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The Power of R&D Collaboration HKPC and AEL’s Food TranSmarter Wins the 2nd Runner-Up in “IMechE – Mechanical Innovation Award 2021-2022”

(Hong Kong, 4 July 2022) The “Food TranSmarter” developed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), won the 2nd Runner-Up in the “IMechE – Mechanical Innovation Award 2021-2022”, an internationally acclaimed award that recognises projects with significant contributions to the advancement of the mechanical practice organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Hong Kong Branch.

Jointly developed by HKPC and AEL (International Holdings) Limited, the “Food TranSmarter” was funded by the Public Sector Trial Scheme under the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) of the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of the HKSAR Government, supporting the production of its prototype for trial run at the campus restaurants of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is the first-ever system in Hong Kong to automatically liquefy food waste into slurry. By a combination of mechanical and biological actions, it can extract 97% of the organic matters into slurry at source without tedious food waste separation. The slurry rather than the messy food waste can be easily and effectively delivered by air-tight tankers to centralised facilities for recycling, offering a simple, clean and hygienic solution to the collection and shipping of food waste.

Dr Lawrence Cheung, Chief Innovation Officer of HKPC, said, “HKPC strives to work closely with industry, academic and research sectors to excel our profound strength in R&D and experience in serving the industry, fostering industry-wide adoption of GreenTech and achieving a win-win situation of economic and sustainability development. The R&D collaboration with AEL is a great success to demonstrate the application of local GreenTech in the community. We hope that the project can serve as a reference for the industry, so as to facilitate the carbon neutrality development in Hong Kong. HKPC will continue to support the National 14th Five-Year Plan in bolstering Hong Kong as an international I&T hub and let Hong Kong invention shine on world stage.”

Mr Jude Chow, CEO of AEL (International Holdings) Limited, said, “I am pleased to see that the joint effort of HKPC and AEL has achieved such outstanding achievement. I would like to thank HKPC’s team for their R&D efforts and dedication in coming up with this creative applied solution for the industry and the community. The ‘Food TranSmarter’ is advantageous to the environment as it greatly simplifies food waste collection. All kinds of food waste can be sorted and pretreated at source into slurry for easy transportation and conversion into renewable energy, animal feeds, etc. We will further work together to upgrade and develop the system and expand its adoption from Hong Kong to the Mainland market, opening a new chapter for this local GreenTech R&D to further flourish and popularise.”

IMechE is one of the world’s fastest growing professional engineering institutions with over 120,000 members headquartered in London with operations in over 140 countries. The Institution has a substantial membership base in Hong Kong, supported by the Institution's Hong Kong Branch.

For more details about IMechE Hong Kong Branch, please go to: https://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/north-east-asia/hong-kong/

For more information about the Award, please refer to: https://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/north-east-asia/hong-kong/awards

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The award-winning “Food TranSmarter” offers a simple, clean and hygienic solution for food-waste-to-energy.The award-winning “Food TranSmarter” offers a simple, clean and hygienic solution for food-waste-to-energy.

HKPC and AEL’s R&D project – “Food TranSmarter” wins the 2nd runner-up in “IMechE – Mechanical Innovation Award 2021-2022”.HKPC and AEL’s R&D project – “Food TranSmarter” wins the 2nd runner-up in “IMechE – Mechanical Innovation Award 2021-2022”.