News on China's scientific and technological development.

Partnering with Horizon will accelerate innovation in China: CARIAD CEO

The Chinese market is highly advanced and companies have to accelerate the pace of their innovation, said Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of CARIAD, an automotive software company under Volkswagen Group, in an interview with the Global Times. Hilgenberg was speaking after the largest single investment in China's chip industry.

CARIAD announced in October that it would form a joint venture with Horizon Robotics, one of the leading providers of computing solutions for smart vehicles in China, with CARIAD as the majority shareholder.

Volkswagen Group will invest €2.4 billion ($2.47 billion) in the cooperation with Horizon Robotics.

“In a car market and environment as competitive as China, speed is of great significance. By partnering with Chinese technology company Horizon, we can jointly accelerate innovation in China, develop advanced driver assistance systems for the Chinese market and autonomous driving-related features, and bring together talent for the arrival of L4 autonomous driving,” Hilgenberg said.

The cooperation with Horizon is the first open cooperation between CARIAD and a Chinese high-tech startup and is a key step in improving autonomous driving, the Global Times learned.

Through the cooperation, CARIAD will integrate the Chinese high-tech startup into the supply chain system of software and hardware solutions of Volkswagen Group.

Together CARIAD and Horizon Robotics plan to develop cutting-edge, highly optimized full stack ADAS/AD solutions for China to drive forward the integration of numerous functions on one chip, increasing the stability of the system while cutting costs and reducing energy consumption, according to a newsletter on the CARIAD website.

Hilgenberg described the Chinese tech start-up's research and development team as "highly innovative and committed to coming up with incredible innovations to drive the development of the entire market, including improving the safety of autonomous driving."

Chang Qing, CEO of CARIAD's China subsidiary, added that Volkswagen's production and integration advantages and Horizon's algorithm, software and chip capabilities can complement each other's development and innovation.

Since the establishment of CARIAD’s China subsidiary, the company has planned six key areas for innovation and development for the Chinese market, including user experience, user interaction and autonomous driving.

Germany's largest chemical company BASF announced that it will permanently relocate its business to China. Europe's unbearable energy costs and China's rich experience are the main factors. The decision follows similar decisions by several German industrial giants, notably Volkswagen, which also recently announced it was "considering" a move.

China released a stunning scientific image of the surface of the sun on Monday, the very first image produced by its "Hard X-ray Imager (HXI)" in space and the only of its kind available around the world.

Another Major Breakthrough -

on November 23 that according to the First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, the "Space Furnace" designed and manufactured by the China Rocket Academy has continuously operated for 485 days, breaking the world record for the fifth time.

The "Space Furnace" device with a world-record running time is located in the Haoyuan project in Anhui. Up to now, it has been running continuously for 485 days at full load, setting a new record for the continuous operation (Class A) time of the world's entrained bed gasification technology.

"Space Furnace" is the full name of Aerospace pulverized coal pressurized gasifier. It is designed and developed by Aerospace Long March Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. of the Rocket Academy (referred to as "Aerospace Engineering Company"). With the accumulated advantages in the development, production and testing of technologies such as special pumps and valves, we have developed the aerospace pulverized coal pressurized gasification technology with completely independent intellectual property rights in my country, breaking the foreign technology monopoly in one fell swoop..

sunnymaxi said:

Another Major Breakthrough -

on November 23 that according to the First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, the "Space Furnace" designed and manufactured by the China Rocket Academy has continuously operated for 485 days, breaking the world record for the fifth time.

The "Space Furnace" device with a world-record running time is located in the Haoyuan project in Anhui. Up to now, it has been running continuously for 485 days at full load, setting a new record for the continuous operation (Class A) time of the world's entrained bed gasification technology.

"Space Furnace" is the full name of Aerospace pulverized coal pressurized gasifier. It is designed and developed by Aerospace Long March Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. of the Rocket Academy (referred to as "Aerospace Engineering Company"). With the accumulated advantages in the development, production and testing of technologies such as special pumps and valves, we have developed the aerospace pulverized coal pressurized gasification technology with completely independent intellectual property rights in my country, breaking the foreign technology monopoly in one fell swoop..

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Is this for space use? Or is it something that China Rocket Acadamy developed for civil uses on earth?

For a moment I thought these Chinese scientists have made a coal burning rocket engine to prove Guo Degang wrong.

SanWenYu said:

Is this for space use? Or is it something that China Rocket Acadamy developed for civil uses on earth?

For a moment I thought these Chinese scientists have made a coal burning rocket engine to prove Guo Degang wrong.

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to be honest. i also even don't know.

can any member explain this technology. thank you

SanWenYu said:

Is this for space use? Or is it something that China Rocket Acadamy developed for civil uses on earth?

For a moment I thought these Chinese scientists have made a coal burning rocket engine to prove Guo Degang wrong.

Click to expand...

sunnymaxi said:

to be honest. i also even don't know.

can any member explain this technology. thank you

Click to expand...

China Rocket Academy used their experience in aerospace to design and manufacture the pulverized coal pressurized gasifier. It apparently broke some record in continuous full load operation which is a sign of its quality.

The device is the core component in the coal gasification process which takes pulverized coal, water and oxygen then outputs various gases like methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sludge. The gases can be used in industry, energy, or further processed into gasoline and diesel.

China has massive reserves of coal and a large built up industry revolving around it. In case of supply issues from oil and natural gas imports, China can make up some of the shortage through coal gasification. This being a domestic device helps with energy independence.

Most of the demand is from regular civil industry but the products of coal gasification can be used in rockets as well.

SilentObserver said:

China has massive reserves of coal and a large built up industry revolving around it. In case of supply issues from oil and natural gas imports, China can make up some of the shortage through coal gasification. This being a domestic device helps with energy independence.

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Not really, there's a problem with this technology

SilentObserver said:

The device is the core component in the coal gasification process which takes pulverized coal, water and oxygen

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China doesn't have the water resources to use this on a large scale. A much better path to energy independence is electrification of transportation along with building up renewables and nuclear power.

ZeEa5KPul said:

Not really, there's a problem with this technology

China doesn't have the water resources to use this on a large scale. A much better path to energy independence is electrification of transportation along with building up renewables and nuclear power.

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SilentObserver said:

China has massive reserves of coal and a large built up industry revolving around it. In case of supply issues from oil and natural gas imports, China can make up some of the shortage through coal gasification. This being a domestic device helps with energy independence.

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As stated earlier this will help with energy independence, not the total solution. I do agree that renewables and especially nuclear will make sense as the bulk of electricity generation as a future goal. However the transition will take decades. Electrification of transportation is underway but won't be complete anytime soon. Cars, planes, ships still need gasoline, diesel, kerosene. Coal gasification leverages existing coal extraction and processing industry while fulfilling the demand for liquid fuels in transportation. The process also produces H2 for use in hydrogen vehicles but I don't see mass adoption of that beyond niche applications.

I don't see this as a problem in the technology in itself, it depends on how it plays it's part in the energy and industrial mix. China faces a hostile geopolitical environment that it must weather before achieving energy security with renewables and nuclear or pie in the sky ideas like fusion. I don't doubt sustained net positive fusion will be achieved in the future but it's important to stay grounded with solutions that can help in bridging the gap. This is also not meant to be the lowest cost solution, rather it plays a part in diversification to reduce systemic risk.

China-made system monitors greenhouse gases​

Chinese scientists have developed an advanced greenhouse gas monitoring system named GONGGA that can provide accurate estimates of the global sources and sinks for carbon dioxide, scientists said on Wednesday.

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All of China's core hydropower control systems have been developed domestically.

China’s core control system of hydropower units achieves 100% domestic development

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Huawei will connect a lot of remote areas in the world.

DICP of CAS made major breakthrough in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP).

Paper in English:

Fused silica with sub-angstrom roughness and minimal surface defects polished by ultrafine nano-CeO2​

Abstract​

Surface quality of fused silica, particularly surface defect and surface roughness, is a key factor affecting the performance of high-power laser and short-wave optical instrument, and so on. Herein, the super smooth surface of fused silica with roughness of sub-angstrom level and exceedingly few submicron defects was achieved by using ultrafine nano-CeO2 with primary particle size less than 4 nm, low secondary particle agglomeration strength, and high Ce3+ concentration. Furthermore, CeO2 involve in polishing process in the form of primary particle was certified by experiment. Moreover, the cause for the generation of submicron defects on fused silica surface was investigated for the first time from the perspective of secondary particle agglomeration strength of CeO2. The concentration of Ce3+ in CeO2 was characterized by the redshift of the band-gap energy, and the analysis of material removal rate (MRR) and contact angle of polished fused silica shows that Ce3+ enhances MRR through increasing the silanol group on fused silica.

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News release in Chinese:

近日，我所化学激光研究中心李刚研究员、金玉奇研究员团队（700组群）与生物能源化学品研究组（DNL0603组）合作，以自主合成的新型超细纳米氧化铈（CeO2）为抛光浆料，利用化学机械抛光（CMP）技术，加工出极低缺陷亚埃级（＜0.1nm）表面粗糙度的超光滑石英光学表面，并深入研究了加工过程中CeO2纳米颗粒与石英表面的物理及化学变化过程，进一步提升了对CMP抛光机理的理论认知。


本工作中，研究人员制备出一类尺寸小、粒度分布窄的超细纳米CeO2抛光浆料，其平均一次粒径小于4nm。通过CMP技术参数的调控和优化，研究人员实现了表面粗糙度（RMS）小于0.1nm的极低缺陷石英光学表面的加工。对比研究发现：石英元件表面粗糙度主要受CeO2一次粒径尺寸和粒度分布影响，一次粒径尺寸越小，粒度分布越窄，越有利于超光滑表面的形成；从“CeO2团聚强度”这一全新的角度，阐释了CeO2团聚强度是影响石英元件表面亚微米尺寸缺陷形成的关键因素。此外，通过对石英元件抛光去除速率以及表面接触角的分析，研究人员提出了CeO2浆料中Ce3+促进石英表面羟基形成进而提升抛光去除速率的化学去除模型。