As one way to celebrate World Environment Day (WED) observed every June 5, the China-UK Low Carbon College under the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China has launched a series of low-carbon scientific studies, sharing the results for a green life.

The garbage sorting robot (Photo/Xinhua)

One of the studies took place with a garbage sorting robot that could identify and sort different types of garbage 5,400 times per hour, with the accuracy rate reaching 95 percent, according to test results.

"By equipping the robot with different types of recognition sensors and developing supporting algorithms, we allow the robot to identify the color, shape, texture, material and other characteristics of the waste to thus classify the garbage more accurately," said Li Jia, a manager of the project and associate professor of the college.

The research team intends to work with enterprises engaged in environmental protection to facilitate the application of the scientific results, according to Li.

The system that turns household food waste into electricity (Photo/Xinhua)

The China-UK Low Carbon College has also put into trial a green system that could turn household food waste into electricity through anaerobic fermentation.

The system has already been applied on a trial basis in the National University of Singapore, a partner of the college in the project, said Zhang Jingxin, a manager of the project as well as associate professor of the college.

The results show that the electricity produced by 40 kg of kitchen waste could supply 1,000 mobile phones, Zhang added.

Chen Xi, assistant professor at the China-UK Low Carbon College, pointed out that the research team has developed a way of extracting chitin from the shells of shrimps or crabs, which could be used to make chemical and medical products.

The whole process hardly generates any pollutant and is relatively cheap, while the extracted chitin could be 90 percent pure, according to Chen.