Search Results for: japan

BY DEIRDRE MASON

RECYCLING products as large as motor vehicles; or encouraging public authorities to buy environment-friendly autos seem such good ideas, laws insisting this happens is surely just commonsense? Not so in Europe, it would appear, where a string of countries are in trouble for not implementing the European Union’s recent (EU) green procurement directive; and one – Italy – is facing potential legal action for flouting the EU’s end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive, even though these was approved in the year 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MARK ROWE, GERARD O’DWYER, ALAN OSBORN and MJ DESCHAMPS

COGENERATION has been something of a test-bed for European Union (EU) energy development policy, and like any experiment, some things have worked and others have not. Also, because other energy priorities have become the subject of more effective legislation recently, cogeneration has been left behind to some extent in the EU’s push for a cleaner, greener, sustainable and more liberal energy sector.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S textiles ministry’s top official Rita Menon has predicted at a conference of Indian clothing exporters the country’s garment exports would rise to US dollars USD14 billion for the year to March 2012, 26% higher than the previous year.…

BY WANG FANGQING

Japanese probiotic drinks manufacturer Yakult Honsha Co. has revealed a plan to further expansion in emerging markets including India, Indonesia and Brazil. "As the population in Japan continues to shrink, we have to seek sales growth in emerging markets, where the economy and young populations are booming," said a Yakult spokesman in Tokyo.…

BY MARIANNE BROWN and KEITH NUTHALL

A CHINK of light in the gloom spread over the nuclear industry by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster can be seen to the south, where south-east Asian governments seem keen to push ahead with their nuclear expansion plans regardless.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has approved two more plastics ingredients as safe for use in certain food contact materials. The European Union (EU) agency’s panel on food contact materials, enzymes, flavourings and processing aids (CEF) was looking at phosphorous acid, mixed 2,4-bis(1,1-dimethylpropyl)phenyl and 4-(1,1-dimethylpropyl)phenyl triesters and at an additional use of 3,4-diacetoxy-1-butene.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FORMER owners of cosmetics companies bearing their own names can block the trademarking of these titles by subsequent owners, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. This judgment came in a case involving Italian fashion designer Elio Fiorucci who had sold Fiorucci SpA and its intellectual property to Edwin Co Ltd, of Japan.…

BY MARK ROWE

CO-GENERATION (or combined-heat and power – CHP) plants operate using a variety of technologies: gas turbines, fuel cells, Stirling engines, gas or diesel engines and combined cycle gas turbines. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the European Union’s (EU) scientific and technical research body – natural gas is currently the preferred fuel across Europe for co-gen, with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and gas turbine plants expected to become the predominant future technology for large-scale units.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, DAVE YIN and WANG FANGQING

A GOOD deal of excitement has been created by the announcement this week in the UK academic journal Nature Geoscience that significant deposits of rare earths have been found in the Pacific Ocean floor.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN nuclear power plants have adequate plans and resources to handle a disaster such as that engulfing Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, a report released by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has argued. However, the study – ‘Safety Evaluation of Indian Nuclear Power Plants Post Fukushima Accident’ – has made several recommendations to boost safety levels and has outlined a detailed roadmap for their implementation, with deadlines ranging from two to 14 months.…