Taking stock of the hottest innovations on IPI’s online marketplace
A new year has just begun, but it is never too late to start innovating. For inspiration, check out these ten hot TechOffers of 2017.
When innovation meets industrial need, more efficient processes and higher value products emerge. IPI Singapore thus seeks to connect innovators and business owners, brokering win-win situations where technology can be leveraged to address specific pain points within their operations.
We have compiled here a list of TechOffers spanning five key industry areas that were most sought after in the year 2017. Do click on the links for more details on each TechOffer, or browse IPI’s Online Marketplace for more ideas and inspiration.
Generating hydrogen cleanly
Industry area: Energy and Environment
Conventional modes of producing hydrogen gas from natural gas, oil and coal involve industrial heating processes which often lead to carbon by-products and greenhouse gases. In response to the increasing demand for hydrogen, either as a fuel source or as feedstock in manufacturing technologies, cleaner ways to produce and store hydrogen are essential. This hydrogen accumulator allows for the energy-efficient generation of hydrogen by hydrolysis at ambient temperature and pressure.
Recycling food waste
Industry area: Energy and Environment
While composting and the recycling of food waste often invokes thoughts of unwanted odours and unsightly slush, this smart kitchen and food waste recycling system eliminates those issues with its novel microbial treatment that decomposes 95 percent of organic waste within hours, without producing foul-smelling end products. The system can be scaled to handle different volumes of waste and comes inbuilt with cloud-enabled, automatic data collection and transmission.
Increasing the shelf-life of food
Industry area: Personal and healthcare
The browning of food items due to oxygen exposure makes it difficult for suppliers to preserve the appearance of fresh produce. An electro-sprayed edible coating can now prevent browning and retain moisture in foods by regulating the exchange of gases across the layer. Antioxidant natural compounds such as grape and pomegranate seed oil can be added to the coating material for enhanced function.
Producing health products from fruits and botanicals
Industry area: Personal and healthcare
Some fruits are known to be more difficult than others to ferment into nutrient-rich essences. With this fermentation technology, specialty yeast coupled with precise temperature control and nanoprocessing have enabled the successful fermentation of tropical fruits, including red dates, lychees, mangosteens and even durians. Fruit essences derived from this technology are 100 percent natural and align well with increasing global interest in the health food market.
Monitoring vital signs
Industry area: Info-communications and Electronics
In the burgeoning market of wellness-tracking devices, the ability to accurately and credibly measure parameters of wellbeing can be a key product differentiator. Instead of inferring health status from heart rate alone, an electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring system that uses an electrode to measure bio-potential generated by the heart’s electrical signals offers deeper insights. Integrated with wearable chipsets and analytics, the system can provide information on heart rate variability and recovery, respiration rates, and even stress levels.
Integrated solutions for Internet of Things applications
Industry area: Info-communications and Electronics
For a company to implement Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in its operations, the seamless integration of both hardware devices and software components is essential. An IoT platform provider can now help enterprises establish a stable and secure IoT system within three months, inclusive of electronics modules and cloud server. The platform enables efficient usage, fuss-free maintenance and the collection of vital usage data for analysis and feedback to users, and information is encrypted during transmission.
Cleaning made easy
Industry area: Materials and Chemicals
Surfaces that are water-repellent and stain-resistant are a boon for building facades, automobile windscreens and mobile phone displays. This hydrophobic coating, when applied to surfaces such as plastics, glass, aluminium and steel, repels water and oil and allows stains to be easily washed off. Additionally, the coating material has a relatively high hardness, conferring the surface with scratch protection as well.
Lighting up surfaces
Industry area: Materials and Chemicals
While light-emitting bulbs, including light emitting diodes and fluorescent tubes, represent the mainstream form of illumination, technology that turns any surface into a potential light source could be the next generation of innovative lighting. An inverter integrated with multi-layered coating technology has been developed, which can be applied onto or behind surfaces of wood, glass, stone, metal, and even fabric, to make them light up. With an energy efficiency of 92 percent and a life cycle of up to 35,000 hours, the light-emitting coating is both eco-friendly and durable.
Obtaining high-quality graphene
Industry area: Manufacturing
Currently, most graphene is sold in relatively small amounts for research purposes, and the market carries graphene of varied quality. Given the massive utility of graphene in applications such as energy storage, functional coatings, electronics and water filtration, demand for the material is expected to surge. A novel manufacturing process has thus been developed to produce high-quality graphene from low-cost graphite with fewer defects compared to commercially available graphene.
Improving underwater surveillance
Industry area: Manufacturing
Existing forms of remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) are not holistic devices. Users are often forced to choose between depth of operation, function and mobility, often trading off ease of assembly for functionality. Enter the NPROVER—an affordable, high-performance and easy-to-use ROV, weighing only 40 kilograms. It can dive up to 100 meters while streaming live video up to the surface, enabling search and recovery operations, industrial inspections or other aquatic missions. Its eight-thruster configuration provides 360 degrees of manoeuvrability, and both the hardware and software for the NPROVER are customisable.
