INSIGHTS / News

Southampton SETsquared member, SEaB Energy, a leading smart city innovator, has been selected to pilot its containerised, waste-to-energy technology at Canary Wharf after winning the second phase of the Cognicity Challenge. This will be the first time in thirty years that shipping containers will have been seen at the former dockyard.

Cognicity is a smart cities accelerator programme designed and delivered by ENTIQ for Canary Wharf Group (CWG). It was established to discover and support the development of future technologies with positive economic, social and environmental impacts.

SEaB Energy has developed a unique, patented, micro power plant that turns food and organic waste into heat, energy and water directly on the site of where the waste is produced. This generates an attractive revenue stream, eliminates the need to transport food waste to distant processing plants and significantly reduces the site’s carbon footprint.

This is becoming critical for new developments, as in order for them to comply with Part L of Building Regulations, their Building Emissions Rate (BER) or Dwelling Emissions Rate (DER), must be less than their Target Emissions Rate (TER).

Sandra Sassow, CEO of SEaB Energy, said, “Showcasing our game-changing technology, right in the heart of the capital, will allow us to demonstrate to businesses that their waste can be transformed into revenue and carbon offsets, even where space is at a premium. Not only does this make sound commercial sense but it also helps meet their sustainability objectives and lower target emissions for new developments. A big thank you must go to Cognicity, Canary Wharf Group and ENTIQ for this opportunity that will undoubtedly help catapult our sales expansion in other parts of the world that aspire to smart city status”.

SEaB Energy has been awarded a £50,000 prize alongside the opportunity to implement their technology at Canary Wharf. The award will also kick-start the co-operation with Intel, the event sponsor, that will lead the two companies working together closely to incorporate Intel’s latest technology into SEaB Energy’s products.

Through Cognicity, CWG is facilitating new types of interaction between developers, large technology firms and startups. The programme also aims to successfully demonstrate interoperability through the use of Big Data and the Internet of Things.

Sir George Iacobescu, Chairman and Chief Executive of Canary Wharf Group said: “We embarked on the Cognicity Challenge to identify and procure the most exciting innovations relevant to our continued growth. Last night was another important step in securing the next generation of technologies essential to keeping the Canary Wharf estate at the forefront of innovation. SEaB Energy’s ground-breaking solution will deliver real value, long into the future, to our operations as well as to the workers and future residents of Canary Wharf.”

SEaB Energy has recently launched its new generation Flexibuster™ micro power plant that marks a big leap forward in performance and usability which will offer even greater sustainability benefits to businesses with waste. The new Flexibuster™ is now housed in a compact 20 foot container making it easier for customers to site. SEaB Energy has also boosted the performance of the unit further by lowering the parasitic load and increasing the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion. The system configuration has also been markedly simplified to allow for plug and play installation and reduced footprint.

Find out more about SEaB Energy