Bio-degradable detergent(BioClean)

Project Summary

This is a main project undertaken by Environment Club in 2009.  Club members are given a challenge of searching for a long term and sustainable idea or product to contribute to the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recyle) movement.

Presently there are not many products or services in the market that are environmentally friendly.  Our aim is to create a product or service that the public will buy and consume, thus providing them, especially those environmentally conscious people, a mean to contribute to environment conservation.

Our solution is BioClean.  BioClean is a cleaning detergent made of enzyme produced from fruit waste.  We chose detergent amongst other proposed products because it is a ncessity and a product which every household would use regularly.  Our survey showed that there is no bio-degradable or enzyme washing/cleaning detergent in supermarkets such as FairPrice and Shop N Save.  We therefore are confident of our selection of BioClean is right.

The project consists of 2 parts: Production and Marketing.  Students major in Chemical Technology cover the production and experimentation.  They are responsible for ‘inventing’ the detergent and develop a scientific production process.  Students from Business School are mainly responsible for the packaging and marketing of the end product.

One special characteristic of project BioClean is that it is an on-going real business.  We believe we should bring our words on papers to life, providing a real solution to our environment woes.

The principle guideline and philosophy for our project is not only the product we are going to create is environmentally friendly, it must be user-friendly and market-friendly, meaning it must be a product people would use and affordable.

In conclusion, project BioClean is a very meaning venture that not only helps us to reuse and turn waste into something useful, it also helps to reduce global warming and provide economic return.  We have learned a lot from this project in terms of science and business knowledge.

Project Summary

Currently, when charging the handphones or MP3 players with a battery charger, the chargiing current will initially be high when the battery condition is weak (low).  However, as the battery is fully charged, the charging current will drop to a reasonably low value, but the charger still draws a small power from the AC power source.  The battery chargers sold in the market do not disconnect the power source automatically when fully charged.  This is not energy efficient.

Our project aims to design a gadget attached to the battery charger to overcome this limitation.  The device senses the charging current continuously and when the battery is fully charged, the device will cut off the power supply to the battery charger automatically.

In this way, the user is able to conserve energy and save cost.  This will also help to eliminate the danger of explosions or fires, resulting from overcharging the battery.

The key feature of this project is that once the battery is fully charged, the AC power supply is totally disconnected from the device, including the supply to electronic control circuit, i.e. effectively no electrical energy is consumed (true zero power device).

The gadget can also be used in other applications where the monitoring or control of charging current conditions is required.

Project Summary

Our group aims to create an ideal and efficient water purification system that can produce clean water through simple means and is long-lasting.  We decide to make this purification system using raw materials such as eggshell membrane, which are cheap and most importantly, environmentally friendly. 

The eggshell membrane (ESM) and peat combination is our chosen combination as both exhibited ideal surface properties, which make them suitable adsorbents.  Essentially, unclean grey water is made to flow through the packed column of ESM and peat.  In order to find the optimum ratio of ESM and peat needed for maximum efficiency, we investigated the different absorbance level of the filtered grey water after passing through the filter.  This is achievable by utilising the UV spectrometer.  Thus, we found out that the optimum ratio concentration (the main component in household cleaning products) decreased by approximately 25 % with a run time of around thirty minutes.  Thus this water can be reused for other household applications, i.e. to clean the toilet and car washing, thereby decreasing the total household water consumption.

There are two main aims of our project.  The first is to reduce the domestic and possibly industrial water usage by treating the contaimnated water and ‘reusing’ this water for other pruposes by creating a cheap parked column that will be largely available to the masses.

The second is to spread the message of household grey water recycling to the public.  Household grey water recycling is a relatively novel idea in Singapore.  Currently, the only recycled water in Singapore is the NEWater, which is mainly the recycling of industrial sewage water.  Thus there is market loophole for domestic greywater recycling to further maximize water resources.  Thus, if this idea works, the low material cost and simple production process will enable the people to conduit to an additional water supply.

Project Summary

We started out from reading a news article in The Straits Times about the abuses the existing recycling bins suffered in public places in Singapore.  The picture of overflowed recycling bins showing all kinds of rubbish filling to its brim saddened us.

Our further investigation and research show that amongst the group of economically advance countries such as Europe and Japan, we score quite low in recycling especially in plastic bottles and aluminum cans.  The existing recycling bins and the mode of operation are clearly not effective.  While the awareness of the benefits of recycling is quite high in Singapore, the public in general not supportive to recycling when it comes to action.

Our solution is a 2-in-1 recycling machine named Greenie that can compress plastic bottles and aluminum cans.  To overcome the monotony and lack of pull factors of existing recycling bins in the market, we decided to use modern technology and innovative marketing strategy to help us make a new generation of recycling bin that will attract the users.  With this objective in mind, the concept of Greenie is born.

Greenie is a recycling bin equipped with an interactive touch-screen monitor that would allow people to form teams to complete amongst each others.  “Green Points” will be credited to team with each recycled items.  Winners will be rewarded by prizes sponsored by corporations.  When the machine is idle, the touch-screen monitor will double up as a TV monitor, broadcasting video clips such as cartoons or commercial or advertising messages etc to attract peoplel.

With this interactive feature that combined the use of technology and innovative marketing twist, Greenie has created quite a buzz since it was launched in April 2009.  From the feedback we received from students and teachers from primary and secondary, we are happy that Greenie is well received and well liked by them.  Positive comments we received from private sector further confirms the value and success of Greenie.

Project Summary

Coined as ‘Mr. Can’, our project aims to breed the ‘can do’ attitude in the public with regard to environmental conservation in Singapore.  Incorporating various projects that partners governmental organisations like NEA and PAYM, we will reach our objectives via 3 approaches known as the 3E, “Educate, Empower and Effectuate’, equipping the public with knowledge to conserve our environment and allowing them to understand that we ‘can’ play a part for our environment and eventually, such an attitude will cultivate the spirit and willingness to conserve our environment.

Project Summary

Rising global energy prices and the scarce availability of energy sources are growing concerns in today’s society. Despite measures and campaigns to reduce our reliance on energy for work, energy demand remains high. Since attempts to reduce demand remains futile, TERC will look into how modern buildings can be conceptualised to maximise energy efficiency. Along with a stylistic approach towards addressing this issue, TERC will investigate concerns over light retention, ventilation, and suitable surfacing materials. In doing so, we shall propose a model for future constructions.

Project Summary

Car parked in the open space parking lot were constantly exposed to the hot Sun ray especially duriing the period from 12 noon to 5 pm in the afternoon.  The internal cabin temperature of these cars was usually much hotter than the surrounding open space due to air inside the car cabin trapped heat. 

In this project, we harnessed the Sun energy to drive an exhaust fan automatically so that the internal car cabin would not trap heat during hot weather.  The project made use of solar cell and a solar charger to charge a series of rechargeable battery.  The solar cell also functioned as a heat sensor to turn on the fan when sufficient voltage had built up by the Sun energy.  The rechargeable battery served as mean to store solar energy for other applications cuh as night lighting for reading purpose or emergency.

Low power high luminance LEDs were used for the lighting as they consumed minimal power and would not emit heat or caused fire hazard when turned on.  Low current solid-state relays were used in the design to conserve energy for longer operation.  A DC inlet jet was included in this project to allow the rechargeable battery be charged directly form the car battery during rainy day or night driving.

This project allowed the car to be cooled by clean energy and the stored solar energy in the rechargeable battery proveds zero cost lighting for the user in the night.