Sustainability

Within one’s body, approximately 100 trillion microorganisms, mainly bacteria, coexist. Surprisingly, these microorganisms outnumber the number of cells in the body by a staggering 300-fold. These tiny inhabitants play a crucial role, producing both beneficial and harmful metabolites that your body cannot generate. Essentially, they function as a concealed vital organ within you. Research indicates that the majority of these microorganisms, about 95%, reside in your gut, where they exert a significant influence on approximately 70% of your immune system and are closely linked to the development of 90% of non-communicable diseases. Consequently, the gut microbiome stands as one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the past decade. Unlocking the secrets of one's unique gut microbiome composition holds a key to health monitoring, predicting medication effectiveness, and tailoring treatments. Notably, the gut microbiome closely correlates with dietary and lifestyle choices and can be modulated to prevent health issues rather than merely correcting them. However, the lack of comprehensive knowledge and databases in Southeast Asia represents a significant gap in this field. Bridging this gap promises to yield invaluable insights and drive future healthcare breakthroughs.

Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, responsible for 74% of deaths worldwide. It is predicted that, by 2060, total deaths of NCDs per capita will increase by 52%, while those of communicable diseases decline. However, more than half of the deaths are preventable with lifestyle adjustments. Personalised healthcare and wellness have the potential to help people live longer, healthier lives, and to reduce the burden of chronic diseases. As technology advances, drawing connections between genetic data and personal insights is becoming more  prevalent. The use of genetic data ranges from lifestyle change and intervention to disease prevention. This Thai startup offers a biointelligence platform, founded to equip health professionals with comprehensive genetic information regarding patients’ or users’ predisposition to serious disease risks, which could be prevented or detected earlier. Together with an enabler platform for personalised health and wellness journey, they are able to provide tailored solutions for improved health and wellness, starting with the use of genetic data. The technology owner is seeking partners in Singapore, such as supplement manufacturers, wellness clinics, and wellness tourism, to co-develop personalised solutions that integrate the use of genetic data to help people live longer and healthier lives.

The use of bioplastics has grown rapidly in recent years as consumers and businesses become more aware of the environmental benefits of these materials. However, there are still some challenges that are inherent to bioplastics such as high costs in comparison to fossil-based plastics and that not all bioplastics are derived from bio-based sources, biodegradable or compostable. These materials also face processing limitations and lower mechanical properties which often results in the combination of fossil-based polymers being added to improve these properties. This technology aims to address these factors to increase the adoption of bioplastics in more applications. The technology is a new bioplastic material that is fully bio-based and compostable. Based on a reactive processing technology combining polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with other biopolymers and bio-based polymers, the resultant blend provides unique properties such as biodegradability (soil or water) and compostability (industrial and home). The material blends can be designed for processing using standard plastic processing technologies and modified for a wide range of mechanical properties. The technology owner is interested in co-development and out-licensing opportunities with Singapore plastic processing companies looking to develop new products/applications with bioplastics.

Offshore land reclamation has been an important strategy for Singapore to meet its land needs. However, the ultra-soft soil in the surrounding waters makes land reclamation extremely difficult. Besides, many infrastructure projects (i.e., tunnelling, deep excavation, etc.) are also challenging when encountering soft marine clay due to its poor engineering properties, such as high water content, high compressibility, and low shear strength. Currently, ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the most common binder used for soft clay stabilisation through deep mixing or jet grouting. However, OPC is not very effective for the stabilisation of marine soft clay with high water content. In addition, the production of OPC leads to negative environmental impacts such as non-renewable resources, high energy consumption, and high carbon emissions. The technology owner has developed a sustainable novel binder, entirely from industrial by-products, that has high stabilisation efficiency for marine soft clay. Using the same binder content, the 28-day strength of the novel binder-stabilised soft clay can be 2–3 times higher than that of the OPC-stabilised clay. In addition, the novel binder has a lower cost and less environmental impact, making it an economical and sustainable alternative to OPC. This technology is available for R&D collaboration, IP licensing, and test-bedding with industrial partners in the construction and infrastructure sectors.

As a clean burning fuel, green hydrogen plays a critical role in achieving net zero emissions. A major challenge is the high cost of the electrolyser due to inefficient production and the use of precious metals. Innovation in green hydrogen is urgently required to lower its cost and bring it to parity with conventional fossil fuel based grey hydrogen. A Singapore-based startup has developed a proprietary super-alloy nano-structured material using earth's abundant and cost-effective materials for use in all major electrolyser technologies. These components achieve dramatically higher water-splitting capability and anti-corrosion properties versus commercially available solutions, while ensuring electrode durability, increasing energy efficiency and reducing overall cost. The startup is capable of supporting the manufacturing of core hardware components for electrolyser cells, stacks, and systems, enabling end users to produce the most affordable green hydrogen. The startup is seeking partnerships with manufacturers (OEMs) of alkaline (AWE), proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers and leading hydrogen users, including energy majors, utilities, and industrial gas companies, to deploy modular stand-alone anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyser systems for pilot projects or for test-bedding at industrial scale.

Norovirus is a highly contagious non-enveloped virus responsible for causing >90% of viral gastroenteritis, and >50% of all gastroenteritis outbreaks worldwide. According to the WHO, norovirus causes an estimated 685 million cases of infection and 200,000 deaths per year. Its resilience poses challenges for eradication through altering pH, heat exposure, or common disinfectants. Notably, alcohol-based hand sanitisers are not as effective against this virus, according to the US CDC. To address this, a biotech company has successfully developed a novel virus-binding protein technology derived from jack beans or sword beans. This patented lectin protein exhibits antiviral properties and has demonstrated the ability to neutralise not only norovirus, but also coronavirus and Hepatitis A virus. It has also demonstrated activity against Escherichia coli bacteria.  By utilising this innovative technology, viral outbreaks can be prevented. This versatile lectin protein can be incorporated as an active ingredient into various product formulations. The technology owner is especially interested to work with companies from health service sectors, and personal care product manufacturers.

To achieve a net-zero carbon emission goal, energy derived from fossil fuels are replaced with green renewables such as solar, wind, etc. However, these renewable energies are intermittent in nature and therefore requires a reliable energy storage system to store these energies. Today, batteries based on lithium-ion and lead-acid are widely used as the go-to energy storage system. However, there are fire safety concerns for the conventional lithium-ion batteries due to its highly volatile and flammable electrolyte while the acidic electrolyte and carcinogenic lead used in lead-acid posed threat to both human and environmental health. Therefore, there is a need for a new safe and environmentally friendly battery system. This technology offer is a safe and rechargeable water-based battery using a unique green electrolyte formulation (close to neutral pH). Owing to the widened electrochemical stability window and high ionic conductivity of the proposed electrolyte formulation, it enables superior electrochemical performance of the electrode materials used in the batteries, suited towards large-scale energy storage applications.

Liquid fuels from biogas are a promising source of renewable and clean energy as they give a lower emission of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and soot than conventional fossil fuels. They are sustainable and economically viable as they can be obtained from agricultural waste. However, transforming biogas into a high-value liquid fuel equivalent to diesel or gasoline requires a costly two-step process.  The technology developer has developed a novel enhanced capsule catalysts with unique core-shell structures that enable the production of high value-added liquid fuels from biogas in a single step with only one reactor. These capsule catalysts directly convert synthetic gas (syngas) into liquid fuels, which have improved petrol-like qualities. Therefore, these liquid fuels can be used either as diesel or gasoline substitutes without any modification to engines and existing refuelling facilities. The technology developer seeks companies looking for renewable and clean energy through the gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology to license and commercialise this technology. 

A challenge faced by many chemical processing plants is the high process temperature and high energy consumption. For example, in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) production process, one of the commonly used approaches of concentrating the medicine is by evaporation. This process operates at 100°C and aims to remove 2/3 of the total amount of water from the feed solution. The main issues are: High operating temperature causing irreversible damage to the active ingredients. Taking up 75% of the overall energy consumed. 2-3 days to process one batch of the extracted liquid. Labour-intensive and hard to scale up. Furthermore, as the production is operated in batch mode, the boiler needs to be turned off and on (heating and cooling) frequently. To overcome these challenges, the membrane – pervaporation system has been developed. The operating principles have been tested at laboratory scale using actual TCM products. The operating temperature can be lowered so that the risk of damage to the active ingredients is reduced. It was computed that an energy saving of 39% can be achieved. The team that designed and developed the system is well-versed with membrane technology and is ready to transfer the know-how and knowledge. They are seeking partners to collaborate and further develop this proof-of-concept for commercial deployment, targeting applications where thermal damage to high value active ingredients are of concern.