CapitaLand’s Sustainability X Challenge 2022 unveils 10 finalists selected from over 340 entries from across 50 countries

Loh and Sons Paint Co (S) Pte Ltd (Singapore) in partnership with SolCold Ltd (Israel) - The Cooling Power of Sunlight - SolCold’s innovative nano-technological material harnesses the sun’s renewable source of energy to provide zero carbon emission cooling through its multiple cooling mechanisms.  It cools surfaces more efficiently with Anti-Stokes Fluorescence technology and reduces the energy consumption required to cool the environment by up to 10%.  SolCold can be used everywhere and anywhere under the sun that needs cooling. Singapore-based Loh & Sons Paint Co (S) Pte Ltd is partnering SolCold Ltd, an Israeli company, on research & development and commercialisation of SolCold products.

Maini Renewables (India) - Maini Renewables aims to carve out a new niche with a vertical-axis wind turbine designed for urban dwellings.  Its turbines are small, customisable, and allow for greater energy production per unit of area compared with common horizontal axis turbines typically found in large wind farms.  Their flagship product, the Chakra Turbine, produces two times more energy than solar and is able to use low-wind velocities as low as 1.5m/s in populated cities to generate power.  Safety is paramount, and their turbines pose no danger to bird migration patterns, or wildlife, particularly if used in urban settings.  Composed of lightweight materials, the turbine blades are durable and can withstand severe temperatures and wind conditions.  Maini Renewables also reduces its waste footprint by designing its blades, generators, and drivetrain components to be 100% recyclable.

Passive Edge Tech (China) - Passive Edge Tech provides an energy-saving heating and cooling system using phase change material.  Phase change materials are able to absorb, store and release a large amount of heat.  Their solution, EDGE TCSS, utilises a thermal battery made of phase change material and artificial intelligence (AI) energy control technology to cut down energy consumption and carbon emission in the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.  This can also reduce heating and cooling energy consumption by 25-35% and extend the HVAC lifetime by decreasing run time by up to 15-20%.  Passive Edge Tech’s technology can integrate thermal energy storage in buildings using a variety of methods, providing the flexibility to integrate a high share of renewable energy.  It can fill the gap between energy supply and demand by absorbing excess energy in buildings, thereby making it a promising technology.

Slide Luvre (South Africa) - Intended as a solar energy solution for buildings with a lack of suitable roof space, Slide Luvre’s smart voltaic louvres dramatically reduce building energy dependency on external sources by generating solar energy and saves energy by reducing cooling and artificial lighting needs.  It significantly reduces peak daily and seasonal demand loads and can also be used in tandem with rooftop solar to improve early morning and late afternoon generation profiles.  Energy-efficiency savings of up to 50% can be achieved, and it produces up to 80% of rooftop solar energy.

Sunman Energy (China) - Sunman Energy successfully commercialised the world's first glass-free, lightweight and flexible solar panel – the eArc, after conducting extensive research and development since 2014.  The solar modules from Sunman Energy have no protective glass layer.  Instead, they utilise patented composite materials in their panels, with a thickness reduced to 2mm, a near-impossible feat for regular solar panel manufacturers.  By considerably reducing the weight of typical solar panels by 70%, the 2.8 kg eArc can be used on roofs that are unable to support glass modules for static-related reasons, which is predominantly the case for most buildings.  Sunman Energy’s revolutionary eArc panels can be scaled up to cover large areas at a fraction of the weight, with significant returns.

Ecoflow (Singapore) – Ecoflow’s proprietary WAVE Valve helps to improve the efficacy of water meter readings, reducing businesses' water costs by up to 30%.  This is done without the use of power, downtime for the building, or compromising the end user's experience.  The Valve can be inserted into any pipeline without any retrofit works.  The technology compresses air bubbles present in the water pipeline, allowing the accurate (up to 30% lower) volume of water consumed to be reflected.

Hydroleap (Singapore) - Hydroleap's unique electrochemical technology (HL-EO) provides a chemical-free, automated and low-energy solution for the treatment of cooling tower water. HL-EO utilises an electro-oxidation process and generates hydroxyl radicals and free chlorine resulting in a reduction of conductivity, hardness, organics, and ions in the water.  As a result, blowdown water can be reduced by up to 70-80%.  The modularised design allows an easy and fast integration into any existing cooling towers as an in-line or side-line treatment process.

WI.Plat (South Korea) - WI.Plat solves the labour-intensive and painstaking problems typically faced during water leak detection processes.  The company saves time and money typically spent on detecting leaks by using AI and innovative high-precision sonic acoustic sensors and integrates them into an intelligent water leakage management platform with IoT and cloud technology.  Data-driven insights from the intelligent platform also include water pipe conditions, pressure change trends, and acoustic data patterns, among others.  Wi.Plat’s solution does not require technical expertise, as the AI model identifies the leaks and showcases the data in the platform for analysis.

Enexor BioEnergy (USA) - Enexor BioEnergy’s renewable energy system (Bio-CHP) can convert any combination of organic, biomass, or plastic waste into onsite renewable electricity and thermal power while offsetting significant volumes of carbon dioxide.  The company saves most customers at least 20-30% on their current energy and waste disposal costs while concurrently enabling them to become more sustainable with zero upfront CAPEX required as Enexor offers its systems via its novel Energy-as-a-Service model.

CleanAir.ai (Canada) - CleanAir.ai’s ALVI CleanAir Safety System™ (patent pending) uses sensors and active polarisation to provide buildings with HEPA-class air quality.  The system removes harmful microparticulate (less than 0.007 microns) such as viruses, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), bacteria, and mold spores from the air, resulting in a more enjoyable and safer indoor environment. ALVI CleanAir Safety System™ uses sensors and IoT to connect to leading building automation systems to notify the users of air quality events and real-time filter status.  Additionally, it uses a low-pressure drop filter that reduces energy consumption in buildings while reducing HVAC maintenance costs.