This center, a partnership of Sino-US industrial, governmental and academic institutions, aims to develop innovative and practical environmental solutions for sustainable development in China and United States. Through its research, the Center strives to help establish meaningful environmental/energy policies, regulations, and guidelines. The Center will also serve as a catalyst for Sino-US industrial and academic collaboration, and will cultivate future environmental engineers for the global workplace.

Organization

The Center is housed at sponsoring academic institutions. At this time, the sponsoring academic institutions comprise of Nankai and Tianjin Universities in Tianjin and Rice University in Houston.  Administration of the Center is through an Advisory Board, which comprises members from industry, government sponsors and co-directors from sponsoring universities. Profs. Wei Chen and Mason Tomson of Nankai and Rice Universities, respectively, will initially serve as co-directors. The Advisory Board shall solicit and fund study proposals from universities. The Center’s current study focus areas are listed here. Further organization details, listing participating researchers and their research areas, are provided in the chart at the end of the document. An operational plan detailing the functioning of the Center is also available.

Primary Activities

Initially, this Center will focus on collaborative environmental research in the Tianjin, China area.  Binhai New Area in Tianjin and the Bohai-rim region of east China is a perfect site for evaluation of environmental and energy impact on a developing industrial area. The Chinese central government has named Binhai New Area the 3rd Economic Growth Focal Point of China, after Shenzhen in the 80’s and Shanghai Pudong Area in the 90’s.  This new area is supposed to be the center of finance, business, and industry of northern China in the near future.  Bohai Gulf is a semi-closed bay and has been severely polluted, similar to Galveston Bay which is well known to Rice faculty.  In addition to existing environmental issues in China, the development of Binhai New Area definitely has emerging environmental and energy issues that are new to legislators and researchers worldwide.  Six Rice University professors recently went to Nankai University and developed a coordinated series of thirteen white paper proposals on research areas of common interest needed to protect the region of Bohai Gulf, similar to the Texas Gulf Coast.  Two more proposals (on air and policy) have been added.  These joint proposals cover the areas of (1) Bioremediation and nanotechnology; (2) Fate and transport of organic chemicals and heavy metals; (3) Hydrology, surface and groundwater modeling; (4) Drinking water purification; (5) Atmospheric pollution control and remediation; and (6) Environmental policy and regulatory structure.  One of the key contributions that this Center can make to the U.S. companies and to the people of the Tianjin area is to act as an independent arbiter to represent unbiased, advanced technical advice. Such confidence will be built by technical studies, conferences, and refereed publications. In this role initially the Center will be a catalyst for sustainable economic development while protecting the environment and people of the regions near Tianjin and Houston.

A.  Research and technology development focus

1)   Nanotechnology application in environmental protection and cleanup.

2)   Drinking water preservation, purification and protection.

3)   Groundwater preservation, remediation, and modeling.

4)   Atmospheric pollution prevention, control, and modeling.

5)   Environmental law, regulation, and policy studies.

6)   Energy issues related to circular economy and sustainable development.

7)   Basic science seed projects.

B.  Technology transfer

1)   Annual Conference: Feature invited speakers from industry and government; update study progress and discuss future research directions.

2)   Publications:  Peer reviewed papers, patent, technical manuals, conference proceedings and best practice recommendations.

3)   Short courses in Tianjin and Houston to explore the technologies, policies, and social/economic issues related to sustainable development.

4)   Provide proactive communication platform to transfer regulatory and technical information to business and governmental entities of both regions.

5)   Facilitate business opportunities for US companies in China and vice versa.

C.  Education

1)   Internships and exchange of respective students, staffs and faculties up to one year.

2)   Short courses: Two to three days with Certificate; e.g., membranes, bioremediation, arsenic removal with nanotechnology. Staffs from respective universities, local companies, and government organizations will be invited.

3)   Travel and living expenses to support selected faculties, staffs, students, and invited presenters.

Background

It has been argued that the economic development in China today is the most significant development in the history of humanity. However, this rapid economic growth has come largely at the cost of significant deterioration of the environment. In addition, with this accelerated development will come enormous demands on natural resources and ever increasing need for resource policy to insure a better life for future generation. Many of the environmental challenges in China today have been faced by Americans in the past few decades, and continue to challenge our best scholars and private and public leaders. These challenges include adequate supply of energy, safe water, clean air, and unpolluted soils and sediments. There are also many other problems that are quite unique and can only be solved by innovative technologies and creative thinking. These similarities and differences are great opportunities for scholars and companies in both China and U.S. to develop the most effective solutions that require new science and engineering.

The challenges of the coastal regions of China are similar to problems that have been addressed in other coastal cities around the world, such as Houston. Earlier, many of the presently accepted Civil and Environmental technologies were developed by the British in an effort to remediate the River Thames and the corresponding sources of pollution from the water sheds. More recently, with respect to specific science and engineering, many ideas and legal concepts have been developed in the U.S., such as water-shed protection and pollution commodities. These national efforts have often been the base to launch significant new understanding and approaches.  For example, it is impossible to enumerate the breakthroughs expected from a collaborative effort concerning the Haihe River basin and Bohai Bay around coastal Tianjin. Given the challenges from run-off related to historical manufacturing and unchecked farming practices, the Tianjin coastal areas form an important case study for development of new environmental technology that will benefit people around the world.  Rice faculties have been successful on a similar challenge with Galveston Bay, near Houston.

In addition to the anticipated new technologies, many of the challenges that are faced by development in China are ones that U.S. government agencies, universities and companies have addressed and have considerable expertise that can quickly be brought to bear in the short term. Many of these approaches will need to be adapted to the needs of the local areas. There will be opportunities for U.S. companies to export technologies and expertise to China and vice versa; and for Chinese companies and government officials to accelerate development, while minimizing the adverse environmental impact of industrialization and similarly for American companies.  Finally, students and professionals recognize that work in the 21st century is global and China and U.S. are major opportunity areas. A central thrust of this Center is to bridge our diverse and different culture and technology. The exchanges of students and professionals will foster understanding and cooperation to the benefit of all.