Inside Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory: A Powerful Country’s Key Base of the “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality” Goals in Sichuan

On February 24, National Business Daily published a full-page article titled Inside Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory: A Powerful Country’s Key Base of the “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality” Goals in Sichuan in the third column [Carbon Neutrality Forum] to introduce Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory’s development history. The full article is shown below.

“Qunxian Road”, “Jicui Road”, ”Kezhi Road”...A number of road names with rich cultural ambience in the northeast corner of Xinglong Lake, Chengdu are bluntly revealing their identity to passers-by in greetings: “Welcome to the Western China (Chengdu) Science City.” In the Science City, Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory is situated in Building No. 12.

“When we moved here, this place was just a frame, an undecorated space of more than 5,000 square meters. Little by little until now, the Laboratory has taken on a new look and is becoming more mature and advanced.” According to Xiao Kai, head of Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory’s Comprehensive Management Department, after more than a year of hard work, the Laboratory has started smoothly, and the operation security team also has an insight into the Laboratory’s six research areas.

At present, 50% of the key technologies to achieve carbon neutrality in the world are still immature, and various innovation activities are still at the stage of contending and arising vigorously. As an important member of Tianfu Laboratories, Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory (hereinafter referred to as “Yongxing Laboratory”) is pooling ideas on resolving difficulties of carbon neutrality and is regarded as a key step for Sichuan to advance the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goals.

After Yongxing Laboratory was launched on December 23, 2021, the first meeting of the first council of Yongxing Laboratory wrapped up in June 2022, revealing its actual operation stage. The reporter of National Business Daily has learned that the above meeting’s significance lied in the documents approved through delineations at the meeting, which not only allowed various tasks to be formally implemented, but also clarified that the number of Yongxing Laboratory’s research directions were changed from the initial 3 to 6. In addition, a number of research centers were set up under the 6 research departments to form a full coverage of key areas of carbon neutrality.

It is Yongxing Laboratory’s ambition to realize interdisciplinary, cross-departmental, and cross-industry technological innovation as soon as possible, so as to get into the ‘national team’ as an ‘all-around player’. As an important carrying unit of technological innovation, the first batch of 9 research centers of Yongxing Laboratory have passed expert demonstration and started operation. Moreover, continuing to promote the demonstration of the research centers will also be the ‘highlight’ of this year.

Long as the journey is, we will reach our destination if we stay the course; difficult as the task is, we will get the job done if we keep working at it. In the field of exploring “carbon neutrality”, Sichuan is accelerating the development of an ‘all-around player’.

“There is no excuse for not participating in the competition on this track”

In recent years, various regions have targeted national laboratories and scrambled to found key laboratories, hoping to take the initiative to make efforts and breakthroughs in “self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology”.

“Tianfu Laboratories”, which were established in this context, represent the highest level of the ‘Sichuan team’ and has attracted the greatest attention in the Sichuan science and technology circle. As one of the first batch of the 4 Tianfu Laboratories, although Yongxing Laboratory got its name from “Yongxing Sub-district, Tianfu New Area”, it has always gripped people’s imagination.

Actually, when “Tianfu Laboratories” were first mentioned publicly in December 2020, it had no relation to “carbon neutrality” because Sichuan desired to focus on fields of strength such as aerospace technology, life sciences, advanced nuclear energy, and electronic information.

Half a year later, in June 2021, the 9th Provincial Congress of the 11th Communist Party of China Sichuan Committee proposed to “focus on electronic information, life sciences, ecological environment, and other fields” to form high-level Tianfu Laboratories; Furthermore, the 10th Provincial Congress of the 11th Communist Party of China Sichuan Committee held in early December of that year made it clear that it was necessary to take Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory as the leader to focus on key common technologies, intensify efforts to make breakthroughs in scientific research, and form a technological innovation system that matches green and low-carbon dominant industries.

Shortly thereafter, on December 23, 2021, Yongxing Laboratory was officially launched, becoming the second launched member among the Tianfu Laboratories.

Sichuan’s reflection upon the current situation is that with the deepening of industrialization and urbanization, the energy consumption demand will continue to grow in the future, promoting carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. If we only emphasis reduction and ignore increase, economic and social development as well as normal production and life will be affected, which will result in unsustainable development. For this reason, we must choose the road of ‘innovation and development’ and ‘agglomeration and development’.

“Carbon neutrality is a major national strategy actively explored by all regions. Based on Sichuan’s energy resources, the achievements of ground disciplines and industries, and the guidance of academicians and experts from Peking University and Tsinghua University, it seems that our foundation is solid, and there is no excuse for not participating in the competition on this track.” Said devoutly by Jiang Xia, member of the Expert Committee of Yongxing Laboratory’s Research Department of Resource Carbon Neutrality and Deputy Executive President and professor of Sichuan University’s College of Carbon Neutrality Future Technology.

Jiang Xia pointed pout that in addition to “rich water and natural gas resources”, Sichuan, this major agricultural province, was also rich in biomass resources. According to the Introduction to Carbon Neutrality Technology compiled by Jiang Xia et al., biomass is the only renewable carbon resource that can be converted into liquid fuels, and “has the potential to replace petroleum.” Biodiesel, biomass fuel, jet fuel, and other biomass liquid fuels can be used as the fuel for engines, boilers, and other equipment.

In other words, once core technologies achieve a breakthrough, followed by large-scale development and utilization, huge economic and social benefits will arise. This is not an isolated example. In the past 10 years, owing to key technological breakthroughs, the global cost of crystalline silicon photovoltaic and wind power generation has decreased by more than 85% and 40%, respectively, leveraging ‘multi-energy complementation between hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic power’ to a new stage.

In Jiang Xia’s views, Yongxing Laboratory’s strength lies in “energy+resources+information” and the key step is to “bring together everyone’s efforts”. In her vision, through green energy, various renewable resources can replace fossil resources, serve the low-carbon development of transportation, construction, and industry, and we can make these resources intelligent and digital through information technology. She added: “In this case, the entire Yongxing Laboratory will be activated.”

We need to establish an actual laboratory

“When I came here, the first question I asked was what kind of laboratory we needed to establish, an actual one or a virtual one.” Before being temporarily assigned to Yongxing Laboratory on March 14, 2022, Xiao Kai had been working at Sichuan University and was fully aware of the potential effects behind different construction models. Finally, he got a definite answer of founding an actual laboratory.

In addition to seconding manpower from Sichuan University, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu University of Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Tianfu New Area Ecological Environment and Urban Management Bureau, and other participating institutions and government departments, the recruitment of talents was also put on the agenda soon.

Over the last year or so, Yongxing Laboratory has continuously distributed “Letter of Talent Recruitment” globally through various talent recruitment events such as “Chengdu Talents’ Day” and “Sichuan Overseas High-Tech and High Talents Conference”. So far, 33 full-time personnel have been hired, including a talent selected in the China Torch Program and 20 doctors.

It was precisely when Wang Ji, a native of Guizhou, saw this “Letter of Talent Recruitment” that he became the first employed doctor of Yongxing Laboratory after graduating from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science in June last year. Wang Ji told us: “After comprehensively comparing the salaries, platforms and development prospects, I believe that there is a scale in every candidate’s mind.” 

According to Wang Ji, Yongxing Laboratory had not been established when he went abroad for further education in 2020. “The laboratory has received strong support from the Provincial Party Committee, the provincial government, and various universities, so the platform is definitely not a problem.” The post-90s doctor emphasized that in recent years, we had become more and more aware of the impact of climate anomalies on normal life, such as heavy rains, high temperatures, and droughts. “Since carbon neutrality is definitely a hot topic and focus in future development, as a researcher, I long to make my own contributions.”

Wang Jia, head of Yongxing Laboratory’s Human Resources Department, said that the laboratory would focus on recruiting and introducing scientific research talents and experimental technology talents, and the total proportion of the two would reach about 75%. Moreover, due to needs of achievement transformation and operation, It would also recruit and introduce about 10% of industrial technology talents and about 15% of management service talents. From the perspective of talent composition, the master’s and doctoral ratio of the entire team must reach more than 80%, talents with senior titles needed to account for more than 40% in the team, and overseas talents needed to account for about 25%.

In the light of the development plan, the number of Yongxing Laboratory’s talents should reach 700 by the end of 2025 and about 1,000 by the end of 2030. “But this doesn’t mean they are all full-time talents.” Wang Jia explained that Yongxing Laboratory’s employment method was diverse, and most of these talents, including chief researchers and leading scientists, were introduced through flexible cooperation. “In the future, there will be many flexible experts among the 1,000 talents.”

At present, Yongxing Laboratory has attracted more than 60 academicians and experts specialize in carbon neutrality across China. Among these academicians and experts, 16 academicians and 5 experts have formed an Academic Committee which mainly provides decision-making consultation on macro-matters such as development planning and research directions; 25 academicians and 29 experts have formed an Expert Committee which is in charge of providing consultation and suggestions for the scientific research planning, team introduction, and talent introduction and development of various research centers (Note: There is overlapping among personnel).

Honestly, it is usually not easy to develop a high-level and international talent team. Confronted with the current shortage of talents in the field of carbon neutrality, Jiang Xia believed that Yongxing Laboratory could strengthen collaboration with universities to stimulate the vitality of “doctors”, the major force of innovation, and introduce talents more effectively through “training while conducting innovation”.

‘Get into the national team’ first before ‘being promoted to captain’

After more than a year of construction and operation, Yongxing Laboratory is gradually mature through formulating complete systems and clarifying functions. With the opening of the first batch of research centers, researchers originally scattered in various participating institutions will soon have offices in Building No. 12.

Observed from the overall pattern, Yongxing Laboratory’s two great changes are clearly. The first change is the adjustment of research directions which are adjusted from the previous ‘zero-carbon energy, resource carbon neutrality, and geothermal energy and carbon sequestration’ to ‘clean and low-carbon energy, resource carbon neutrality, carbon capture and utilization, carbon sink and geological carbon sequestration, pollution and carbon reduction synergy, and integrated coupling under carbon neutrality’; The second change is that Yongxing Laboratory no longer emphasizes its role of ‘China’s first laboratory of carbon neutrality’ and becomes more and rigorous and less pretentious.

“We feature full coverage of the 6 fields including energy, resource, geology, carbon capture, and integrated coupling, which achieves whole-chain and whole-industry coverage”. Xiao Kai expressed that hopefully, after a period of efforts, Yongxing Laboratory could “‘get into the national team’ first before ‘being promoted to captain’”.

To achieve this common goal, 30% of talents in the operation security team choose to rent a room near Yongxing Laboratory.

Why dose it matters to save commuting time? The experience of Zhou Yanli, an employee of Yongxing Laboratory’s Scientific and Technological Innovation Department, is quite representative. On March 14, 2022, it took this postdoctoral employee 2 hours to travel from Southwest Petroleum University in Chengdu’s Xindu District to Yongxing Laboratory by subway, which inspired her to start to move the next day. Now, it only takes her 10 minutes to walk to the office. 

As to the question of whether Yongxing Laboratory is ‘China’s first laboratory of carbon neutrality’, Wang Jia told us it was not a core matter. In fact, Wang Jia noticed that in interviews, talents paid more attention to the platform’s strength as well as the consistence between Yongxing Laboratory’s overall development and personal career planning. “We are bearing an important responsibility to solve the difficulties in carbon neutrality, and we may ‘get into the national team’ in the future; hence, we have ideal development expectations.”

Wang Jia added that in the past year, the team devoted great efforts to ‘system construction’ and has formulated 22 important systems including research center management, scientific research project management, and procurement management, which could cover the current business to be carried out.

In Wang Jia’s eyes, systems are not only ‘characters’ but also key elements to support Yongxing Laboratory’s efficient operation. Therefore, being well-prepared will facilitate the starting stage. “Our focuses in the next three years are to recruit talents and build the team, continue to improve the organizational structure, and make some revisions and additions to the systems in the future. I believe that a high-level team and a complete institutional mechanism can raise this platform to a high starting point.”

As stated in the Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory Strategic Development Plan (2022-2030), by 2030, Yongxing Laboratory will overcome 3-5 major basic original technologies of carbon neutrality, make breakthroughs in 20-30 key application technologies, and cultivate 3-5 green and low-carbon high-tech enterprises.

Currently, Wang Ji is still working on literature research in order to seek for research directions with potential or appeal. He said that in terms of his current technical research on “utilizinfg temperature difference to achieve carbon capture”, research institutions were still in the exploration stage, and “no research institutions have reached the peak.” Consequently, finding a commercial or industrial solution as soon as possible is an opportunity and challenge faced by Wang Ji and Yongxing Laboratory.

[ By Yu Ruijun from National Business Daily ]