Message from the President
Toward the Attractive Association |
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| My name is Takewaki of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, and I will serve as President of the Japan Zeolite Association (JZA) for a two-year term starting in June 2022. I would like to continue to emphasize the following points as proposed by the previous president, Prof. Kubota: (1) Encouragement and nurture of young researchers, (2) Commitment to the international community, and (3) Cooperation among industry, government, and academia. Especially for the industry-government-academia collaboration, I would like to make the conference more attractive to both academia and industry by making more concrete proposals. This is because I am the chairman elected from corporations. Without supports from you belonging to the JZA, our various attempts will not be succeeded, so we would like to ask for your continued cooperation. The report of Working Group I of the Sixth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was submitted in 2021, and the sixth integrated report is expected in 2022. The report sounds the alarm about rising carbon dioxide concentrations and more specifically indicates the urgent need to reduce them. In Japan, Carbon Neutral Declaration for 2050 has been issued and a Green Innovation Strategy has been issued in conjunction with the declaration. (revised in June 2021), and in April 2021, a 46% CO2 reduction by 2030 was announced at the Climate Summit. Thus, global warming countermeasures are an urgent issue, but at the same time, reports from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other organizations indicate that the major technologies for this purpose have not yet been perfected and will depend on future innovations. Global warming countermeasures require new technologies that require many innovations, such as technologies to further promote energy conservation, high-efficiency and low-cost CO2 capture technologies, so-called CCU technologies to make effective use of captured CO2, CO2-free hydrogen production technologies for this purpose, and chemical recycling technologies for polymers. Here, zeolites and other porous materials can contribute in many ways, such as CO2 adsorption and separation, and catalytic reactions using CO2. In the global crisis of climate change, it is my hope that R&D is accelerated with mind that zeolites can be used to save the earth through collaboration among industry, government, and academia. |
 Takahiko Takewaki (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) |
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| Of course, global warming is not the only area where zeolites can be used. Zeolites have already been used in a variety of fields, including the treatment of radiation-contaminated water and oxygen concentrating materials from the air for respiratory treatment in the COVID-19 pandemic. In the digitalized society of the future, materials with unprecedented functions will be needed, and zeolite is expected to develop new physical properties and expand its applications by, for example, combining it with polymers. Of course, this requires the development of basic technology. The synthesis mechanism of zeolite is still not well understood, and the development of basic technology may enable us to design and synthesize zeolites with new structures and functions, for example. In order to create useful materials for the new era, it is necessary for industry, government, and academia to engage in friendly competition. I would like to enable the JZA to promote the engagements. Unfortunately, due to the corona disaster resulting in various restrictions, the JZA has not been able to hold enough face-to-face events and not been able to avoid holding those with online over the past two years. Of course, we will continue to use online meetings in the future, but we will also revive the face-to-face meetings and provide opportunities for closer exchange of information as the situation demands. In addition to zeolites and mesoporous silica, we also hope to actively bring up a topic of various porous materials such as MOFs and related new materials and technologies on seminars and research presentations, and to develop the society so that it can attract the attention of a wider range of people. We would like to make the Japan Zeolite Association an effective forum for exchange with you, and would appreciate your active participation and cooperation in this endeavor. |
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