must emphasize that the personal network
development is the best and most effective part of international collaboration.
This is especially rewarding since most of my guest workers have eventually
become powerful leaders in the environmental technologies of their home
countries after completing the exchange programs.
2.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
As
the result of the oil crises of 1973 and 1980, many oil consuming nations have
began to recognize the energy security as the highest priority issue, have
initiated energy conservation research programs, have developed building energy
conservation standards, and have adopted strict energy conservation measures.
These efforts have resulted in a short-term reduction of energy use by 25% by
OECD nations and 35% by Japan. In fact, this energy conservation effort coupled
with the increased production of oil by the OPEC nations have resulted in an
overall glut of energy supplies.
Perhaps one of the most significant events in energy related international
collaboration was the inauguration of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in
November 1974, one of whose charters is to achieve international cooperation on
the research and development of energy conservation and alternative energy. Many
outstanding research efforts have been carried out under IEA on building energy
conservation, and have contributed to the establishment of building energy
conservation standards in many participating countries. This dip in energy
consumption resulting from increased energy conservation has not lasted too
long, however, as the oil supply increased and world economy has picked up in
recent years.
At
the same time, global environmental problems including acid rain, air pollution,
water contamination, deforestation, global warming, atmospheric ozone depletion,
have cropped up, and have become major international issues as reflected in the
1992 Earth Summit conference of UNCED United Nations Conference on the
Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro.
In
the future, a large increase in energy demands is predicted for the
newly-developing countries, most of which are in the Pan Pacific region. This
implies an increased concern in environmental pollution in the same region. The
situation has especially been acute in China, which is experiencing the
unprecedented environmental contamination resulting from its precipitously rapid
economic growth.
Technological collaboration between the United States and Japan during the post
WWII period provides a good insight as to what may happen in the collaboration
of developing countries of the Pacific rim with the developed countries in the
same region such as the USA, Japan, Australia and Canada.
It
begins with the training of students in science, technology and management by
way of education at the universities and internships at factories in the
advanced countries. When these trained persons returns to their home countries,
information exchange will start through the researcher network developed during
their stay, which will eventually culminate in joint projects, be there in the
form of research, product development or construction. With the advancement of
technologies in the developing countries, many manufacturing operations will be
transferred there from the developed countries because of their high technology
along with low labor cost. It is a win-win situation for both countries since
the developing countries can increase their industrial capability while the
developed country can benefit from the increased exports of goods and
technology. The manufacturing capability of the developed countries will
eventually be eroded (a hollowing- out phenomena). The hollowing-out of
manufacturing can be tolerated as long as the developed countries can stay ahead
of the developing countries in technological innovations by maintaining the
constant development and commercialization of new ideas and new products based
on advanced technology. This pattern usually begins with the traditional (or
smoke-stack) industries such as steel, textile, paper agricultural chemicals and
shipbuilding, going througtt electromechanical industries such as machine tools
automotive components, and home appliances such as TVs cameras and eventually
begins to encompass optoelectronics and semiconductor industries ending up with
information/communication industries where it stands now.
The
rapid advance in and dissemination of information technology make this cycle
much faster than it used to be. It took fifty years for the USA to catch up with
the advanced technology in Europe, and 20 years for Japan to catch up with the
USA, and 10 years for Korea to Japan, etc. I am sure it will be even shorter for
China to catch up with
Korea.
The
United States has recognized that the loss of manufacturing technology is the
beginning of the erosion in its technological supremacy, and has begun to
protect the outflow of its technology. The recent U.S. and Japanese emphasis on
intellectual property right protection is one way to keep its technological
advantage over the developing nations. I will elaborate on this intellectual
property right issue later.
3.
PROBLEM AREAS
Unfortunately, however, the political climate in the world after the end of the
cold war has changed dramatically, and the strong international collaboration
that existed within the Western Block nations for the purpose of national
defense is being replaced by intense economic competition which has been
clouding the collaboration efforts in some areas.
During the cold war days, despite the ongoing political and economic
difficulties between the USA and the Eastern Bloc countries where some of the
NBS guest workers came from, technological collaboration and cooperation with
these countries continued. I vividly recall the visit by a Russian professor
(Yuri Malasov) who was one of a Russian
delegation to NBS that included several KGB members. After spending a day with
me alone in my laboratory, I invited him to my home, with the permission of the
KGB people, of course. My wife and I had a wonderful evening with him finding
out for the first time in my life what life was like in Russia in those days
several months after Chernobyl.
Even
under the strained political relationship between the United States and South
Africa, I had a guest worker from NBRI in Pretoria, and I was in turn invited
there for two weeks' stay and worked with Prof. Van Straaten and his colleagues.
Many researchers of that famous building research institute have visited me
afterwards.
Trade
friction has been straining the relationship between Japan and the United States
for many years, but it did not affect the strong collaborative programs at NBS
with Japanese companies which kept sending many guest researchers year after
year. Even today, there are many researchers working at NIST, and at NIH under
various collaborator Programs.
Even
under the most hostile environment between these two countries as far as the
competition on economy and technology is concerned, my office at the U.S.
Department of Commerce has sent 30 engineers from U.S. manufacturing companies
to work in Japanese factories including those of Matsushita, Sharp, Honda,
Yamaha, etc. to study Japanese manufacturing technology, a key element of
international competitiveness. The U.S Air Force Office of Scientific Research
has been sponsoring as many as one hundred interns from 12 universities to
Japanese companies. This is in addition to the hundreds of U.S. scholars
visiting Japanese laboratories under the NSF funded and/or Japanese Government
sponsored exchange programs.
3.1.
NORTH-SOUTH CONFLICT
The
North-South divide is one of the largest problems confronting solutions to
environmental problems. Advanced nations, which are very sensitive to
environmental concerns, request that the developing countries show the same
degree of environmental consideration in their industrial development. The
developing countries, on the other hand,
assert
that the advanced industrialized countries are the ones primarily responsible
for the present environmental destruction, and claim that the advanced nations
are selfishly making the lesser-developed countries scapegoats. Moreover, these
rebellious, impatient, and fast growing developing countries feel that
environmental protection is an obstacle to their economic development, since
these nations have neither the financial resources nor the technology to comply
with the expectations of the developed world. Nevertheless, the developing
nations should take a note of a statement made at the recent International
Conference on Climate Change. "Developing nations are the key in the long term.
Today, one third of greenhouse gas emission is attributed to the developing
nations and two-thirds to the industrial countries. By the early 2100, the
fractions will be reversed with the developing nations emitting two-thirds of
the world's greenhouse gases."
3.2
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
You
may also remember a strong collaborative project between the USA and USSR during
the height of cold war in the area of space technology development. One of the
spin-offs of this space technology collaboration was the advancement of the
machine translation technology. Since, unlike Russian engineers, most U.S.
engineers and scientists are not well equipped in handling foreign languages,
there was a critical need in the United States to translate the large volume
flow of Russian information as rapidly and as accurately as possible, especially
during the Soyuz mission when the astronauts of the two countries were trying to
dock the satellites of two countries. This need led to the development of highly
accurate Russian to English machine translation (MT) systems at the Wright
Patterson AFB and the U.S. Intelligence Community. This MT technology is now
expanded and improved to handle other language pairs. There has been extremely
active research going on in Japan to develop Japanese to English and English to
Japanese translation systems, as well as other Asian language pairs. The most
important MT program, as far as this symposium is concerned, is the development
of an interlingual machine translation system among Japanese, Korean, Chinese,
Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai. This project has been sponsored by MITI to
expedite the efficient communication between Japan and its neighboring
countries. In the meantime the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Agreement
mandates the collaboration of the two countries to improve the Japanese-English
MT technology. The Science and Technology Agency of Japan is planning to install
a MT system in our office to expedite the translation of Japanese technical
information for U.S users.
Also
being developed is a natural language translation system for handling verbal
information rather than the written and digitized information. ATR of Japan and
the Carnegie Mellon University of the United States have been developing this
technology for the past five years.
These
language translation systems are critical elements in international
collaboration since information and personal exchange is the first Step in any
international collaboration. This is the era of the information highway, and
technical and scientific information travels with electronic speed across
country borders overcoming oceans and other geographical and economic obstacles.
Satellite communication has made it possible that the people in remote locations
or isolated islands can be connected directly to the center of technological
activities. Explosive developments of the Internet technology, especially the
latest Mosaic servers on Worldwide Web (WWW), makes it possible for any
individual in remote corners of the world to be able to acquire all advanced
technological information needed at their desktop computer terminals. The only
barrier left is the language barrier, which will be solved by the MT that is
coupled to the optical scanning and voice decoding technologies.
3.3
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES
The
time when the developed countries were lenient in tolerating copyright and
patent right infringement by developing countries is a thing of the past.
Intensified international competition has made the developed countries to
experience a hollow-out in manufacturing capabilities, and is making them to
feel losing competitive edges. What the advanced or developed countries fear
most is the possibility that the international research collaboration with the
developing countries may end up with a loss of opportunity to commercialize the
fruits of such joint efforts.
This
is the major reason why the intellectual property right protection has become
the major issue in international collaboration. As long as the collaboration is
limited to precompetitive technological levels, such as developing efficient
solar energy utilization systems, fuel cell based power plants, environmentally
benign manufacturing technology or materials, or on the non-ozone depleting
refrigerants for air-conditioning, this problem should not be important.
In
the practical world based on the capitalistic economy, which has survived the
competition with the socialistic approach, any technological development must be
commercialized first in order to be made available to the public. Any new ideas
developed under the collaborative effort must first be proven to be economically
viable before one of
the
participating companies in one of the participating countries develops an
industrial system to manufacture the product embodying the result of that
collaborative research. In order for the product to be commercially viable, it
must be profitable, then the profits should be Shared by those who contributed
initially to the development of innovative ideas on an equitable basis. When
many researchers from many different companies in several different countries
are involved in the development of such an unique product or system, which may
become a commercial success, it becomes extremely important to define the
ownership of the design or its intellectual property.
Let
us assume there is a Japan-Thailand joint project to construct and operate a
fuel cell based cogeneration system in Bangkok, which is designed by a giant
construction company in Japan in collaboration with the Thai government, and
assume that many engineers from various subcontractors representing different
countries are involved. Imagine one of the Thai engineers had a brilliant idea
or developed a computer program during the course of discussion in the design or
construction stage. If this idea and/or program happened to be universally
applicable to many other construction projects, it will bring in an enormous
amount of benefits to the company which successfully commercializes that
technology first. Who will be the beneficiary of this financial reward? Remember
there are many layers, and different kinds of organizations involved in this
project which will be interested in claiming the responsibility for creating the
opportunity to generate the original ideas/program. Wouldn't that the Thai
engineer be entitled to receive not only the technical recognition but also the
financial windfall resulting from his original contribution? In the U.S. system,
the inventor of the idea owns the patent right, yet in the Japanese system,
usually the organization which applied first for the patent receives the patent
right. I do not know what the patent law in Thailand is. What I am mentioning
here are the complications resulting from the ambiguity of ownership of the
intellectual property developed during the international joint venture or
collaborative program, which could spoil the good will developed among the
participants during their technical collaboration. This is the very area that
the U.S. and Japanese governments as well as other governments are struggling to
achieve agreements on how to handle the intellectual property rights for the
technology developed in their collaborative programs such as IMS (intelligent
manufacturing system), RWC(real world computing stressing optoelectronic
devices) , and human genome projects.
The
problem is equally serious for the guest researchers from the developing country
in the laboratory of the advanced county involved in the development of
competitive technology. This is the reason why most of the joint research among
advanced nations limit collaborative research to precompetitive technologies or
basic research, yet the distinction between the basic and applied research, or
precompetitive and competitive technologies is becoming more and more vague when
dealing with advanced technology. Research involving the development of
superinsulation, window systems, scroll compressors or advanced absorption
machine should not be the subject of international collaborative research,
whereas research on room air convection, thermal comfort, moisture condensation,
energy performance simulation may safely be considered basic or precompetitive
research, although some of these may have competitive elements if they are tied
to the development of control strategies or environmental sensors.
The
situation is becoming more complicated in the joint development of computer
programs, in which the time and mode of invention is very difficult to identify.
Nowadays many computer software for multimedia information and communication
systems marketed by the U.S. and Japanese companies are developed by programmers
in other countries, particularly in China and India. Many collaborative program
in energy conservation systems or environmental technologies in the future are
involved with software-related technologies especially in the CAD/CAM/CAE design
of buildings, the integrated control of electromechanical systems, and
information/communication systems in the environmental engineering technologies.
Intellectual contributions of engineers and researches are centered more and
more around the advanced technologies in these software areas; fuzzy controls
neural network, genetic programming, object oriented program, etc. Most likely,
many new ideas in this area will be coming from developing countries such as
China, India and Malaysia. This is because the generation of software is a
highly mind-intensive effort akin in some degree to the creation of art, and
does not require large capital investments or manufacturing facilities. It is
mostly based on the concentrated effort of talented individual programmers,
although the Japanese are experimenting with the software factory concept, the
advantage of which is questionable. As more and more companies keep moving their
manufacturing plants to Southeast Asian countries, more new ideas and computer
programs associated with manufacturing from these countries will be embedded in
the intellectual properties of large corporations in Japan and the United
States. It will be interesting to see how these companies will handle the
situation if the engineers of Southeast Asian countries begins to assert their
intellectual property rights.
Very
fortunately, however, this competitiveness problem is not acute in environmental
engineering technology where all nations share concern for their deteriorating
environment. The polluting atmosphere and water rapidly spreads throughout the
world affecting the lives on the entire earth. Environmental technology has
fewer elements in terms of creating international competition involving
commercialization of products such as semiconductors, automobiles, and
optoelectronic components for info-communication industry. Research and
developmental activities on coal gasification/liquefaction technology, waste
product processing technology, CO2 fixation technology, energy conservation
technology are more conducive to international cooperation than competition. Yet
we should not ignore the importance of competitive technological elements in
some of the components involved in
these
environmental technologies such as CO2 fixation equipment, CFC recovery systems,
advanced measurement and control technology, on which many Japanese and U.S.
industries are targeting their future. I strongly believe that international
collaboration should avoid taking up these competitive technologies, and focus
on more fundamental or environmental system-related technologies which are
amenable to regional and global collaboration. Good examples are:
*
Benchmarking of international collaboration projects by experts in the advanced
countries in consultation with officials in the developing countries in
identifying their needs and financial, natural and human resources.
*
Training of engineers, information specialists, environmental workers, machine
operators, managers on advanced environmental and energy conservation
technologies, especially related to buildings and urban design.
*
Design and construction of model plants for coal gasification/liquefaction,
pollution control, cogeneration systems, solar/wind power and ocean thermal
energy utilization projects (based on the recommendations of the benchmarking
reports).
*
Advanced regional database development for environmental data; energy resources
and consumption data; climatic and geophysical data; hydrological data;
infrastructure information, information on advanced materials, costs and
availability of equipment and resources, proven processing technologies;
performance of energy conservation systems, computer programs, etc.
* The
development of multi-media information systems to make use of (access, and
apply) regional databases most effectively, this include the multi-lingual
language processor based information searching and retrieving and analysis
systems.
4.
ADVANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
I am
sure all of you has heard about the National Information
Infrastructure/Information Superhighway advocated by Vice President Gore of the
United States to develop fiber- optics-based multimedia communication networks
throughout the United States. Similar plans have been introduced by MITI and MPT
of Japan. These network can not only link most of available databases, but also
provide instant access to information on new technologies through images, voices
and texts. I can sit in front of my Macintosh computer to view the color
photographic images with voice and text explanations of what is going on in
remote corners of the world, such as Chechen via. America On Line, or with equal
ease, I call browse through important documents released by the U.S. government
agencies via FedWorld. Recently I found, for example, by skimming thorough ITSI
(an online database of the Department of Energy ) that there exist important
reports Prepared by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory dealing with building
energy conservation in ASEAN countries. This particular database provides
information on over 800 technical papers addressing some facets of building and
urban energy conservation. Similar information is readily available in the
databases of JICST (Japan Information Center for Science and Technology) or NTIS
(National Technical Information Service). There is no doubt that hundreds of
databases of this nature exist for many building- and environment-related
scientific and technical fields (including electronic encyclopedias and/or
technical handbooks) directly accessible online or offline through CD-ROMs.
The
Internet based information technology revolution is brewing throughout the world
at present. Many international negotiations are being conducted through the
World Wide Web (WWW) client software, which has been developed for a wide
variety of computers, including Macintosh and IBM-compatible personal computers,
the most popular one of which is NCSA Mosaic and include graphic and
photographic image transmission as well as a multi-stage browsing capability to
explore deeper into the information contained in the Internet.
In
the United States and Japan the Mosaic/Internet System is widely used in
conjunction with the WWW servers among researchers for interchanging
information, providing mutual assistance, and "scooping up" all types of
information from many layers of databases including the JOIS databases of the
Japan Information Center for Science and Technology, and the Building Energy
Technology (BET) database contained in ITIS of the U.S. Department of Energy,
two of which I consider the most extensive and valuable. The Internet is the
most exciting development in information technology which has been gaining
explosive public attention within the last few years, and there seems to be an
infinite possibility for exciting international collaboration to come up with
new, innovative
ideas
for efficient information exchange (most current systems are already overloaded
and slow and inefficient for busy engineering executives) not only for research,
but also for policy developments, design, construction and operation of energy
conscious and environmentally acceptable building and urban systems. I might add
that two of the Pan Pacific nations, namely the USA and Singapore, are the world
leaders in this information infrastructure development.
As
the first Step, I would like to see the Mosaic home pages have information
(including all technical papers and abstracts, handbooks, guidelines, and
standards) on ASHRAE, SHASE, DOE, NEDO and equivalent organizations in Europe
and Asia. Later it should be expanded to include information on products, codes,
standards and regulations, construction specifications, and operating data.
Other
uses for this information network are:
* Development of computerized database or CD-ROM consisting of all essential
technical information; such as thermodynamic and transport property tables,
design calculation procedures for building heat transfer and air/water transport
Systems (ducting and piping); codes and standards for safety, energy
conservation and environmental
protection; etc. in other worlds essentially the entire data contained in the
ASHRAE handbooks and/or SHASE's Binran.
* Effective use of advanced info-communication technology for planning,
constructing, managing, operating, and monitoring joint projects
* Development of real time prediction, monitoring and analyses system or models
for environment (temperature, humidity, noise. air and water pollution, solar
energy, etc), energy use, expenditures, and human response not only for
individual buildings, but also for community and region.
* Recompilation of an easy to use electronic central library for available
technologies, commercial products, technology experts, research institutions,
patents, international laws, codes and standards, computer programs, funding
sources, key officials, etc.
5. TECHNOLOGICAL COLLABORATION
In the past decades, significant progress has been made based on experimental
and theoretical investigation as well as by computer simulation to improve the
energy conservation of building and urban design such as:
. improving design calculations of heating/cooling requirement and
system/equipment
. improving the methods to estimate energy performance of building HVAC systems
by elaborate simulation methods or by advanced neural network methods
. improving insulation, and fenestration design
. predicting natural air leakage rate and controlling ventilation air intake
. using energy efficient air transport system such as VAV
. improving the control of HVAC equipment by using modern direct digital control
systems and/or theory such as fuzzy or neural network
. Using ice or cold storage systems
. Using comfort index controller instead of thermostat for room environment
controls
. Use of CFD for room air convection
. Introducing improved HVAC equipment such as compressors, heat exchangers,
fans, etc.
. introducing improved HVAC systems such as. economizer cycles, heat reclaim
system, cogeneration system, etc.
. introducing improved machinery such as scroll compressors, better heat
exchangers, inverters, etc.
As far as I am concerned, however, the most effective way of cutting down
electric power consumption and demand, yet often a forgotten element, is the use
of high efficiency lighting systems and daylighting, since electric power demand
for lighting of most commercial buildings is as much as 50% of the total
electric power demand of these buildings.
I
was especially enlightened by the recent development in the United Sates of a
revolutionary lighting system called the sulfur lamp based on the invention of
the Fusion Lighting Company located in my neighborhood of Washington D.C. The
new lighting system consists of a closed quartz sphere filled with an inert gas
and a tiny amount of sulfur, According to a recent Washington Post article (Oct,
21, 1994), one golf-ball-sized sulfur bulb, when irradiated by a compact
microwave generator, can emit as much light as hundreds of high-intensity
mercury vapor lamps, An experimental system with 12KW coupled with a 240-foot,
10-inch diameter light pipe has replaced 240 175-watt mercury lamps, or four
times more lighting energy with one-third of the cost. Massive amount of data in
these fields generated via research projects sponsored by ASHRAE,SHRAE,USDOE,
and others should be made available through CD-ROM or through the Internet to
the developing nations.
Generally speaking, however, I must somehow hesitantly say that the building
environmental engineering is a matured engineering science, and that many active
participants in HVAC research have been aging as observed by Messers Kurosu and
Kamimura at the ASHRAE New Orleans meeting (SHASE Journal 1994. 10) where they
found a majority of attendees being senior citizens. Unlike semiconductors,
material science, biotechnology, and optoelectronics, where exciting discoveries
and new developments are taking place daily, there are not many exciting
technological innovations found in building environmental technology, except for
the development of new
refrigerants, control systems (fuzzy and neural network), and innovative system
integration.
6.
HUMIDITY CONTROL
To
me, one of the most important and challenging tasks, which has been addressed in
the past and is still awaiting practical solutions, is how to design, construct
and operate buildings and environmental control systems most suitable in a
warm and humid climate. This is an especially important subject for pan
pacific countries, a large number of the which are in the tropics. Although
there are several interesting desiccant-based dehumidification technologies
studied in the past, conventional electromechanical refrigeration appears to be
still the most practical and economical approach as far as the future trend
goes.
Everyone recognizes that wide spread availability of electric air conditioning
is the key to the improvement of living standards, the increase of productivity
and leaning ability of the building occupants. Yet it is an expensive and energy
consuming technology associated with global waning and atmospheric ozone
depletion.
"Intensive collaborative efforts are needed to develop economically viable and
innovative, clean, and energy conserving cooling systems, including the fuel
cell based cogeneration system, and the solar powered cooling system (heat
powered or photovoltaic). "
What
is needed most are efficient and practical systems to integrate an innovative
cooling system with an innovative and environmentally benign power generation
system. In this regard, I have one suggestion.
These
clean cooling technologies can be combined with a global energy system proposed
by the researchers at the Osaka Science and Technology Center based on CO2-
methanol recycling principle. The proposed system appears to be grandiose, or
too much of pie-in-the- sky at the moment, yet it is feasible by the presently
available technology, and moreover it is global.
The
greenhouse gas, Or CO2 generated at the power plants is converted into methanol
by using solar energy. The system works like this: First solar energy is
converted into electricity in the desert either photovoltaically or thermally,
the electricity is then used to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen through
electrolytic process, The hydrogen and the recycled CO2 from the power plants
are then used to produce methanol. Methanol and oxygen are then transported to
the fuel consuming countries by tankers. Methanol is then used to generate
electricity which produces CO2, Which is then recovered and transported back to
the methanol producing plant (Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, January 25, 1994)
Another interesting and similar approach is MITI/AIST's International Hydrogen
Utilization Clean Energy System Project called WE-NET, which will start in FY94
with the formal participation by Canadian Hydrogen Industry Association. In
addition, twenty organizations from the U.S., the UK, Germany, Italy also have
shown interest in joining the project. The purpose of WE-NET project is to
develop networks for generating, transporting and storing hydrogen obtained by
making use of natural energy such as solar, windpower and hydroelectric power.
With the use of hydrogen, it is also expected that CO2 emission rate can be
reduced by 10-20%. Basic research will be completed during 1996, design,
construction and pilot operation of a small scale prototype plant will be
completed in 1997, the world scale pilot plant will be completed in 2020. (Nikkan
Kogyo Shimbun March 21, 1994)
7.
OTHER IMPORTANT AREAS I
Other
neglected areas but extremely important and merit international collaboration
R&D that come to mind are:
1.
earthquake resistant design of HVAC systems since the Pan Pacific region suffers
from frequent earthquakes.
2.
water purification and conservation including rainwater use
3.
use of robotics, micromachines, advanced materials, biotechnology for building
environmental engineering technology.
4.
environmental noise and odor controls
5.
control of urban environment
8.
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I
have discussed the importance of international collaboration among the Pan
Pacific nations which are the dominant force of the 21st century in terms of
economic and I technological developments. At the same time the region's healthy
growth depends upon how it controls its environment and energy consumption
through technological innovation.
I
have pointed out that the key to the success of international collaboration is
to identify and stick to several promising areas, which are global and remote
from direct economic competition. In order to achieve successful collaboration,
we must also solve several problems such as the North/South conflict,
intellectual property issues, and communication barriers.
The
most important area of collaboration is to build a satellite-based Pan Pacific
information infrastructure, a modified version of the NII and GII advocated by
U.S. Vice
President Gore as well as by MITI and MPT of Japan. Unlike NII and GII, this
particular information infrastructure is for building environmental technology
networks through which technological, economic, policy related information can
be most readily exchanged to build an efficient and pollution free building
energy systems. I will call this infrastructure PPII-BUE, or the Pan Pacific
Information Infrastructure for Building and Urban Environment. In order to be
effective, PPII-BUE must take advantage of the most advanced NII/GII
technologies of the USA and Japan, and should be able to access available design
and performance simulation information contained in existing handbooks as well
as the advanced research information presented in the ASHRAE and/or SHASE
conference papers. In addition, PPII-BUE should present a convenient platform
for all those who will be involved in building and urban environmental designs
in the Pan Pacific region to be able to perform real time or on-line information
exchange and mutual assistance.
I am truly excited about the opportunity for suggesting such an information
infrastructure for international cooperation at this conference.
9.Bibliography:
Following publication are used for the preparation of this paper.
. Annual Energy Review 1993, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department
of Energy, July 1994
. JapanInternational Comparison 1994, Keizai Koho Center
. Kankyo Hakusho (White Paper Environment) 1993, Environment Agency
. Building Energy Technology, Office of Scientific and Technical Information,
U.S.
Department of Energy
. The Climatic Change Action Plan, President William'J. Clinton and Vice
President Albert Gore Jr., Oct. 1993.
. ASEAN-USAID Buildings Energy Conservation Project: Volume I Energy Standard,
Volume II Technology, Volume III Audits, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, June |