The results of the second TERA-Award Smart Energy Innovation Competition, co-organized by Hong Kong and China Gas Co Ltd (Towngas) and State Power Investment Corp Ltd (SPIC), have been announced. Hong Kong startup company i2Cool won the Gold Award with its "electricity-free cooling technology", receiving prize money of $1 million.
The Silver Award went to the State Power Investment Corp Research Institute of Smart Energy Co Ltd, the State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization of Zhejiang University, and the Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies & Systems of the Ministry of Education of Chongqing University, for their efforts in the "CO2 reduction with microalgae from coal-fired flue gas" project. HydroPro New Energy Corp was given the Bronze Award in recognition of its "HydroPro" project. The two teams were awarded $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
The second TERA-Award Award Presentation Ceremony was held in physical format on March 28. i2Cool, a Hong Kong startup company, stood out among 275 entries from 41 countries and regions and emerged as the winner. Its "electricity-free cooling technology" is a zero-energy cooling/heat-dissipating paint that can be applied to architectural coatings, wall tiles and even fabrics. Experiments have shown that a building's roof surface temperature in Hong Kong can be reduced from 60 C to 30 C during the daytime when the paint is applied, and it is estimated that all buildings in Hong Kong could reduce carbon emissions by 600,000 metric tons every year by applying this paint.
Dr Martin Zhu, a co-founder of i2Cool, said that the company's research was inspired by a species of African silver ants that can survive in the desert at a temperature as high as 60 C. Its hair structure has a unique triangular shape that reflects most of the sunlight and dissipates heat like a mirror. The i2Cool team has imitated the hair structure of the silver ants by using a mixture of nanoparticles to produce an external wall coating with a solar heat reflectivity of 95 percent. The coating also emits indoor heat with a 95 percent mid-infrared emissivity, thus greatly reducing the power consumption of air conditioners
Zhu thanked the competition organizers for the Gold Award, which he considered great support for the popularization of their research results. Now i2Cool plans to invest in a factory for the "one-stop" production of related products so that the results can be widely applied among the public.
The Silver Award-winning project uses microalgae for carbon reduction. This project converts carbon dioxide into economically valuable biomass by improving algae strains and using highly efficient photobioreactors. With the new technology, carbon sequestration and algal powder production are five to 10 times higher than with the old technology. The carbon sequestered biomass can be used to produce nutritional foods, functional feeds and organic fertilizers, bringing significant economic, environmental and social benefits.
The Bronze Award-winning project, HydroPro, is a next-generation hydrogen generation system with a higher efficiency than existing green hydrogen technology. It boasts an electricity-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of over 80 percent and a significantly lower cost, which can help accelerate the application of green hydrogen, a clean-energy source, in a wide range of industries.
Towngas Chairman Dr Lee Ka-kit revealed that this year's participating teams came from 18 more countries and regions than the previous edition, an increase of nearly 80 percent, showing that the impact and global reach of the competition have reached new heights. "The winner will not only receive an investment from Towngas, but will also have the opportunity to receive support in its zero-carbon smart industrial parks as an energy storage application scenario. The inclusion of application scenarios is what sets the TERA-Award Competition apart from the rest and what entrepreneurs are lacking most." He added that Towngas will also launch the third edition of the competition in collaboration with SPIC, and looks forward to more entrepreneurs and scientists joining forces to protect the planet.
SPIC Chairman Qian Zhimin congratulated the competition on the new breakthroughs achieved. He said that in the transition from fossil to nonfossil energy sources, the power of technological innovation has a profound impact on the ability to develop and utilize renewable energy sources, and it has become a key point in the energy transition of all countries. He added that his company is willing to work closely with industry leaders such as Towngas in various areas of innovation, providing an abundance of application scenarios for award-winning projects, accelerating the application of innovations, and jointly contributing to the achievement of China's "30-60" goals.
In his speech, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said: "To combat the adverse impacts of climate change, the government has set out four major decarbonization strategies - namely, net-zero electricity generation, energy-saving and green buildings, green transport, and waste reduction, under Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050 to tackle major sources of carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. I am thankful that all the participants of the Towngas TERA-Award Competition have devised innovative smart energy breakthroughs to discover visionary technology and solutions to drive the development of the energy industry and the construction of smart cities, which are of paramount importance to meet the carbon neutrality target."
A new award category, Rising Stars, and a Pioneer Award were introduced at the second TERA-Award to encourage more innovative submissions. Towngas will provide strategic investment or application scenarios with resource-matching services for all award-winning projects to accelerate their implementation.
The second TERA-Award Smart Energy Innovation Competition continued with the theme "Exploring Zero-Carbon Innovations for the Future" to discover innovative technologies and solutions for smart energy around the world and to contribute to the country's "30-60" dual carbon goals.
Source: By HK edition, chinadaily.com, Apr. 04, 2023 [https://epaper.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/04/WS642b6b56a310777689887d95.html]