Eventure Media presented the 13th year of the Rushlight Awards at a lively Awards Party on Thursday night at Church House Westminster in London. Attended by organizations that are leading the way in clean technology innovation and sustainable solution deployment, investors, advisers, media, trade associations and government departments, the party followed the very successful Rushlight Show where over 400 delegates participated in the UK Energy Breakfast & Seminar; the Cleantech Conference incorporating the Cleantech Innovation Showcase; the Resourceful Conference focused on the circular economy; the Sustainable Solutions Market Panel, where market-ready sustainable solutions are presented to major corporate customers; and the Exhibition, including the Innovate UK Energy Catalyst, Innovate UK Faraday Battery Challenge and BEIS Energy Entrepreneurs' Fund Showcases and the Rushlight Awards poster exhibition. The Show was sponsored by Innovate UK and DFID, BEIS, Flanders Investment & Trade, Carbon Limiting Technologies, Granted Consultancy, Venner Shipley, London South Bank University and Shoosmiths.
Prof Sir Ian Boyd, marine and polar scientist at the University of St Andrews, former Chief Scientific Adviser at DEFRA and the guest of honour at the Awards Party, noted the significant role that the entrants to the Rushlight Awards and other organisations like them played in addressing the climate change, resource management, agriculture, water, environment and biodiversity challenges now well-recognised and being faced by the human population today.
Clive Hall, Founder of the Rushlight Awards, commented: “Innovation is a key ingredient for combatting environmental problems and underpinning sustainable growth across our whole economy, helping us find new ways to manage our environmental footprint, reduce costs and help put our businesses on a more sustainable footing. The substantial progress that has been made over the last few years has been achieved through the successes of organisations such as those we celebrated and promoted last night.”
The overall winner was StorTera who have developed a single liquid flow battery, a highly novel system with one rechargeable liquid comprised of low cost, abundant and natural materials. This is then combined with an artificial intelligence-based control system to complement the flow battery. This can optimise performance by storing renewable energy when it is available on the grid, learning usage behaviour to maximise profitability and using machine learning to optimise the efficiency of the flow battery.
The group category winners were:
Axis Energy Projects Ltd who specialise in the design and delivery of offshore moorings and foundations including Tension Leg Buoys. This expertise is used in the development of the stable, efficient, easy to install Axis TLB FOW mooring and foundation.
Johnson Matthey & BP have developed a Fischer Tropsch technology to convert economically municipal solid waste, destined for landfill, into a low carbon, sustainable transportation fuel. Simple to operate and cost advantaged for use at both large and small scale, the advanced reactor technology converts synthesis gas which has been generated by the gasification of waste into long-chain hydrocarbons suitable for the production of diesel and jet fuels.
StorTera have developed a single liquid flow battery, a highly novel system with one rechargeable liquid comprised of low cost, abundant and natural materials. This is then combined with an artificial intelligence-based control system to complement the flow battery. This can optimise performance by storing renewable energy when it is available on the grid, learning usage behaviour to maximise profitability and using machine learning to optimise the efficiency of the flow battery.
Renew ELP Ltd has developed commercially a process known as ‘catalytic hydrothermal upgrading’ (Cat-HTR™) which is unique in its use of supercritical water to recycle chemically end-of-life plastics, converting them into valuable hydrocarbon products that could be used for the production of new plastic, creating a full closed-loop circular economy for otherwise unrecyclable plastic waste.
BeeOdiversity has developed BeeOmonitoring, which combines nature (bees acting as drones to collect billions of environmental samples on large surfaces) and technology (software processing the data). Through the analysis of the samples, BeeOdiversity can identify, find the origin and assess the level of pollutants (heavy metals, 523 pesticides, nitrates, PAH, dioxins, GMO, radio-activity, etc.) and assess biodiversity level and quality.
The complete list of Rushlight Awards winners is set out below:
The Rushlight Award Overall Winner: StorTera
Group categories
Rushlight Natural Energy Award: Axis Energy Projects Ltd
Rushlight Clean Energy Award: Johnson Matthey & BP
Rushlight Energy Environmental Award: StorTera
Rushlight Resource Innovation Award: ReNew ELP Ltd
Rushlight Environmental Management Award: BeeOdiversity
Direct entry categories
Rushlight Solar Award: Oxford PV
Rushlight Wind Power Award: Axis Energy Projects Ltd
Rushlight Marine & Hydro Energy Award: RheEnergise
Rushlight Bioenergy Award: Johnson Matthey & BP
Rushlight Powered Transport Award: TISICS
Rushlight Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Award: Clean Power Hydrogen
Rushlight Power Generation and Transmission Award: Powerstar
Rushlight Nuclear Energy Award: First Light Fusion
Rushlight Energy Reduction Award: GridDuck
Rushlight Energy Efficiency Award: StorTera
Rushlight Resource Management Award: Aceleron
Rushlight Organic Resource Award: Gegan Solutions
Rushlight Resource Recycling Award: ReNew ELP Ltd
Rushlight Waste to Energy Award: Kew Projects Ltd
Rushlight Clean Environment Award: CEAD
Rushlight Responsible Product or Service Award: Rosh Engineering
Rushlight Sustainable Manufacturing & Services Award: 3stepIT
Rushlight Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry & Biodiversity Award: BeeOdiversity
Rushlight Environmental Analysis & Metrology Award: EMSOL
Rushlight Sustainability Initiative Award: Mobile Power
In addition to the Rushlight Awards judging, the 2019-20 awards also incorporated a number of other benefits for entrants and we are very grateful to these generous supporters:
Barking Dog Communications continues to offer all the group winners and the overall winner promotional support in respect of their success at the awards.
Venner Shipley offered all entrants a complimentary one-to-one with their IP specialists.
Granted Consultancy offered all entrants a 1-to-1 Project Exploration. This was a chance to discover non-dilutive funding opportunities specific to innovative projects.
Simply Do Ideas offered all awards applicants access to the Simply Do Ideas platform. There, users are able to explore and innovate against relevant, industry challenges from large public and private organisations, sense opportunities for product or service development and raise their profile in a curated community of innovation.
MCS offered entrants a complimentary assessment by one of their Technical Team members on a one-to-one basis to gather information sufficient to assess eligibility for Research and Development Tax Credits and Patent Box opportunities.