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2nd Prize S$6,000
| Mosquito Dunk Dispenser |
| Singapore Polytechnic |
| Lee Ke Wei, Gerald Teong Wei Lun, Tham Mei Wen |
Combating dengue fever has been a
national priority for years, though the problem
has been identified and tackled since years ago,
it has never been fully resolved. This year, its
destructive influence once again surfaced in Singapore
as well as in the rest of the region. Eliminating
the breeding grounds of mosquitoes is crucial to
the fight against dengue fever. Many products and
innovations have since addressed this issue, and
many of these have had successes in their own right,
but the battle against the Aedes mosquito wages
on. In recent months, it seems like the blood sucking
vectors are winning. We propose to invent a mosquito
dunk holder cum dispenser to cut down on the need
of frequent replenishment of this chemical in the
risky roof gutters. It works by having a weather
proof plastic dispenser housing multiple pieces
of BTI dunks in a vertical column, simple yet effective
design allowing a solid dunk of BTI to slide down
to the bottom of the dispenser by gravity whenever
the resident piece of the dunk in the interactive
zone with the stagnated water is completely dissolved.
Our design allows only the resident BTI dunk inside
the dispenser to be in contact with the stagnant
water, and the rest would be kept dry, being stored
in the holder waiting to be dispensed. Instead of
the current practice and its associated inconvenience
of having to tie a dunk to the gutter which could
get displaced or accidentally flushed out of the
gutter through the rain water down pipe. Our new
dispenser would prolong the duration for more for
more of these dunks tobe placed in the roof gutter
in a protected holder; the dispenser could hold
between 4-12 pieces of BTI dunks (i.e. it could
last between 4-12 months before it is depleted).
Our product is safe and simple to install and use.
The chores of placing in the roof gutter can now
be done less frequent or it could be given completely
to your regular pests and victor control contractor
to fix it during their routine inspection to your
building, maintenance and replacements of BTI dunks
in the gutters are no longer a frequent inconvenience
to the building owners. With our proposed Mosquito
Dunk Dispenser, roof gutters will never be comfortable
mosquito grounds again.
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>>3rd
Prize S$4,000
| Power Scavenger |
| Singapore Polytechnic |
| Pang Toh Wee, Khairul Anwar Bin Ahmad Basha, Augustine
Ashley Santhanam |
The objective of this project is
to find ways to complement renewable energy –
solar and wind energy – thorugh scavenging
energy which would otherwise go wasted. We designed
and built a device – Power Scavenger that
scavanges frictional energy from moving vehicles
on roads. This energy is then converted into electrical
energy which charges up a battery to supply power
to light up driveway where it is very costly or
impractical to lay new electrical cables to supply
power. The Power Scavenger comprises of a stepper
motor and a battery attached to a circuitry and
a wheel. With a transmission ratio of 10, when a
car moves over the wheel, it moves the stepper motor
which converts motion to electrical energy. The
generated electrical energy can reach 20 Volts and
0.2 Ampere. In an average traffic flow of 1000 vehicles
per lane per hour, it takes about 4 hours to fully
charge the 6V battery. The device had been installed
and tested on a road. The harvested power is enough
to power a 6V super-bright LED lamp for a night
use. We believe the low production cost, maintenance
free and versatility in applications of the Power
Scavenger lends itself to high degree of commercialisation.
The application area does not limit to powering
lights along expressways (such as those in Malaysia,
Thailand and Europe) where it is too costly or impractical
to lay power cables. The Power Scavenger can be
adapted to act as a micro wind turbine to trap low
velocity wind in suburban areas. In addition, it
can be used to transform energy due to theft breaking
in through doors and windows into energy to power
security camera to take snap shot of burglars in
case the power supply is cut off.
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Special Merit $2,000
| Biofuel from Waste Grease for Use in On-campus
Vehicle Transport at the National University of
Singapore |
| National University of Singapore |
| Montefrio Marvin Joseph Fonacier |
This project will establish a novel
model that exploits the use of an urban waste –
fats, oil and grease as feedstock for liquid fuel
production to be used in road transportation. The
model will be pilot tested at the National University
of Singapore (NUS) to demonstrate how an institution
can adopt waste-to-energy principles and reduce
its carbon emissions to atmosphere, improve air
quality and save on fuel costs. NUS is estimated
to generate 13,500 litres of yellow and brown waste
grease from its food centres and grease interceptors
per month. This volume can be converted to biodiesel
with an estimated monthly yield of 12,150 litres
of biodiesel. Biodiesel can be blended with regular
mineral diesel without expensive modification of
the internal combustion engine, and results in cleaner
vehicle emissions. The waste grease recovered has
a high free fatty acid (FFA) content as given by
the high acid number of 5.2g KOH/L. This value is
significantly more than the limit of 2.0g KOH/L
prescribed for the conventional alkali-catalysed
process for biodiesel production. However, a two-step
catalysed process has been developed whereby a pre-treatment
step esterification process is used to convert all
FFAs to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) prior to
the conventional transesterification process. The
result is a high-grade biodiesel suitable for use
in university campus vehicles. The collection of
waste grease will be carried out by existing waste
contractors, and the raw waste grease will then
be transferred, filtered and stored in a waste grease
filtering and storage facility on campus. Waste
grease will be periodically extracted from the grease
interceptors and receptacles of food centres. A
two-step catalysed biodiesel reactor, with a capacity
of around 15,000 litres of waste grease, will be
built to accommodate the quality and volume of waste
grease generated in NUS. A fuelling facility is
proposed on-campus to store the biodiesel product
and mineral diesel for fuel blending. A special
fuel delivery system will be installed to facilitate
blending of biodiesel with mineral diesel at a 20%
(B20) blend. All NUS diesel vehicles and Internal
Shuttle Busues will run on the B20 blend of biodiesel
without the need for any engine modification. This
will result in an environmental-friendly, sustainable
campus-transportation system with significant reductions
in carbon and tailpipe exhaust emissions, and the
positive use of an existing waste stream. Overall,
the project has successfully demonstrated that a
waste product generated in large volumes on campus
can be effectively converted to biodiesel for use
in NUS vehicles. This will result in a significant
offset in the volume of fossil fuels use, with a
substantial reduction in the university’s
carbon footprint and other associated environmental
benefits. Moreover, there is excellent potential
to translate the project into a nationwide program,
where waste grease from food establishments across
the country can be captured and converted to biodiesel
for use in public utility vehicles.
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>> Merit $1,000
| Coolbicle - The 2-in-1 Urinal
System |
| Singapore Polytechnic |
| Yeo Jun Ning, Joanna Lim Zhengao, Justin
Chan Kit Yong |
| This project focuses on the
development of a 2-in-1 urinal flushing
system known as COOLBICLE. It is a combination
of the usual urinal system with an integrated
hand washing facility. The rrelease of water
for washing is further triggered by the
auto sensor which is found commonly in the
toilet these days. COOLBICLE is made of
professional water saving urinal designs
for clients, which manage, maintain and
plan for commercial and industrial type
buildings. This series of urinals uses the
technology of used water in the process
of used water in the process of washing
our hands and gravity to flush the urinal.
It is also far kinder to the environment,
as it uses less water. Furthermore, it is
simple to fit and much safer for maintenance
as it eliminates the need to handle dangerous
chemicals. This innovative design means
that it is quick and easy to fit which makes
it ideal for whole range of commercial and
industrial applications including offices,
hotels, hospitals, motorway service stations,
pub, airports, shopping centers and other
public toilets. In addition to the substantial
savings on water of up to approximately
50% can be achieved and a reduced maintenance
bills, the COOLBICLE system also offers
a uniquely effective and environmentally
sound means of dealing with the dual problems
of smell and blockages in bowl urinals without
the need for environmentally harmful chemicals
or constant flushing. The benefits of the
system include the following :
• Eco-friendly, reducing environment
impact
• Lower water bills
• Lower maintenance costs
• No urinal smells
• Fewer blockages
• Better washroom hygiene
• Safer to employees and the environment
– no harmful chemicals
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Commendation $500
| Free and Reliable Wind Energy
Source from Building's Exhaust Air |
| Nanyang Technological University |
| Eugene Tay Tse Chuan |
The objective of this project
is to show that it is possible to generate
wind energy from a building’s exhaust
air. The project was conducted at two exhaust
air outlets located at the School of Civil
and Environmental Engineering (Location
1), and the School of Chemical and Biomedical
Engineering (Location 2) in NTU. A simple
wind turbine was constructed using an old
car radiator fan and motor. The wind turbine
was placed at the exhaust air outlets to
generate electricity. As the wind turbine
was placed at the exhaust air outlets to
generate electricity. As the wind turbine
is self-made and the motor is not suitably
sized, the energy generation is neither
efficient nor optimised. The energy generated
annually is 0.88kWh and 0.06 kWh for Locations
1 and 2 respectively. If commercially built
wind turbines are placed at 8 exhaust air
outlets similar to Location 1, the potential
annual energy generation is 7488 kWh. This
amount of energy is sufficient to light
up 416 exit signs for a year. The project
results showed that there is potential to
generate sufficient energy for specific
purposes if an efficient and optimised wind
turbine is used.
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>> Commendation $500
| Haze Guard |
| Ngee Ann Polytechnic |
| Lam Ming Hui, Yon Ek Meng |
Haze Guard treats the air
that people breathe, making it cleaner and
safer, substantially reducing the concentrations
of airbone particles (molds, viruses, bacteria,
pollens, etc) in one’s breathing zone,
thereby significantly decreasing the probability
that these particles will be inhaled and
as a result will reduce the risk of adverse
health effects. No matter where you are,
having fresh air can mean the difference
between enjoying yourself and being uncomfortable.
Whether you’re travelling on an airplane
or standing in line at the bank, you’ll
almost always find yourself assaulted by
dust, smoke, odours or perfume. Then of
course, there’s always the things
you don’t know about; germs, mildew,
pollen and a host of other allergens. And
even though not everyone else understands
the need for having uality air, you don’t
have to be concerned. With Haze Guard along,
you’ll feel confident that when you
leave home, the air you breathe will be
safer and enjoyable. Haze Guard is an easy-to-use,
maintenance-free and personal air purifier
and it can improve the quality of the air
you breathe, no matter where you go.
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>> Commendation $500
| Socially - Optimised Bus |
| Temasek Polytechnic |
| Adrian Liew Wee Sen, Yuan Yuan, Feng Qian
Qian |
In a congested bus, commuters
normally want to occupy a whole seat by
themselves. Hence they would sit on the
outer seat, leaving the inner seat empty.
The gadget invented makes the bus seatings
to be optimised by enforcing commuters to
sit automatically onto the inner seat first.
So, with this product, we hope to get the
passengers to occupy the inner seat so the
passengers would have an easier time finding
a space to sit. It will also reduce the
congested condition on the bus aisle.
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Commendation $500
| Generating and Optimizing Electricity
from Industrial and Household Wastes |
| Temasek Polytechnic |
| Jonathan Ang Shiong Hui, Grace Soh Ziwei,
Kavan Kuah Kai Wen |
Used waste materials from
industries (Cu2+ waste solution, waste acid,
etc) and household (paper bowls, used batteries,
etd) to generate electricity. The electricity
generated can then be used to power small
electrical appliances. Research on factors
to maximise the current output (parallel
cells, pH, agitation, temperature, concentration,
etc). Build a working prototype to demonstrate
the viability of the project. Share the
project and its message with the public.
This will help spread the environmental
conservation / recycling messages.
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Commendation $500
| Programmable Logic Control for
Motorised Sun-shading Screens in Beach Resorts |
| Singapore Polytechnic |
| Tan Huifen, Tan Ying Jie, Lim Ai Chia |
The most effective control
of excessive solar heat and light transmission
into buildings like beach resorts is obtained
by applying external shading elements (usually
made of reinforced concrete), and not to
provide shading measures when the heat reaches
their external walls, doors or windows.
Most sun-shading devices for buildings in
Singapore are usually designed with permanent
and rigid built-in features made from reinforced
concrete or metal. The project aims to explore
suitable sun-shading features that can be
designed with improved mobility and performances
to suit the resort’s occupants, to
reduce energy and conservation costs, as
well as to ward off the escalating costs
of concrete arising from the recent ban
by Indonesia on the import of sand and granite.
The idea is to develop a motorised sun-shading
system that can respond not only to a manually
controlled switch, but also automatically
to changing heat intensities through detection
by a sun-sensor. The input will be monitored
and controlled by a programmable logic controller.
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Commendation $500
| The EzCarrier |
| National University of Singapore |
| Tan Yong Chuan |
The proposed project aims
to reduce the excessive use of plastic bags
to help save resources by encouraging the
continued use of reusable alternatives to
plastic bags. Although reusable bags is
nothing new but the adoption rate could
have been better. Through careful observation
and designing, we intend to come out with
an effective solution to assist in the adoption
of reusable alternatives and reduce the
extra plastic bags that would otherwise
become litter. The EzCarrier is a trendy
yet compact accessory which can be conveniently
carried around in handbags. It is just like
one of the accessories in the handbag. Moreover,
the size of the EzCarrier is comparable
to that of a long ladies wallet and some
of the ladies accessories. This gives a
feel of how compact the EzCarrier is.
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