Sustainability

Decarbonisation

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is crucial for limiting global temperature rise and mitigating the impacts of climate change. The urgency of this challenge has driven the development of decarbonisation technologies and innovations across diverse industries.  

From green energy innovations to carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), as well as emissions tracking and reduction technologies, these curated innovations offer enterprises in Singapore valuable opportunities. By engaging in co-development and co-creation, businesses can harness these technologies to develop cutting-edge products and services that contribute to a sustainable and resilient future across various sectors.

Low-Cost, Intrinsically Safe, and Eco-Friendly Polysulfide Redox Flow Battery
To achieve carbon neutrality, the global expansion of renewable power is essential, but its intermittent nature makes long-duration energy storage (LDES) crucial for stabilizing power generation. Current solutions, such as Li-ion batteries, face significant challenges including safety risks, resource scarcity, and recycling issues, highlighting the need for safer, reliable, and eco-friendly alternatives. Sulphur flow batteries offer a promising solution by using low-cost, earth-abundant materials and storing energy in non-flammable, water-based electrolytes. The battery cost is estimated to be 1/2 of Li-ion and 1/4 of vanadium flow batteries. However, traditional designs suffered from short lifespans and low energy efficiency due to polysulfide crossover and slow reaction kinetics, limiting their commercial viability. The technology owner has developed a breakthrough solution to addresses these challenges. This intrinsically safe, cost-effective, and eco-friendly battery features a proprietary membrane, 20 times cheaper and more selective than commercial Nafion, eliminating polysulfide crossover and improving energy efficiency. Advanced catalysts further enhance reaction rates, resulting in a projected lifespan of over 15 years - double that of Li-ion batteries. Successful pilot production using large-scale roll-to-roll manufacturing has led to the world's first commercial sulphur flow battery with an industrial-grade lifespan. The system charges during off-peak hours and discharges during peak demand, reducing electricity costs by up to 70%. The technology owner is seeking partners to integrate this battery into industrial test-bed sites, including renewable power generation, EV charging stations, and data centres. They are also interested in co-developing energy storage ecosystems in Singapore and establishing supply chain partnerships.
AI Platform for Maritime Carbon Compliance and Operational Efficiency
Maritime carbon emissions are a significant contributor global climate change. The maritime industry faces increasing pressure to comply with stringent carbon emissions regulations from entities like the European Union (EU) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Traditional compliance methods are often manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors, leading to increased operational costs and the risk of hefty non-compliance penalties. This technology is an artificial intelligence (AI) powered platform that automates data collection, emissions calculation, and regulatory reporting for maritime carbon compliance. Seamlessly integrating with existing vessel data systems, it utilizes advanced machine learning algorithms to provide real-time tracking of carbon emissions and Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) performance across entire fleets. The AI-platform also automates the parsing and extraction of data from various document formats using cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technologies, adapting to unstructured and semi-structured data without the need for predefined templates. The technology owner is interested to work with Singapore companies in the maritime sector to testbed the technology and support activities on effective carbon footprint management. The team is also seeking co-development projects on the proprietary AI platform for automated document processing and data extraction across various industries.
High-Performance Lightweight PEM Fuel Cell Stack for Versatile Applications
With rising concerns over environmental pollution and energy shortages, it is crucial to explore alternative green energy sources. Hydrogen stands out as a promising option, especially its use in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. PEM fuel cells offer high efficiency, durability, and pollution-free operation, making them ideal for transport applications and stationary on-site power generation. However, despite their advantages, PEM fuel cells face challenges, including scaling multi-stack systems for large applications, optimising the performance control systems to maintain efficiency, and improving affordability and long-term durability for widespread adoption. To address the challenges and meet high-power demands, the technology owner has designed a patented multi-stack PEM fuel cell system after more than a decade of iterative development. This highly optimized air-cooled system features patented innovations in stack design, optimised assembly processes, and an advanced performance boost control system. The system delivers 2-3 times higher energy density compared to lithium batteries and allows rapid refuelling in just a few minutes. These qualities make it ideal for applications where a lightweight, efficient, and clean energy source is essential, such as drones, telecommunications, and remote power supplies, as well as environments sensitive to air pollution. The technology owner is seeking collaboration with industrial partners, particularly companies interested in manufacturing fuel cells, developing fuel cell systems, creating customised fuel cell applications, or engaging in joint R&D for fuel cell system innovation.
Biodiesel Raw Material from Fried Food Scraps
Cooking oil waste has become a significant environmental problem in recent years. Improper disposal of used cooking oil and fried food scraps can lead to pollution of water sources and the release of harmful greenhouse gases. When poured down into drains, it travels through sewage systems to rivers and oceans, disrupting ecosystems, clogging water treatment plant filters, and complicating water purification processes. Additionally, there are higher costs associated with waste disposal in volume-based plastic garbage bags which are also not environmentally friendly. This technology addresses the above pain points by offering a sustainable solution that recycles discarded fried food scraps into high valued biodiesel raw material, preventing water pollution and sewage pipe blockage when discarded without appropriate measures. This innovation addresses a critical market need by providing a greener alternative to conventional disposal methods, reducing waste disposal costs and the production of high valued biodiesel as an end point.  The technology owner is seeking collaborations with companies in the fields of waste management and biodiesel production for test-bedding and research & development projects aimed at recycling fried food scraps into biodiesel.
Carbon Mineralization Technology for Upcycling of Industrial Solid Waste
With rising concerns about carbon emissions, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) plays a crucial role in combating climate change. CCUS helps reduce emissions by capturing carbon from flue gas, removing carbon from the atmosphere, and transforming captured carbon into value-added products. However, conventional CCUS technologies often involved high energy consumption and operational expenses. Current carbon mineralization processes face challenges such as slow reaction rates, limited scalability, and high associated costs. To address these challenges, the technology owner has developed an economically viable carbon mineralization technology that integrates carbon fixation and the reuse of industrial solid wastes in an integrated manner. This technology targets both carbon utilization and long-term carbon storage. It focuses on using alkaline industrial solid wastes, such as steel slag, fly ash, and cement waste, which are rich in calcium and magnesium oxides, to efficiently sequester CO2. The process involves leaching calcium and magnesium ions from slag and precipitating them as carbonates for various applications. This modular technology is scalable and adaptable to different waste materials, promising substantial carbon reduction and transforming industrial waste into valuable resources. Implementing this technology allows steel, cement and chemical companies to tackle high carbon emissions and waste disposal issues simultaneously. The final product, with carbon-negative properties, helps downstream clients reduce the carbon footprint of their products, such as plastic, paper, rubber tires, paint and cement.  The technology owner is seeking collaboration with industrial partners, especially industrial waste producers, high carbon emission plants, cement companies using post-carbonation slag, and manufacturers of paper, plastic, and rubber.
Revolutionizing PGM Recycling: Efficient Recycling of Platinum Group Metals
Platinum group metals (PGMs) are critical raw materials essential in diverse industries, including automotive catalytic converters, jewelry, glassware, petrochemical refining, electronics, and healthcare sectors like pharmaceuticals and dental implants. Primarily sourced through the mining of PGM ores, they constitute about 70% of the global PGM supply, with South Africa and Russia accounting for 85% of this production. This concentration in supply can lead to price gouging and market monopoly. Recycling PGMs from waste not only mitigates the supply shortfall but also reduces environmental impacts compared to mining. However, conventional recycling methods are energy-intensive, requiring temperatures around 1500°C, and involve costly downstream processing to treat waste. Furthermore, the high processing temperatures result in high-value raw materials being burnt and releasing harmful toxins. The technology owner has developed a novel biorecovery method that incorporates and modifies a series of biochemical and biological processes into a streamlined 3-stage process as opposed to the multi-tiered stages of current conventional methods used in industry. It offers the following advantages over the competition: Energy Efficiency: consumes 6x less energy than traditional methods Cost Effective: 3x cheaper in operation cost High Yield: capable of recovering multiple PGM simultaneously with high yield even from low-grade waste Sustainability: support company decarbonization goals by offering a truly green and sustainable recycling manner for spent catalyst
Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for Enhanced Energy Storage Solution
Today, the cost of energy generated by renewable sources is less than conventional energy. However, current energy storage solutions (e.g. Lithium-ion battery etc.) used to harness energy from renewables are expensive, unsafe and unreliable which has severely impeded the adoption and development of such renewable sources. Hence, there is a need for a cost efficient, safe, environmentally friendly and reliable energy storage system (ESS) to address these existing issues. This technology offer is a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) as a promising ESS. Unlike lithium-ion and lead acid batteries, VRFB has the flexibility to design and customise its power and energy density independently. This results in enhanced performance in terms of round-trip efficiency, energy density and thermal window as well as lowered levelised cost of storage when benchmarket against lithium-ion battery based ESS for long discharge duration. The VRFB also uses a unique stack design and an organic additive mixture on the electrolyte that improves the thermal stability and allows for 25% increase in energy efficiency when compared to other VRFB solutions.It also reduces safety risks related to over-charging, discharging and thermal runaways. This VRFB ESS is stable for up to 25 years with no electrolyte degradation and is made with environemtally friendly materials. The technology owner is seeking partner and collaborators especially those in renewable energy, large scale utility and microgrid projects to test bed their technology.
Data Centre Electrical Asset Monitoring Platform
Driving sustainability, efficiency and carbon reduction in data centres is a complex and increasingly challenging requirement. The increased global use of high-definition video streaming, conversational AI modelling technologies and online meeting platforms puts increasing strain on data centres.  To meet these complex challenges, an AI, data-driven solution is required. The proprietary solution proposed herein is a data acquisition and analytics system designed for deployment in data centres.  The solution employs non-intrusive clip-on current transformers which are easily installed at electrical distribution boards, which continuously gather current signatures information at a high sampling rate. This enables AI algorithms to detect subtle changes and patterns in the electrical signature of each connected asset or device. Monitoring electrical assets has traditionally been complex and costly, requiring multiple sensors and expensive systems, and often requires deployment near to the asset or device to be monitored. This has led to widespread under-monitoring, resulting in expensive maintenance and significant energy inefficiencies. The solution extracts a proprietary set of deep energy data from electrical devices such as, uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs), Chillers, power distribution units (PDUs) and air conditioning and can be easily installed on both new and existing infrastructure. It offers real-time monitoring and reporting on important metrics such as real-time power usage effectiveness (PUE) and enables automation of sustainability reporting. This technology offers an industry-changing solution: a non-intrusive cost efficient AI-powered monitoring system that is easy to install. It generates a proprietary data set that fuels machine learning algorithms, enhancing efficiency and reducing total cost of ownership for data centre managers and owners.  The technology owner is seeking opportunities to demonstrate the capabilities in the data centre environment, preferably based in Singapore.
Carbon Dioxide Removing Additive for Textiles
As rapid global warming accelerates, the need for increased sustainability efforts has become a critical societal challenge. While individual lifestyle changes can contribute, their impact remains limited without broader systemic shifts. This places significant pressure on industries, particularly the fashion & textiles sector, a major contributor to climate change responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising this industry is therefore crucial to achieving a sustainable future. This technology enables textiles and fabrics to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from air. The patent-pending material functionalises textiles to capture CO2 present in air which is sequestered into a harmless mineral during the laundering process. The resultant mineral which is environmentally safe is then washed away, leaving the textile recharged to remove CO2 once more. With this technology, decarbonisation of the textiles industry can be achieved through the decentralised action of consumers utlising functionalised carbon removing products. The technology owner is interested in working with interested companies in the fashion industry value chain to test-bed this new material for carbon removing apparel and fabrics.