Chrysanthemum, a solid waste from beverage industry, was used as a raw material for the preparation of activated carbon through chemical activation with zinc chloride (ZnCl₂), phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) and ferric chloride (FeCl₃). Briefly, the raw material was soaked in solutions of each chemical agent with ratio of 1:2 by weight for different times (1, 6, 12, and 24 h) and then carbonized at 500 °C for 1 h. The obtained activated carbons were characterized for their surface area and porosity by nitrogen gas adsorption at ˗196 °C. The highest surface area of 728 m²/g and total pore volume of 0.48 cm³/g were obtained from chrysanthemum activated with ZnCl₂ for a soaking time of 24 h. The activated carbon with the highest surface area was then characterized for other physicochemical properties and used for the adsorption of methylene blue (MB). The effects of contact time and initial MB concentration were investigated in batch mode. The equilibrium adsorption time was 60 min and the adsorption data followed the pseudo-second order kinetics. The adsorption isotherm was best described by the Langmuir model. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of activated carbon prepared from chrysanthemum for MB was 491.0 mg/g, which is higher than activated carbons prepared from other biomasses using chemical activation. Therefore, chrysanthemum-based activated carbon could be used as alternative adsorbent for MB adsorption from waste effluents.

To enhance productivity of microalgae Haematococcus as an only one producer from nature of anti-oxidative pigment of astaxanthin, effect of melatonin to biomass growth and astaxanthin production from Haematococcus lacustris was investigated under abiotic stress culture conditions of different light intensities. Biomass and astaxanthin production were enhanced to 11% and 25%, respectively with the addition of 1.0 mg L^-1 of melatonin at initial stage of cultivation under high light intensity. Lower concentration of melatonin was effective for growth promotion by improving stress tolerance while higher concentration of melatonin exhibited growth inhibition. Melatonin could be categorized as a bio-stimulant since it was effective at significantly lower dosage compared to other types of additives.

With the growing impact caused by the greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions from traditional thermal power generation, solar energy has drawn much attention from governments in recent years. Constrained by the land factor, the Taiwan Energy Bureau released the “Photovoltaic Two-Year Promotion Plan” on September 8, 2016 to promote the Floating Photovoltaic (FPV) industry. After that, the Agondian Reservoir FPV became the first successful commercial project. In this paper, the authors proposed a synthesis approach based on the exceedance probability approach to conduct the FPV reliability analysis. The case analysis results show that this paper’s proposal is feasible. The plan’s implementation will obtain the effect of CO₂ emission reduction of approximately 1,920 kt (kilo tons) in 20 years. The presented methodology may help evaluate the power supply reliability, reduce failures of FPV systems that have been installed or will install, and assist in extending the FPV system to areas with insufficient power but water bodies.