Program
18:00 – Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan
- Opening remarks
18:05 – Professor Andreas Züttel, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Director of the Laboratory of Materials for Renewable Energy (LMER)
- Technical and Economic Impact of a Carbon Neutral Energy Economy in Switzerland
The limited fossil resources and the CO2 emission due to the combustion of fossil fuels require a change of the energy economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Global growth in population and wealth is only possible if the material cycles are closed and the sources of energy are renewable. Switzerland is unique in view of electricity production which is since more than 100 years free of CO2 emission. The main challenge in a renewable based energy economy is seasonal storage and the energy for mobility. It has ecologic, technical and economic consequences. What renewable energy conversion and storage system is ecologically acceptable, technically feasible and economically affordable and allows to substitute the fossil fuels.
18:20 – Dr. Gianluca Ambrosetti, CEO and co-founder, Synhelion
- Turning air and sunlight into fuels
Synhelion has developed a pioneering approach to turn air and sunlight into fuels. The ETH Zurich spin-off company uses concentrated sunlight to produce clean synthetic fuels, such as jet fuel, gasoline, or diesel. Dr. Gianluca Ambrosetti, CEO of Synhelion, talks about the current state of the technological development, the road to market-readiness, and explains why liquid hydrocarbon will continue to play a decisive role in the future.
18:35 – Daniel Egger, Chief Commercial Officer, Climeworks AG
- Direct Air Capture technology made in Switzerland: characteristics and opportunities in the Japanese market
More and more governments and companies are setting net zero targets to be compliant with the climate targets set in the Paris agreement. To become net zero it is not only necessary to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible, but also to remove unavoidable emissions. Climeworks has developed a Direct Air Capture technology, where machines are capturing CO2 directly from air. Orca plant in Iceland with a nominal capacity of 4’000 t of Carbon Dioxide Removal per year, delivers the CO2 for underground mineralization where the CO2 is stored permanently and safely.
18:50 – Closing remarks
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SWISSTECH in Japan 2021: Targeting BEYOND-ZERO societies