Kiwi clean-tech ventures Terax and Vortex offer to green Hebei

It is not every day that your pre-revenue stage deep-tech start-ups get in front of 280,000 potential customers and investors. Pacific Channel portfolio companies, Terax Innovation and Vortex Power Systems were selected to present at the 2020 Hebei-Oceania Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Summit. Terax also captured the interest of China's leading economic newspaper, resulting in a feature in this article about the summit, which showcased Oceania technologies that could help make Hebei Province more energy efficient and greener.

Terax gave a keynote presentation on the development of its innovative method of converting and de-toxifying sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment plants, into usable products. Wastewater treatment plants produce 100m+ tonnes of sludge globally per annum. Currently, sludge is disposed of in environmentally unfriendly ways due to cost, either through incineration at high temperatures or landfill. Both methods are costly (up to $250 per tonne), harmful to the environment, and often hazardous and there is a strong need for a more economic and environmentally friendly solution.

Mark Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Terax said “We believe our technology, which was first envisaged at Scion and later proven in conjunction with Rotorua City could be a significant part of the solution China needs. Being invited to present at this year’s Summit gave us significant exposure to a pool of potential customers, all of whom have an interest in improving the environment, and to potential commercial partners”

Vortex Power Systems presented the attendees with its innovative proprietary zero-carbon method of capturing low-grade waste heat from thermal processes to generate electricity. The company’s solution is designed to operate in conjunction with existing thermal power plants and extracts the waste heat energy from generation currently held in cooling water streams. Vortex also gained a mention in the above article.

Perzaan Mehta, General Manager of Vortex Power Systems, summed up the scale of the opportunity "We are always so blown away with the size and scale of China every time we take part in events like these. The opportunity to build and grow relations and business within China is something we greatly value."

Additional to the aforementioned article, more than ten websites and other newspapers reported on the summit. It also received strong support from six key opinion leaders, including Kang Zhaohui, the host of CCTV Economic Channel.

Great work Lifei Wang for organising the opportunity and Dr Robert Powell, Mark Wang, Prof Richard Flay and Perzaan Mehta for your excellent presentations.