Wastewater treatment for more than 10 million people in Japan depends on the purification process by an advanced septic tank. Advanced septic tanks (AST) and their proper maintenance are necessary for sustainable wastewater treatment in Japan. However, the majority of AST maintenance companies have big challenges: insufficient staff, inefficient work culture caused by paper-based administrative work, and technical difficulties in remote monitoring of ASTs. It is an urgent task to increase human and time efficiency in the operation of the AST maintenance company by the digitalization of their business, and to ensure that proper and sustainable maintenance reaches all ASTs.
We provide AST maintenance companies with an “automatic maintenance scheduling” based on sensored AST condition, an “operation assistance system” that digitalizes the administrative tasks, and a “visualization for AST condition”. Three services are geared by an IoT sensor newly developed for AST. By implementing these systems, maintenance companies can increase the number of ASTs maintained per unit of staff. Monetizing model is that the maintenance companies pay a sensor installation fee for each AST, a system installation fee, and system usage subscription fee.

EnergyBank is on a mission to decarbonize global electricity grids. We are developing a novel energy storage system to make the most of renewable energy and provide an alternative to fossil-fuelled electricity plants. Our Deep Ocean Gravitational Energy Storage (DOGES) technology has significant cost and environmental advantages over other low-carbon energy storage and deployment alternatives.

The DOGES system converts energy between electrical and gravitational potential by lifting and lowering large masses (tokens) on vertical tendons between the ocean floor and a floating spar buoy moored with tethers.

Renewable energy provides the lowest cost generation in most electricity markets. It’s limited in use due to its unreliable output profile. Low-cost, mid-duration energy storage (50-200 hours @ <$20/kWh installed) is widely seen as the solution to this problem. EnergyBank can provide this at less than 10-30% of the cost of today’s lithium-ion storage and less than half of the 2035 projected cost of lithium-ion options. We have identified 42 countries with deep water close to large urban centres. We see an immediate demand for 14,222GWh of storage in these countries, growing to 22,075GWh by 2040. At $9m/yr/unit, this would be worth $128b/yr growing to $232b/yr by 2040. 

Liquium is developing the next clean li quid fuel for heavy industries by building new, efficient, green and scalable ammonia plants to align with renewable energy generation and zero carbon fuels.

Liquium has unique IP for the production of ammonia under mild conditions with a new catalyst, allowing commercial ammonia production to be re-imagined at new economic scales. Ammonia production with Liquium’s catalyst will significantly reduce capital and operating costs (external modelling supports cost savings of >50%) of an industrial plant by a simpler process and less demanding infrastructure requirements.

Liquium’s business model focuses on two different key target markets. Firstly, renewable energy generation where MW scale projects typically do not align to hydrogen and ammonia production. But with Liquium these market opportunities in energy storage, distribution and utilisation can support local markets and use cases. Secondly, aligning to macro scale (thousands of tonnes per day) ammonia production to support the clean fuel diversification that is required for heavy industries such as the maritime sector. Following this pathway allows Liquium to scale ammonia production with market need and de-risk a new technology, and support economies transitioning from fossil fuels to clean alternatives such as Japan.

SunGreenH2 is an award-winning startup building the world’s highest performance water electrolysis technology
that doubles (2x) production of green hydrogen while significantly reducing platinum group metal loading and energy consumption. Our proprietary component technology is the result of over 10 years of research in nanotechnology and electrochemistry. The company is currently working with leading electrolyser manufacturers and hydrogen end users to bring its products to market.

Human inspection tasks are slow, inefficient and costly. We have developed a set of products namely BaggageAI,CounterfeitAI and SolarAI to automate the tasks making them faster and far more efficient.

BaggageAI automatically detects threat items in the X-Ray scan of Baggages at security checkpoints. Once the baggage passes through the X-Ray baggage scanner, the X-Ray image is generated. This image is processed by BaggageAI software to detect threat items in it and raise alarms for the operator.

CounterfeitAI automatically detects counterfeit/fraudulent electronic items in the e-commerce supply chain.When the package passes through X-Ray baggage scanner the X-Ray image of the package is generated. CounterfietAI figures out the item details of the item being scanned through the database and then compares the X-Ray image of the package with that of the original one.

SolarAI is an AI powered solution that identifies and classify defects in thermal images of solar panels. SolarAI works on the thermal images captured through drones and identifies and classifies type of defect in these images. It also provides the detailed location of defect in the power plan which enables auto-scheduling of the maintenance tasks.

We cannot prevent an earthquake. We can, however, build to avoid its destructive impacts. Tectonus has invented innovative seismic dampers with an additive self-centring capability that re-centres structures during earthquakes and aftershocks.

Tectonus dampers, primarily used for commercial buildings and liquid storage tanks, not only improves the structural resiliency but also significantly reduces business disruption and evacuation times, for both new and retrofit applications of any size and material (steel, concrete and timber).

Tectonus dampers have been used in various greenfield projects, including Nelson Airport, Hutt Valley Health Hub, Yealands Wineries and Fast + Epp HQ in Vancouver. More greenfield projects are to be started, including the world’s tallest timber-only building in a seismic zone in Vancouver, a public transport building with >$3M revenue and our first Japanese project with the largest construction company in the country, Obayashi.

Widuz is developing a new class of renewable and sustainable material called BVL™ (Bamboo Veneer Lumber), which is a high-performance patented structural lumber synthesized from bamboo fibres. BVL is up to 3 times stronger than timber while is not susceptible to any decay or degradation, and is much more dimensionally stable. BVL is suitable for construction of modular prefab buildings in place of other non-renewable construction materials such as concrete and steel.