Celebrating innovation Innovation Award winners – where are they now? Solving the world’s biggest challenges, finding more sustainable ways of living and helping industries to remain competitive – these are just a few of the aims of our Innovation Award winners. With past winners continuing to develop their innovations and taking them in new directions, we caught up with a few to find out how they’ve progressed… Desolentor: developing technology to fight the water crisis Back in 2015, start-up Desolenator won over judges with their desalination unit, which uses solar power – in an energy efficient way – to create clean drinking water. Their unit uses both ‘waste heat’ and electrical energy produced by a solar panel to desalinise water. The product they entered into the Innovation Awards was a household system, enabling people to access clean water in their homes, on rooftops and in gardens. Since winning, the team have developed a community site system that can produce between 5,000-1 million litres a day and support whole communities, industrial areas and hotels. They are now piloting this system in five different countries – Cambodia, Dubai, Kenya, India and the Canary Islands. Aerofoil Energy and Williams Advanced Engineering: combining forces for energy efficient fridges In 2017, we recognised a unique partnership between Aerofoil Energy, specialists in retail refrigeration, and Williams Advanced Engineering, renowned for their background in Formula 1 engineering. Together they’d developed aerofoil to fit to supermarket fridges, improving temperature performance and reducing energy consumption. Since winning an Innovation Award, the partners have rolled out aerofoils to 1,400 Sainsbury’s stores. They’ve also introduced the technology to Asda, the Co-operative Group, Marks & Spencer, SSP Group, WH Smith and Boots. Now they’re talking with other major retailers in the UK and USA. They’ve also developed 10 supplementary pieces of technology to complement the aerofoil and make fridges even more energy efficient. IntelliDigest: solving the global challenges of food and plastic waste IntelliDigest’s prototype IntelliAD also captured our judges’ imaginations in 2017. The automated, kitchen-fitted food waste digester reprocesses unavoidable food waste into clean energy. It’s designed to be used onsite by restaurants and catering services in schools and hospitals. Since winning an Innovation Award, IntelliDigest have turned their attention to the combined challenges of food and plastic waste, and have developed a new product iDigest. This converts unavoidable food waste into high-value biochemicals for bio- crockeries and bio-packaging – which could replace single-use plastic. Ubiqutek: cutting out chemicals in farming and gardening Another winning entry in 2017 was Ubiqutek’s Rootwave technology, which uses electricity to kill weeds – providing an alternative to chemical herbicides used in farming and gardening. Ubiqutek entered the Innovation Awards with their professional handweeder for gardeners who need to spot weed. They’ve since patented, refined and launched this product globally. Now they’re focusing on the agricultural market, developing bigger machines that can be pulled behind tractors to spot weed amongst crops. Do you have an innovation that could benefit from industry recognition? Enter it into the Innovation Awards by 5 July 2019 ietinnovationawards.org Member News July 2019 Desolenator working on their innovative desalination unit which creates clean drinking water Innovation Management Technical Network We’ve set up a new network to focus on how innovations, and the associated management, can be managed for the best effect and benefit of us all. To find out more, visit theiet.org/im-tn 11