A WORLD-LEADING biogas and water treatment plant, designed and constructed by Wiley, took out the award for Innovation in Environmental Management at the recent Queensland Master Builders Association (QMBA) State Awards.

It is the second award Wiley has won for the project, after taking home the same category at QMBA’s regional awards earlier this year. Wiley partnered with Australia’s largest meat processing company, JBS Australia, to create the self-sustaining biogas facility at JBS Australia’s Dinmore facility. 

The plant captures cattle emissions to power an existing natural gas-fired boiler plant, reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 89 percent and saving more than $1 million a year on natural gas costs.

 “Winning both the regional and state award for Innovation in Environmental Management is an exciting achievement for the company and a great reward for the team’s hard work and out-of-the-box thinking,” Wiley managing director Tom Wiley said.

“The company’s heritage as a global leader in food facilities and plant design, consulting, and construction has provided the Australasian business with unparalleled experience in complex builds and structures that lends itself to projects that others struggle to handle alone.

“Some structural developments are so complex that they need a fresh perspective to deliver a practical, effective, and in this case, an innovative solution – that’s something Wiley prides itself on.

“We’re also a human-centric organisation, which means our capabilities lie in the knowledge of our people to problem-solve and work in collaboration with clients and partners to deliver exceptional outcomes.

“Rather than shy away from complex projects, we actively seek them out to continually evolve our thinking, processes, and solutions.”

Wiley project director Graham Harvey said, “This is an industry benchmark demonstrating the reality of environmental processing solutions for heavy emission producers. It is a great win for Wiley, JBS Australia, and everyone involved.”

The project’s key solutions included construction of a new 20ML Covered Anaerobic Lagoon (CAL); covering of two existing Anaerobic Lagoons (AL) with high density polyethylene (HDPE) to capture biogas, and then burn the gas through the boiler to provide energy for the plant; installation of a biogas train to pipe biogas from the CALs to a central flare and then to the existing 10MW boiler; upgrade of waste water treatment plant (WWTP) with a new Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) unit.

www.wiley.com.au

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MORE than 300 Australian Leisure and Hospitality (ALH) Group pubs are now allowing patrons to use their smartphones instead of their wallets to pay for drinks and food after taking on the fast-moving Clipp app for bar tabs.

ALH premises around the country have been  signed on to Clipp, allowing consumers to open, view, share and pay their bar tab or restaurant bill securely and instantly through the app.

This adds to the almost 300 venues across Australia already using Clipp, an app started by Sydney entrepreneurs and a recent winner in the Tech23 ICT awards.

Clipp has been given a boost by the August 1 national move to phase out signatures on credit and debit card transactions. Clipp’s proprietary technology allows ALH Group venues to close any bar tab through its own existing POS software.

Greg Taylor, co-founder and chief operating officer of Clipp, said ALH Group’s adoption of the technology cemented Clipp’s position as the leader in the mobile payment solution for Australia’s hospitality industry.

“Having the ALH Group on board shows that more pubs and bars all over Australia are becoming aware of just how much easier we’re making it for them to accept payments through a smartphone,” Mr Taylor said.

“Essentially, we’re convenience creators. Staff at venues aren’t faced with the challenge of chasing a plastic card amongst a crowded bar and can instead focus on serving customers faster and more efficiently, which will improve the overall experience.”

Mr Taylor said Clipp was part fo the drive towards a cashless economy.

“Users face no additional cost when using Clipp - it’s free to download and use the app,” he said. “With Clipp, a user’s credit card details are stored securely within the app, so they no longer have to worry about their credit card which is sitting behind the bar, so they can continue to enjoy their night out.

“Clipp is also packed with useful features including a bar locator, the ability to review bars, and group tab sharing making it easier than ever to split bills and a built-in tipping functionality.”

ALH Group CEO Bruce Mathieson said the decision to integrate Clipp into many of Australia’s iconic pubs was logical given the benefits the technology provided to both venues and customers.

“From a business perspective, having our venues integrated with Clipp has already improved productivity in our venues,” Mr Mathieson said.

“Staff behind the bar are spending less time handling card transactions and instead are able to serve customers faster and more efficiently.

“As an industry leader in hospitality, we’re always looking at innovative ways to improve the experience at our pubs and bars, and having Clipp in our venues will do just that.”

Clipp is available for free on the Google Play and Apple App Store.

www.clipp.co

www.alhgroup.com.au

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PAYMENTS standard eftpos has its new centralised payments hub fully operational, opening up what managing director Bruce Mansfield claimed was a “new era for Australia’s most widely used payments network”.

The incumbent network has come under increasing pressure from new smartphone app start-ups and other fast-moving challengers such as Tyro Payments and eWay. Smartphone Apps like Clipp and Uber are proving disruptive to eftpos’s traditional business.

Even so, eftpos is far and away the most widely used card system in Australia with more than six million eftpos transactions each day at more than 500,000 merchants, using 760,000 eftpos terminals.

Mr Mansfield said Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, ING Direct, Suncorp Bank and Strategic Payments Services (SPS) were already connected to the hub, with ANZ to follow before the end of the year.

Mr Mansfield said the hub would replace a network of complex bilateral links between financial institutions and merchants that had existed since eftpos was first launched in Australia almost 30 years ago. The new infrastructure aimed to bring new eftpos payments products, such as online, contactless and mobile payments, to market significantly faster and more efficiently.

“Just 11 months after we signed a contract with FIS to build the eftpos Hub, we are now live with a number of financial institutions and processing eftpos CHQ and SAV transactions,” Mr Mansfield said.  “We expect all of our members to be connected to the hub by September 2015, marking a significant achievement in industry cooperation.

“This new centralised infrastructure will boost payments efficiency and innovation, helping to ensure that eftpos continues to be a local, trusted payments choice for Australians into the future, as we move to new technology platforms such as mobile and online. The hub also has the potential to carry other payments traffic and support industry initiatives.”

ANZ Banking Group general manager for deposits and mortgages, Brad Gravell, said, “We’re looking forward to working with eftpos on their new eftpos Hub solution which will help deliver industry-leading functionality and security with processing eftpos transactions.”

Suncorp Bank’s executive manager for payment systems, Paul Evans, said, “The eftpos Hub marks a significant change in Australian payments and Suncorp Bank is proud to be one of the first participants in the network.  The new hub will help drive payments innovation and efficiency across the industry for years to come.”

Head of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Access and Payment Systems, Michael O’Shea, said, “Bendigo and Adelaide Bank believe the eftpos centralised hub is an important component in maintaining a strong Australian card payments industry into the future.”

SPS managing director Simon Stephenson, said: “SPS is passionate about driving payment innovation. We are delighted, in cooperation with eftpos, Bendigo Adelaide Bank and ING Direct, to have successfully delivered the first Direct Connection to the eftpos Hub and to be a leading partner in this new payment era.”

www.eftposaustralia.com.au

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SHIPPING industry technology pioneer Safelash has taken out the top award in the 2014 Australian Technologies Competition.

Safelash invented a safer, cost-saving lashing system – the Targ Safelash System – that could save the shipping industry 10 billion litres of fuel a year and help prevent deaths and container losses at sea. It took home the Australian Technologies Competition (ATC) 2014 Company of the Year Award.

The Sydney-based company was born following a tragic death at a container port where the founder, Robin Bean was working in 2010. Mr Bean was compelled to do something about the global shipping problem of secure leashing,which injures hundreds of people each year and regularly causes fatalities.

Safelash CEO Robin Bean said such tragedies were “entirely unnecessary”. He said the Targ Safelash system is a simple, failsafe lash system that guarantees containers are secured, resulting in fewer container losses at sea and much quicker turnout times in and out of ports. Safelash is working with its first customers in Europe and Asia and have big plans to go global very quickly.

“We are thrilled to be named Technology Company of the Year and to have gained the experience from the Business Accelerator program,” Mr Bean said. “For us, this isn't about winning an award; it is an opportunity to get practical assistance and coaching to improve our business.

“We gained not only from an expert mentor who has great experience in start-ups, but also the benefit of meeting in a collegiate, positive environment where you can learn from the experiences of your peers as well as expert presenters and judges such as James O’Loghlin,” he said.

“The competition has already helped us take the next step in obtaining new investment both through becoming a finalist and from significant improvements in our business plan”.

The Australian Technologies Competition, now in its fourth year, has the Australian Department of Industry as its core partner and the principal sponsor is Autodesk’s  Cleantech Partner Program. With a long list of supporters including AusIndustry Group and Engineers Australia, the ATC is seen as the leading emerging technology business accelerator program in Australia.

Each year the competition receives hundreds of applicants for its eight month development program which culminates in recognising Australia’s best game-changing technology companies.

The 2014 ATC Showcase featured a suite of world-class inventions, including a life-saving shower, smaller batteries with up to 50 percent more storage, and carbon nanotube enriched concrete that is 200 times stronger than steel.

The entries were all judged by a panel of experts during the live finals to determine which companies have the greatest potential to become a global success story in their industry.

There were six industry winners. The Manufacturing Award went to Rheology Solutions; the Mining Technologies Award to Minnovare and the Built Environment Award went to CINTEP.

The Food Technologies Award was won by Microbiogen, the Energy Award by Raygen Resources and the Water Technologies Award went to Calix

The People’s Choice Award was also won by Raygen Resources and the Alumni Award by Aeratron.

Raygen Resources is the Melbourne-made solar power generation system that costs half the price and delivers twice as much power as alternative options.

Raygen’s product is so impressive that it is being imported by China for a solar project near Shanghai. The company also announced it had won a boost from its Chinese partner with an accelerated delivery of its $60 million deal with Intense Solar – a business partner introduced to the company through the 2013 ATC Trade Mission to China.

Competition organiser and managing director of Australian CleanTech, John O’Brien said, “The competition this year has been incredible. An excellent cross section of Australian technology businesses comes together for this annual program, which is being increasingly recognised as a successful platform for developing and showcasing cutting edge Australian technology companies and growing their global access.”

A highlight of the awards event was the entertaining keynote by Australian Matt Barrie, CEO of Australian internet sensation, Freelancer. He gave an inside view on how his team managed to “achieve world domination on a shoestring budget” turning a simple idea into a multi-billion dollar technology business.

“The rate of technology adoption is unparalleled in history – and accelerating. It is fantastic to see an initiative fostering home-grown talent and innovation here in Australia,” Mr Barrie said.

“If we play it right, technology will be the real growth opportunity for Australia in the future.”

Principal sponsor of the competition is Autodesk, a leading software company that strives to help people imagine, design and create a better world. In addition to offering highly subsidised access to its design software through the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program, the company mentors competition finalists on how they can use technology to optimise product.

www.austechcomp.com

MORE ON THE WINNERS

RAYGEN RESOURCES

Raygen Resources won the inaugural ATC People’s Choice Award.  

Developing the world’s lowest cost energy. Raygen’s Concentrated Solar Photovoltaics (CSPV) combines the best elements of two leading solar power technologies, without their shortcomings. CSPV power stations use mirrors to concentrate light onto a dense array of ultra-efficient photovoltaic cells, 1500 times more powerful that standard ones.

This system will produce clean energy with twice the efficiency of standard photovoltaics and much lower costs. World solar capacity is growing exponentially. A mass of 3GW of solar capacity was added in 2013 at a cost of over $100 billion. It is a huge market and Raygen is developing a genuine breakthrough product.

RHEOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Rheology Solutions Pty Ltd is a specialist sales and service organisation dedicated to the science of materials characterisation. They are the exclusive Australian distributor for the product names HAAKE, NESLAB and Thermo Scientific from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Optical Control Systems, Marimex Industries Corporation and Schleibinger Gerate range of equipment and instruments.

CINTEP

CINTEP’s Recycling Shower system is possibly the world’s first life-saving shower system. It reduces water and energy consumption from showering by 70 percent without reducing flow rate, temperature, or time in the shower. This can translate to a family household saving of $937 every year, along with 73,000 litres of water and 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide. Its potential to save lives however, was what caught the attention of the US Army. Now

in negotiations with CINTEP, the US Military estimates that this recycling shower could reduce operational fatalities by 20 percent due to the drastic reduction in supply convoys who primarily move large qualities of water to the front line.

MINNOVARE

Minnovare has found that by using the latest in military grade north seeking gyro technology, drill rig operators can use its Azimuth Aligner’s real time display to accurately align a rig in under five minutes and replace the need for GPS, compass, foresight backsight markers, pegs or flagging tape. Geologists and surveyors are no longer required to supervise surface or underground drill rig alignment setups.

By automating what is traditionally a manual and labour intensive process the Azimuth Aligner significantly improves ‘bit on bottom’ time, safety, efficiency and overall drilling productivity.

The Company was founded in 2012 for the purpose of developing, producing and distributing the Azimuth Aligner. As a result of the successful launch in Australia, Minnovare has now expanded use and distribution of the product internationally.

CALIX

Calix’s mission is to simplify how things are made. Refined minerals help make almost everything, and yet they are expensive and energy intensive to use. Calix has developed an elegant technology that creates mineral ‘popcorn’ – fluffy tiny mineral particles that combine more readily into products and innovative new materials, while capturing carbon dioxide. Calix’s first product-to-market is a magnesium-based fluid, a superior additive for the treatment of waste water, that delivers price and energy savings of at least 25 percent against current methods.

AERATRON

Aeratron has developed an energy saving, noise reducing fan-turbine technology suitable for applications in IT, server cooling, medical devices, defence, and many other applications.

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