About Opportunity:

Glasgow Caledonian University has developed a novel optical concentrator capable of providing gain on two planes.  Such a concentrator can be used in a non-tracking wall mounted BIPV system. 

The concentrator provides higher optical gains than alternative optical elements, thereby reducing the amount of PV cell (and silicon) required.  Additionally, carefully selected FOVs (Field-of-Views) contribute to capture solar radiation throughout the day and all year round, removing the requirement for electromechanical tracking.

Further, the optical structure has been designed to take into account the fact that the sun’s path deviation from summer to winter is far less than the deviation from sunrise to sunset and the entrance aperture and concentrator profile have been optimsed to redirect sunlight to the exit aperture and to the PV material.

A concentrator PV-array based on this structure is also capable of providing ambient light to building interiors. 

The reduction of PV material can be particularly important in applications using Gallium Arsenide PV cells.

The optical element can be used not only for solar energy systems (solar PV and solar thermal), it also could be used to collect visible and infrared radiation in applications such as sensing and optical wireless communications.

Key Benefits:

• Reduction in cost of BIPV systems
• High optical gain
• High electrical power output
• Optimum collection of light at a variety of angles of incidence
• No electrical tracking required
• Provides illumination as well as energy generation
• Reduction in CO2 emissions

Applications:

• BIPV Systems
• Optical sensing
• Optical wireless communications
• Lighting

IP Status:

The technology is protected by a granted GB patent and international patent application (Priority date December 2011), now in Regional/National phase.

Small prototypes have been built and tested with extremely positive results. Larger prototype array units have now been completed and initial results have confirmed these impressive results with high levels of optical gain generated.

Background

Yoti is a digital ID and credential management platform that allows organisations to verify identities and trusted credentials online and in person. Yoti’s products span identity verification, age assurance, document e-signing, access management and biometric authentication.

They are working on Challenge 9 of CivTech 5.0 to help NHS Scotland tackle COVID-19 through innovative approaches to testing and the application of technology. They have partnered with a bioscience company GeneMe, who produce rapid COVID tests and have built the first prototype ‘Testing Cube’.  They have integrated Yoti technology to securely link a person to a test and to receive the test result securely into a Yoti digital wallet. They are now driving further innovation around near patient COVID testing and the development of a mass testing machine.

Challenge

Yoti has developed a testing system called FRANKED that delivers results to an individual’s phone in 30 minutes without the need for them to be processed in a laboratory. To date, the work involved with CivTech has focused on evaluating innovative tests to speed up the existing processes in laboratories as well as reduce costs and achieve high rates of accuracy. They were at a stage whereby they needed to develop the ‘Testing Cube’, a highly portable and low-cost testing machine capable of running LAMP based tests.  Yoti will be integrated into the Testing Cube for the secure and rapid delivery of test results as well as being integrated into the NHS Integration Hub to capture this information.

 Yoti took the design to an initial working prototype and required additional expertise to develop it further, creating the potential for the Testing Cube to be manufactured in Scotland for a global market.

Solution

After being referred by CivTech, Interface introduced Yoti to relevant expertise within Robert Gordon University (RGU). RGU has a proven track record and exceptional research output in the field of manufacturing for many engineering applications. RGU undertook a rigorous investigation into how the proposed COVID testing cube could be further improved and offered feasible solutions in terms of different techniques. 

The project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Advanced Innovation Voucher.

Benefits

Company

The company wants to bring the Testing Cube to the market to make access to testing fairer and available to more people across the world.  Yoti will benefit from an increased volume of tests ordered as a result of the new capability.

University:

This partnership has resulted in a base of investigators and students who have undertaken this research; enhancing knowledge and providing benefits to the emerging sector. RGU will also have a case study for students who will benefit from understanding the real-life engineering problem solution.

Scottish Economy:

In Scotland, the intention is to manufacture the Testing Cube for approved use in the NHS for an innovative approach to near patient care using the innovative FRANKED Lamp test so that rapid and accurate tests can be carried out without the need to transport samples to a laboratory. This will dramatically improve the current testing regime and potentially save lives.  It will also help reduce pressure on laboratory processing capacity as well as the infrastructure required to capture samples and transport them to centralised laboratories. The Testing Cube could also be deployed on a student campus for on-site rapid and accurate student COVID testing.  

The Testing Cube and the FRANKED test will transform the way testing is carried out and help build an infrastructure that makes Scotland, particularly in rural settings and places of high vulnerability, more resilient and capable of dealing with similar public health emergencies in the future. This project has the potential to make Scotland an innovation hub for COVID-19 related technology development.

The aim is to successfully develop the Testing Cube, leading to its manufacturing at scale in Scotland.  This will secure jobs and attract potential inward investment into the Scottish economy.

Background

Loch Electronics innovate, engineer, design and bring to market consumer electronics products focused on reducing global carbon footprint in households and offices.

Conventional dishwashers are incompatible with the most common household sizes in the UK; they are too big. Loch Electronics has been developing a concept dishwasher design, suitable for small households. In their design, the water spray system was modified to take less space and increase water flow directed at the dishes. As a result, the design is anticipated to offer increased process efficiency, reduced operational time and energy usage.

Challenge

To prove their concept, the company was looking to collaborate with an academic partner with expertise in fluid dynamics. 

Solution

Referred by Business Gateway, Interface was able to successfully match Loch Electronics to the academic team at Robert Gordon University (RGU).  The team has considerable expertise in fluid dynamics and thermo-fluids, with years of experience working on a wide variety of collaborative research studies on the performance evaluation of complex flow handling systems; leading to optimal designs and enhanced operational efficiencies.

Funded by a Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Standard Innovation Voucher, the project involved detailed investigation into the performance characteristics of the dishwasher.

The primary outcome of this project was the hydrodynamic characterisation of the concept dishwasher design. This involved detailed investigation into the performance characteristics of the dishwasher. A systematic parametric investigation was carried out to achieve this. This scientific research will enable the company to develop and market these dishwashers with enhanced knowledge of its working; allowing prototypes to be built for real world testing and analysis, leading to further developments.

Benefits

The innovative water spray system will result in a compact dishwasher design, ideally suited for small households. In this concept dishwasher design, the water spray system was modified to take less space and increase water flow directed at the dishes. This innovation results in enhanced process efficiency, reduced operational time and energy usage, higher power and cost savings, and lower carbon footprint of the device. It is therefore a very saleable product, easy to store and maintain, and with a low cost to manufacture and ship.

Follow-on Activity

After successful completion of the initial collaborative project, both Loch Electronics and RGU wanted to collaborate further on the capsule dishwasher, specifically on the integration of UV lights, to enhance its capabilities through the inclusion of sanitisation and disinfection functions for protection against COVID-19. 

Laboratory tests carried out by an American working group on COVID-19 show that the virus can remain infectious for up to 2-3 days on stainless steel and plastics.  UVC (Ultraviolet type C) lights have long been used for sanitation and disinfection purposes and a recent study in the American Journal of Infection Control found that UVC light exposure completely inactivated the virus in 9 minutes.

A SFC Advanced Innovation Voucher was awarded to create prototypes and carry out testing to prove the theory in practice.

Benefits

With precise control of the amount of exposure to the UVC lights, many different items made of different materials could be disinfected of any bacteria and viruses, limiting the spread of COVID-19. As dishwashers are used in 49% of the households across the UK, and 45% of households across Europe, the impact of this UVC integrated dishwasher would be substantial in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 and any future viruses as well. As the dishwasher will be compact, it will be ideal for use in small households, nursing homes, hospitals etc.

As well as disinfecting cooking utensils, eating utensils and medical tools, it could also disinfect through UV light, items that would get damaged with water, like face masks, phones, keys, wallets, letters, etc.

Background

Andrew Slorance is a pioneer in the development of wheelchairs. He founded Carbon Black Systems Limited, the company behind the revolutionary light-weight carbon fibre wheelchair that he himself designed.  Having set up a new company in 2015, Phoenix Instinct Ltd, his ultimate goal was to design an “Intelligent System” wheelchair that would have a responsive centre of gravity and other Intelligent System (IS) features – a total revolution of the wheelchair as we know it.
 

The idea was an intelligent manual wheelchair featuring a smart Centre of Gravity (CoG).  The system would self-adjust the wheelchair’s CoG so it was always the same as the user’s CoG.  The result would be a wheelchair with very little weight on the front wheels giving easier pushing and turning while also being very rearward stable.  For the first time ever, a wheelchair would be entirely in sync with the user’s body movements.

Challenge

Andrew wanted to work in collaboration with academics who had expertise in intelligent system engineering and carbon fibre engineering to undertake a feasibility study to determine if his idea of incorporating cutting edge smart systems into an old concept – the manual wheelchair – was practical and achievable. 

The analysis would shape Phoenix Instinct’s application to the Toyota Mobility Challenge* prize fund as well as demonstrating to Toyota that the company had academic support for the project.

Solution

Phoenix Instinct was referred to Interface from Highlands & Islands Enterprise and, by exhibiting great tenacity in finding the most appropriate academic partner for the company’s requirements, Kirsty Buchanan, Business Engagement Executive at Interface, was able to connect Andrew to the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). 

UWS have a long history of collaboration with external organisations to help drive innovation and deliver real economic, environmental and societal impact. Improving the health, well-being and mobility of wheelchair users through development of the next generation of SMART wheelchair technology represented both an academically challenging and worthy endeavour which UWS were happy to support.  The project was supported by the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, whose expertise in advanced composites, rapid prototyping (including 3d printing) and product design was utilised throughout the project.

Benefits

The company achieved their goal in working with an academic partner to develop the Toyota Mobility Challenge application and, as a result, were one of five finalists successful in receiving a grant of $500k to develop their concept; as well as the opportunity to attend workshops, receive mentoring opportunities with engineering experts, and collaborate with end-users.  The finalists ultimately pitched their concept to Toyota to win a prize fund of a further $1 million.  Phoenix Instinct were crowned the ultimate winners at a virtual, live-streamed event in December 2020, winning the $1 million prize fund to help bring its Phoenix i wheelchair to market. 

*  The Challenge invited engineers, innovators and designers to submit ideas for game-changing technologies to improve the mobility and independence of people with lower-limb paralysis. Central to the Toyota-supported challenge was the need to work with end-users to develop devices that would integrate seamlessly into their lives and environments, while being comfortable and easy to use.

Follow-On Activity

With continued support from Interface, Phoenix Instinct further developed their award-winning technology in partnership with UWS through a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP).  The company’s workforce and sales of its products doubled, and additional profits of more than £1 million, directly attributable to the KTP, were forecast over the next five years (from late 2021).
A second KTP aims to bring the manufacture of electronics used in the production of the wheelchair inhouse by 2024.  Both KTPs were jointly funded by Innovate UK and the Scottish Funding Council.

Andrew Slorance at Phoenix Instinct said: “Working with UWS KTP partnership brought the company specialist skills, knowledge, and University support that have been fundamental to the success of the project.  The KTP funding through Innovate UK is a fantastic programme that we recommend highly.”

Dr Tony Leslie, Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences at UWS, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Andrew Slorance and Dr Jakub Rycerz on this KTP project. Andrew’s design is a step change in wheelchair development. Andrew has driven the project to ensure the project team never lost sight of how the ongoing design decisions could impact on wheelchair users in their daily lives, and that has been key to the project’s success.

“Recognition must also be given to KTP associate Jakub, whose contribution and commitment has been exceptional throughout the project, developing a number of innovations to ensure Andrew’s vision was realised.”

Background

Currently, there isn’t a simple way for a heating engineer to determine how dirty a heating system is. This leads to inefficiencies, breakdowns, unnecessary costs and disruption for occupants.

Thermafy Group Ltd. has developed ThermaFy, a digital platform that can determine how dirty a heating system is.  It is a leader in real-time thermal analysis; their software allowing the collection and interpretation of thermal data from a smartphone. The software highlights inefficiencies in a heating system and offers a treatment plan that improves efficiency, thus saving money for the customer as well as reducing carbon emissions.

Their current market is the domestic heating industry; working with boiler manufacturers, water treatment companies, installers, surveyors and energy companies.

Challenge

To ensure this software could be rolled out across the industry, it was vitally important that it was easy to use, saving engineers’ time.  No training modules currently exist that are designed specifically at educating heating engineers on how to use thermal cameras within the job and it is not possible to purchase off-the-shelf modules.

Developing new training modules would help standardise workplace skills, ensuring that engineers could adopt this software and develop new customer, IT and thermography / site based digital skills.

It was crucial that Thermafy Group Ltd. could provide their future customers with these new skills and extra knowledge to support the benefits of using their software.

Solution

Thermafy Group Ltd. had previously been referred to Fife College by the Fife Economic Partnership to use their specialist facilities in order to develop ThermaFy’s software.  It was during these tests that Fife College realised that the company needed more engagement with the end users, the engineers.  Together, they submitted an application to Interface for a Scottish Funding Council Workforce Innovation Voucher, which aims to support innovation by funding the development of a company’s workforce.

The expertise available within Fife College’s gas training centre and their specialist facilities, combined with the expertise of Thermafy Group Ltd. on these new processes and software, helped develop the specialist accredited modules that would enable the industry to adopt new improved working practises, increasing both their productivity and trust with their customers.  It is hoped that these training packages will give rise to a new breed of industry engineers with expertise and skills in the field of validating best practice supported by thermography skills.

Benefits

Company – Fife College assisted in helping and improving ThermaFY’s thermal imaging software, used by heating engineers and surveyors to assess buildings in a cost-effective and non-invasive manner. It is a great illustration of a company collaborating with the right academic expertise, in this case, Peter Jones, an academic with 30 years’ experience in the gas industry. With his input, the company quickly realised the importance of providing supplementary training material, allowing engineers to gain a better understanding of how to use the app and the thermal data obtained.

Academic – It is clear that the college has helped out ThermaFY significantly, but the benefits are mutual. The college has been able to engage in applied research and ThermaFY have equipped the lecturers with new knowledge from the concept. This knowledge has been disseminated to apprentices and students who have been able to improve their digital skills and given them the confidence to question existing practices within their organisations and the wider sector.

Follow-On Activity

In August 2020, Thermafy Group Ltd. had an Advanced Innovation Voucher to work with Robert Gordon University approved to develop the ThermaFy product in response to COVID-19. The existing ThermaFy product can already extract enough information from a thermal image to classify a subject as having an elevated temperature or not. The company wish to improve the accuracy of their product with respect to COVID-related fever by considering other reasons for elevated temperature (such as environmental, medical, physical factors). Robert Gordon University will provide expertise in data capture, machine learning and deep neural networks to support the product development. The product has already received significant interest with pilot installations of the first solutions being deployed in two hospitals for the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust – see how it’s working here. 

Background

Brian McCormack is a former coal miner turned inventor on a mission to improve ­cancer detection rates while ­helping the environment at the same time.

His company, McCormack Innovation Ltd, was initially set up to address the low return rates of bowel or colorectal cancer screening programmes worldwide where most return or compliance rates around a disappointing 50%. Harnessing soluble material as a solution and working in partnership with Smartsolve Industries based in Ohio, USA, the business has identified an ideal material to be used in stool sample collection that can then be harmlessly flushed away.

From their further research with similar “soluble” material, the idea to create an easily removed wound dressing came about.  McCormack Innovation has patented an application for the FlushAway™ “soluble” wounds dressing. Using water dispersible material, these dressings can be used for burns units and patients with other ultrasensitive skin conditions like Epidermolysis Bullosa.

Challenge

There are presently many types of wound dressings on the market, even those described for use on sensitive skin. However, none of the current range of products include a wound dressing that is secure enough to complete the task yet can easily and painlessly be removed by showering or spraying with water. The FlushAway™ wound dressing addresses both these needs.

The business was looking to engage with academia to have the base material dermatologically tested and developed accordingly for market entry.

Solution

After being referred by Business Gateway in Fife, Interface was able to match the company with Professor Robert Keatch and Dr Jan Vorstius at the University of Dundee to undergo the following:

• Dermatological testing, highlighting any modifications required 
• Ongoing development of the product for market entry
• Determining the appropriateness of the material and suggesting any improvements.

Specialist facilities at the University, along with access to clinicians and medical staff, were used for testing the biomaterials for use in the wound dressing.

In a product report, Professor Keatch and Dr Vorstius said: “All materials under test performed well, keeping their integrity and structure until exposed to water.

“The proposal to use this material as a secondary wound dressing would therefore be viable, providing the outer dressing can be kept dry until removal is required.

“This method would certainly reduce trauma inflicted during bandage removal and retain all the features of the conventional cotton and crepe bandages used.”

Benefits

The technical results from this project should help inform the further optimisation of the material for use in a number of medical applications.  When ready for production, these innovative products will transform the market and bring about significant clinical improvements and patent relief at the point of care. 

The company has been nominated for a large number of innovation awards, both nationally and internationally, and has been approached by some large biomedical companies interested in licensing the technology. 

Background

Founded by electrical engineer student Dale Colley, Altitude Thinking Ltd is on a mission to tackle marine pollution by using innovative technology in rivers and canals, capable of monitoring water quality and collection of marine waste.

Challenge
Scotland’s rivers, canals and waterways represent an irreplaceable, high-value resource to the Scottish economy and make a major contribution to the tourism industry and biodiversity.

An electrical engineering graduate from City of Glasgow College, Colley was keen to tap into academic expertise to seek help in applying technology to tackle water pollution. He was looking for an innovative solution to develop, construct and test a prototype of a programmable drone that will be able to be deployed and subsequently safely navigate Scottish waterways and produce accurate, real-time reports on water pollution levels and in the future to remove litter and other pollutants from waterways using suction pumps.

Although Colley had no previous experience of drones or the marine sector, as an engineer he knew he could invent a device that could monitor water quality and tackle marine pollution.

Solution
The City of Glasgow College is one of Scotland’s largest Further and Higher Education colleges and the UK’s number one college for WorldSkills UK, which is a partnership between business, education and governments to accelerate the development of young people’s skills from national to world-class standards.

The College is renowned for its work in the areas of Nautical Studies, Engineering and Maritime studies and has a mix of skills, workshop facilities and expertise required for this project such as electronics, electrical systems, marine engineering, navigation and propulsion – under one roof at the college’s Riverside Campus.

City of Glasgow College’s STEM and Innovation Lead, Douglas Morrison had the necessary academic expertise and was keen to work in partnership with Altitude Thinking Ltd to develop, construct and test a prototype of a programmable drone. The suggested prototype will be a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped with motors making it capable of being deployed to a Scottish waterway alongside a range of sensors and data gathering and transmission facilities, allowing it to report back on pollutants detected.

Most people think of drones as craft that fly in the air but his is designed to travel on the surface of rivers and canals to monitor water quality. Altitude Thinking hopes to develop it even further to have the capability to collect litter, cleaning up Scotland’s waterways and freeing them of blockages – rather like the little robot vacuums that can be programmed to clean floors.

This collaboration project was successfully awarded a £5000 Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface to allow partners to look at engineering development for subsequent drones with enhanced capabilities to remove litter and other pollutants from waterways using suction pumps.

This innovative project combines portability with pollution detection, as well as data gathering and transmission, allowing for larger models to be built up over a longer period.
 

Business benefits

• Increased knowledge of engineering principles applied to prototype design
• Insights into using drones to benefit environmental sustainability
• Plans for further developments with litter extraction capability
• Potential new job opportunities

An award of an Innovation Voucher has taken Coley from the design stage to making a physical prototype which, with the help from Scottish Canals, is currently going through field trials monitoring water quality in canals.

Academic benefits

• Staff development/ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunity for staff working on an innovative project
• Involvement in testing and deployment of mark 1 prototype: field work opportunity
• Increased knowledge of drone technology for use in Scottish waterways
• Increased awareness of environmental sustainability that can be communicated through updates in lecturing and teaching materials

Douglas added:

“Dale’s novel application and the way he has integrated them is what adds value and presents an opportunity to change how environmental conditions are monitored in Scotland. His long-term ambition is to support the clean-up of canals and rivers and with supported funding to commercialise it he anticipates seeing it on the market within the next year.”

“It’s a wonderful product and looks incredible. It’s really cool – like a water-bound batmobile – and I believe it will help us to have a better understanding of what is happening within our rivers and canals. What is particularly interesting about it is that it is very much based on a range of readily available sensor technologies.”

Additional impacts

This collaborative project has already delivered a series of successful outcomes associated with the mark 1 drone, its testing and ongoing reviews, modifications and future markets.

Altitude Thinking’s invention has been recognised locally and nationally for its innovative work when being shortlisted for the Global Game-changers for Young Entrepreneurs and made the final shortlist for the Shell Livewire.

Dale has also presented his recent work to her Royal Highness – Princess Anne on her visit to the City of Glasgow College.

Follow on activity

December 2020 – City of Glasgow College, in collaboration with Altitude Thinking Ltd, has been awarded £23,500 to support the ongoing development of a mobile device that will read and analyse water quality. The project aims to deliver a new prototype – Aquabot 2.0. This drone can be remotely operated on the surface of rivers, canals or lochs to monitor water quality. The grant was awarded by the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) who are also contributing their expertise on engineering wirelessly operating IoT devices. 

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

RIGOCAL (which stands for “RIGOrous CALculation”) provides civil engineering, surveying and marine mammal observation services for energy, construction and offshore industries.

The guideline for offshore piling in the UK Continental Shelf, set by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), requires that JNCC certified Marine Mammals Observers (MMO) should monitor the presence of marine mammals within a mitigation zone around the source of noise during pile driving for offshore wind construction.  The most popular way to do this is by using binoculars with the data being recorded manually by MMOs. This method faces criticism because it does not have a wide view of the area (360 degrees) and it can only be done in good visibility (daylight) with good sea conditions.

RIGOCAL is architecting the best way to use infrared (IR) cameras to detect marine mammals when they approach the sea surface in the vicinity of offshore structures under construction. Their novel concept combines machine learning with Infrared and High Definition videos to automatically detect and classify marine mammals.

Challenge

The company was looking to do a feasibility study into the development of an algorithm for the automatic extraction of marine mammals (seals, dolphins, whales, porpoises) in video images from thermally detected radiations (infrared camera) and high definition images (RGB camera).

Solution

Scottish Enterprise referred RIGOCAL on to Interface, who then put the company in contact with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) at the University of Edinburgh as they have expertise in advanced data analytics and image recognition capability based on the utilisation of machine learning technologies.  In collaborating on this project, EPCC were able to make use of its specialist facilities – namely its High-Performance Computing and Data Infrastructure located within the University.

The feasibility study was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher.

Benefits

Company Benefits

EPCC closed a gap in RIGOCAL’s technical and resource capabilities for developing a machine-learning algorithm to analyse data in real-time. This innovation will change the way traditional marine mammal observation is conducted providing more accurate and consistent service at a lower cost.

The RIGOCAL approach allows a 360-degree view of the area. This approach is also innovative in that marine mammal detection will be made possible during the night and in poor visibility because of the advanced IR sensor. This will allow pile driving to start even in low visibility, especially night time, which will enable the offshore piling construction companies to operate 24/7.

As a result, RIGOCAL’s new service will contribute to reducing total operation hours, therefore cost.  Cost reduction during the construction phase will lead to total cost reduction in offshore wind development, helping the industry to achieve the UK government’s goal of driving down the levelised cost of electricity.

The technology applied for this specific environmental issue will also open up new opportunities, not only from additional environmental perspectives – such as protecting birds against collision with the blades of wind turbines, and leak detection from oil pipelines – it will also save human life in the sea by allowing automatic detection of castaways.

Academic Benefits

EPCC will benefit from:

(1) increased capability in the application of advanced data analytics and machine learning,

(2) an opportunity to grow its target market across the marine/energy space, and

(3) strengthening its position as a sustainable centre collaborating with industry.

Follow-on Activity

The company has recently secured OGIC (Oil and Gas Innovation Centre) funding as well as further funding from the DataLab, which is to be used in conjunction with the OGIC funding.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Re-Tek, who provide refurbishment and resale of used IT equipment, was established in 1996 and is based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire. The business has 45 employees in Scotland as well as partners in Europe, America and Asia.  Operating on an ‘incentivised return’ business model, they are leaders in the IT disposal industry offering re-use as a secure, environmentally sustainable method of asset retirement.  In 2018, Re-Tek extended the life of 200,000 used technology items for business and the consumer, therefore preventing the need for these items to be inefficiently or needlessly recycled or landfilled.

The company sources most of its equipment from medium to large-sized businesses and public sector organisations, and they aim to re-market as much of the material received as possible. Approximately 80% of all equipment received is refurbished and re-marketed.  Only equipment which is non-functional or has no market value goes to conventional IT recycling partners. Re-Tek’s facility has LED lighting throughout, a Biomass Boiler and a 62 Solar Panel Array, providing approximately 80% of their energy needs from renewable sources. They take sustainability and corporate responsibility seriously and work closely with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and Zero Waste Scotland.

Challenge

The project partners, Re-Tek and Enscape, were keen to find a partner in academia, specifically individuals or teams with expertise in recycling/reclamation of rare earth minerals and in precious metals recovery from electronic waste. This was to partner in a bid for a €166k tender across four countries in the EU, released by EU Life/WRAP UK, which was designed to identify collection models in phase one, and recovery processes in phase two for Critical Raw Materials (CRMs).

Whilst Re-Tek were confident they could deliver Phase 1 (identifying collection models), they needed to identify a project partner to help them deliver Phase 2 (Recovery Phase), as the extraction process would be quite specialised given the recovery materials. 

Solution

The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture referred Re-Tek on to Interface who, after putting out an expertise search to various universities within Scotland, was able to connect them with Professor Andrew S Hursthouse from the School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).

Re-Tek and UWS were successful in their tender for WRAP and three years on presented the results of their collaboration at The Royal Society in London. The partners are still working together to develop their ideas and are currently involved in a Horizon 2020 two-stage bid. This has also involved Re-Tek and partners networking across the EU through a recent COST Action project co-chaired by Prof Hursthouse.

Benefits

The company received grant funding for approximately two years to support collection models underpinned by Circular Economy initiatives. This will increase the diversion of redundant IT products from traditional recycling and landfill and enhance opportunities for further employment and profitability, whilst income sharing with Social Enterprise partners.

Re-Tek recently won the Sustainability award, sponsored by The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture, at the CeeD Awards 2019.

Follow-on Activity

Whilst Re-Tek reuses approximately 80% of ICT equipment received, the remaining goods are sent to their Recycling Department for preparation before being sent to a downstream recycling partner for further treatment.

Currently, they only remove certain commodities from ICT equipment, e.g. memory, PCBs, hard drives, however they believed that there was a great opportunity to increase their revenues by fully disassembling equipment and segregating by commodity, e.g., aluminum, cables, plastics, etc., which would be advantageous to the recycling partner and should increase the rebate received.

A cost-benefit analysis was required, calculating the cost of disassembling various products and the calculation of the funds received from the recycling partner as a result of the separation. The company was also looking for suggestions for a re-design of the production space to ensure sufficient space was allocated to the disassembly functions.

Interface put out another expertise search to the universities looking for a collaborative partner for this project with the result that the company was allocated a student from the University of Strathclyde’s MSc Business Analysis and Consulting programme. The student provided business insights about the project.