Clean tech paying off after decade of R&D [News]

By Joyce Teo, The Straits Times, 23 Nov 2011.

Life-long inventor Philip Wong tends to be more concerned with perfecting innovations than turning them into cash streams, but his latest venture has the look of a real winner.

Mr Wong and his team at Real Time Engineering (RTE) have developed fuel-cell power plant technology that converts biomass such as sawdust, fruit peels or plant waste into electricity. The ‘waste-to-energy’ product was launched last year after a decade of blood, sweat and tears doing research and development (R&D).

It is finally starting to get some commercial traction although Mr Wong, 68, seems to get more pleasure out of the tinkering than signing contracts. Read more

Walking the talk – on ‘green’ tyres [News]

By Ronnie Lim, The Business Times, 28 Sep 2011.

Today’s economic weather forecast, going by most market watchers, is for more dark clouds, with storms looming on the horizon. Given this grim outlook, international conferences, such as the recent Rubber Day held by Germany’s Lanxess in Dusseldorf last week, provide useful insights on how multinationals batten down the hatches for approaching foul weather.

The German chemicals group, with over S$1 billion committed to two synthetic rubber plant investments in Singapore, is after all a significant player and useful barometer for the petrochemicals industry here.

Not too far back, in 2009 amid the global financial crisis, it was, for instance, forced to delay the groundbreaking of its first investment here, a 400 million euro (S$696 million) butyl rubber plant, and did so only a year later in May 2010 when the global market for synthetic rubber rebounded. Read more

Tuas Power to proceed with Phase 2 of expansion plan [News]

By Ronnie Lim, The Business Times, 16 Aug 2011.

The turmoil in global markets notwithstanding, Tuas Power (TP) is set to proceed shortly with Phase 2 of its $2 billion clean coal/biomass multi-utilities expansion on Jurong Island.

‘We have secured enough customers for us to embark on Phase 2,’ TP’s president and chief executive Lim Kong Puay told BT yesterday.

He stressed that the project to supply utilities like power and steam to new petrochemical investors there ‘is a long-term investment’, and is not affected by the current turbulence.

TP is seeking the ‘go-ahead’ shortly from owner China Huaneng Group for the Phase 2 project, he added. Read more

Sembcorp plant to go full steam on biomass [News]

A steam plant on Jurong Island powered by waste wood chips is set to be one of the first here to run wholly on plant material known as biomass.

The Sembcorp Industries plant, which will burn about 120 tonnes of wood chips a day, will supply process steam to other companies on the island. It will be ready in the second half of this year, a source familiar with the company’s plans said.

Just where the wood chips will come from is not clear, but an upcoming power plant on Jurong Island, built by Tuas Power and China Huaneng Group – expected to be ready next year – will run partly on palm kernel shells and wood chips sourced from neighbouring countries. Read more

Neste Oil’s S’pore plant to market renewable diesel overseas [News]

Neste Oil has said its giant biodiesel plant in Singapore, which mainly uses palm oil as a raw material, will be able to sell its renewable diesel to Germany.

It is also looking at North America as a potential market.

This comes as increasing feedstock prices, including palm-oil prices, prompt concerns about rising costs faced by biodiesel plants worldwide.

Neste Oil said its Singapore plant has received a key certification; the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) requires minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions and preservation of biodiversity during the production of biofuels and bioenergy. Read more

Biofuels conference to focus on non-food biomass, algae [News]

LEADING international experts in the field of biofuels have converged here to share their insights and solutions to sustainable bioenergy use in the future.

Global scientists and policy makers will be in Singapore from March 1-5 for the prestigious second Keystone Symposia on Biofuels conference, which is jointly organised with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

A key issue that will be examined is the possibility of deriving fuel from non-food biomass and algae. ‘This is an important issue,’ said Stephen Mayfield, one of the scientific organisers of the conference. ‘No single renewable-energy strategy can provide a sufficient and total solution, but a combination of strategies that can be coordinated and integrated effectively has the potential to significantly decrease our dependence on fossil fuel.’ Read more

Sustainable Materials: Plastics Made From Corn and Biomass

Venue: Lecture Theatre 5, National University of Singapore, Engineering
Drive 2, Engineering Faculty

Look around us and the merits and problems of petroleum plastics are abundant. Issues range from the extraction process from crude oil, the additives and stabilizers that are toxic, the incineration of plastics which releases more green house gases, the non-biodegradability and harm to wildlife and pollution.

But today, there exist technologies where plastics can be made from sustainable raw materials such as corn, sugarcane and biomass. They have the added advantage of being naturally biodegradable and recyclable. Singapore has its own start ups (Olive Green, Grenidea) investing in these materials. Products currently include food packaging, utensils, credit cards, crockery and clothing.

We can abolish plastic pollution and also move away from oil. Discuss about these issues at this seminar with Olive Green founder Aloysius Cheong and polymer expert and deputy director of A*STAR, Professor PK Wong.

For details and registration, visit http://energycarta-seminars.wikispaces.com/.

ecoWise First in Singapore to Successfully Register CDM Project with UNFCCC

This article is a media release from ecoWise Holdings Limited.

Singapore 30 December 2008 – Mainboard-listed ecoWise Holdings Limited (“ecoWise”), a Singapore-based integrated environmental solutions provider, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bee Joo Industries Pte Ltd (“Bee Joo Industries”), has become the first Singapore registered company to successfully register its first CDM project with UNFCCC.

Mr. Lee Thiam Seng, Chairman and CEO of ecoWise proudly remarked, “Last year, we were the first Singapore-based company to receive the Letter of Approval from the Designated National Authority for our CDM project. After a year of consistent effort, we are indeed very pleased to have our project registered with the UNFCCC.” Read more

Regional Bioenergy System for Increasing Renewable Energy Utilization and Mitigating Climate Change

Speaker: Professor Yan Jinyue, Royal Institute of Technology and Mälardalen University, Sweden; Distinguished Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore

Venue: Engineering Auditorium, NUS Faculty of Engineering, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576

This seminar is organised by the Energy Studies Institute (ESI) and discusses the current research in bioenergy technologies (biomass and biofuel). The speaker will also explain the development of a regional bioenergy system and current research on the “fossil free region” in Sweden. Details and registration at the ESI website.