Innovation Challenges

Challenge Owner(s)	Croda Singapore, National Water Agency (PUB)
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Digital/ICT, Energy & Chemicals, National Innovation Challenges

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Croda Singapore and National Water Agency (PUB)

This challenge calls for innovative wastewater treatment solutions for high strength wastewater, to increase water recovery for applications, e.g. cooling tower makeup. The recovered water should minimally meet Croda’s required water quality for process reuse such as cooling tower make up, fire water, main-process water and feed to their RO based plant for boiler feedwater production.

What We Are Looking For

Ideally, the solution should:

●      Treat and recover water from high COD waste stream cost effectively.

●      Potentially be developed as a modular treatment system due to space constraint.

●      Recovered water should meet required water quality specifications for use in plant processes, e.g. condensers or cooling towers, without affecting the equipment or process efficiency and durability.

●      Be easily scaled and adapted for applications to treat similar industrial wastewaters.

●      Consider minimisation of energy needs, chemical dosing and waste generation.

●      Consider integration of data analytics (e.g. predictive analysis of wastewater profile) to optimise wastewater treatment process, where relevant.

Consider recovery of valuable resources or materials for reuse, e.g. surfactants and biomaterials.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Chevron Oronite
Industry Types(s)	Energy & Chemicals, Environmental Services, Sustainable Energy, Urban Solutions

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Chevron Oronite
 

This challenge calls for an alternative approach to treating solid waste, given special characteristics such as high flammability and poor flowability.

What We Are Looking For

Ideally, the solution is expected to:

●      Recover usable product(s) (e.g. xylene) from solid waste, or generate heat energy to be used in other processes.

●      Take into account safety concerns arising from the highly flammable nature of the waste.

●      Demonstrate cost-efficiency.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Energy & Chemicals

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Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS)

This challenge calls for novel treatment solutions for spent caustic. Other than incineration, how can spent caustic be more effectively treated and potentially recycled for other industrial uses?

What We Are Looking For

The solution is expected to:

●      Be a novel or alternative approach to treating spent caustic (e.g. regeneration of spent caustic that may be recycled in other industries).

●      Achieve cost-efficiency (i.e. cost of the solution should be less than the total cost of operating and maintaining the WSIS).

●      Process large quantities of spent caustic (Estimated quantity is ~14 KT per year).

Proposals that clearly identify use cases for recycled product(s) and/or secure buy-in from off-takers would be assessed more favourably. 

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Challenge Owner(s)	Shell Jurong Island
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Energy & Chemicals, Environmental Services, Urban Solutions

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Shell Jurong Island

It is believed that toxic industrial waste (TIW) can be treated in a more efficient manner and potentially be converted into valuable materials for recycling. Other than sending it for incineration, what other approaches can be employed to more effectively treat TIW? Given its highly toxic nature, are there any cost-efficient techniques to process TIW and recover some valuable materials from it?

What We Are Looking For

The solution is expected to:

●      Be an alternative, cost-efficient approach to treating TIW which can also potentially recover some valuable materials from it.

●      Fulfil TIW regulations and other applicable requirements (e.g. SS 603, SS 593), and adhere to requirements in Shell’s Control Framework on Waste Manual.

●      Achieve zero environmental non-compliance in relation to environmental impact (e.g. releases and discharges).

●      Meet the intent of Shell’s overall Sustainability Ambition in terms of recovery and recycling.

Facilities and fleets required must also adhere to NEA’s governing standards and Shell’s Waste Manual requirements.

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Challenge Owner(s)	TP Utilities
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Energy & Chemicals, Environmental Services, Urban Solutions

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TP Utilities 

Fly ash utilisation is limited, despite its application in cement production. The fly ash cannot be sent to landfill and on-site storage generates environmental and storage issues. This challenge seeks solutions to recycle fly ash and exploit its full potential value.

What We Are Looking For

The solution is expected to:

●      Either (i) treat and convert fly ash (e.g. reduced toxicity or leachability) into a recycled material that meets regulatory and industry standards, if applicable, for useful applications, e.g. EN197-1 for cement production, or (ii) explore alternative use of fly ash for novel purposes.

●      Consider the nature of the fly ash generated, i.e. through burning coal, and biomass.

●      Be cost-effective and sustainable, e.g. consider minimising water, energy or chemical usage.

Proposals that clearly identify use cases for recycled material and/or secure buy-in from off-takers would be assessed more favourably. Interested applicants may consider forming partnerships or consortiums to address the challenge statement.

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Challenge Owner(s)	U&P, BASF South East Asia
Industry Types(s)	Energy & Chemicals, Environmental Services, Urban Solutions

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U&P and BASF South East Asia

The industry currently lacks the capability to further process waste residue to recover meaningful contents (e.g. metilox, triester) from the residue. Further recovery of such useful chemicals would not only alleviate the issue of wastage, but also present a significant business opportunity, e.g. reducing incineration cost and generating extra revenue from recovered chemicals.

This challenge calls for a novel separation technique that could be employed to process tank cleaning waste residue for recovery of valuable materials.

What We Are Looking For

●      The solution is expected to recover valuable materials from tank cleaning waste residue (e.g. metilox, triester).

●      Recovered materials should meet specifications required to be blended with U&P’s in-house lubricant products for sale as commercial products.

●      Treatment & recovery process should be able to operate in batch process with minimal manpower requirements, e.g. through use of automation.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Croda Singapore
Industry Types(s)	Energy & Chemicals, Sustainable Energy, Urban Solutions

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Croda Singapore

Croda is seeking innovative technologies or solutions that can improve energy efficiency for their chemical processes and line tracing. Some techniques to optimise these processes (e.g. use of steam traps) have been implemented, but energy savings are limited.

What We Are Looking For

With the target to reduce carbon footprint by 50% in 2030, Croda is open to explore technologies or solutions that could significantly reduce energy usage in their existing steam/thermal boilers or chemical processes.

Solutions could look at modular technologies, high efficiency boiler replacement (> 95% efficiency), or a change in how energy is supplied to maintain the temperature of products in the lines.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Croda Singapore
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Energy & Chemicals, Sustainable Energy, Urban Solutions

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Croda Singapore 

As part of its sustainability efforts, Croda is seeking innovative technologies or solutions to recover and utilise low-grade waste heat generated from batch processes to improve its overall energy efficiency.

What We Are Looking For

Ideally, the solution is expected to:  

• Demonstrate cost-efficiency with a short payback period (less than 5 years)
• Minimise equipment footprint with modular design to easily scale the technology around the site.

Other considerations:

• Heat production is intermittent due to the nature of the batch process.

Potential use of advanced materials (e.g. phase change materials) for thermal energy storage.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Singapore LNG Corporation
Industry Types(s)	Circular Economy & Sustainability, Energy & Chemicals, Sustainable Energy

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Singapore LNG Corporation

SLNG is seeking cost-efficient and innovative technologies or solutions to utilise discharged seawater in the seawater channel to generate power for use within the Terminal.

What We Are Looking For

Cost-efficient and innovative technologies or solutions to harness energy from discharged seawater (e.g. hydroturbines).

Other considerations include: 

1.     Any new system implemented shall not affect gas supply send-out reliability.

2.     Patentable design (if possible).

3.     Application of solution to other plants and/or terminals in Singapore with flowing channels.

4.     Solution needs to be economically viable in terms of cost and payback period. 

5.     Solution should consider ease of maintenance (e.g. minimising fouling or human interface).

6.     Minimum sea water depth for deployment: 1 meter.

7.     Minimum cut in speed: 1m/s.

8.     Minimum freeboard requirement (i.e. difference between seawater level in seawater channel and top of seawater channel structure): 0.5m.

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Challenge Owner(s)	Singapore LNG Corporation
Industry Types(s)	Energy & Chemicals, Urban Solutions

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Singapore LNG Corporation

With the expected increase in GUCD operations, it is important for SLNG to explore an alternative approach to re-utilisation of the vessel return gas in lieu of flaring.

Potential innovative technologies or solutions could include:

1. Connecting and directing the flare gas to potential end-users (e.g. power plants, gas turbines, boilers on Jurong Island).
2. Fuel cells.
3. Applications or treatment solutions that could improve the vessel return gas uptake during GUCD by the Terminal, hence reducing or eliminating flaring from GUCD operations.

The solution(s) will need to take into account the intermittent nature of the GUCD operations (approximately 40 – 60 operations a year, 24 – 36 hours per operation), as well as the fluctuating return gas flow rate (between 5 – 30 tonnes per hour during the operation).

What We Are Looking For

SLNG would like to seek solutions for utilisation of the vessel return gas that is currently directed to flare.

These should provide demonstrable design maturity, with due considerations of operability on the vessel return side (SLNG) as well as the flare gas end-user side.

The developed solution should address the measurement, gas analysis, and flare gas return and logic control integration from both the vessel return side (SLNG) as well as the flare gas end-user side. This will need to consider the operating nature and gas requirements from both ends.

Other considerations include:

1. Any new system implemented should not affect gas supply send-out reliability of the Terminal.
2. Patentable design (if possible).
3. Applicability of the solution to be applied to other LNG regasification terminals offering GUCD ancillary services.

Proposals that clearly identify use cases for return gas utilisation and/or secure buy-in from potential end-users would be assessed more favourably. 

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