A/Prof Ernest Chua and Ecoline Solar wins IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2019

Congrats to A/Prof Ernest Chua and Ecoline Solar Pte Ltd for winning the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award for their collaborative project titled “Next Generation of Hybrid Air Conditioners for Tropics – Cooling with Heat”!

The award was presented at the World Engineers Summit (WES) 2019 Conference Dinner held on 29 August 2019 at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Their winning project is a jointly developed new generation, highly innovative hybrid solar-thermal air conditioner – an unconventional electrical compression machine that uses heat from the Sun and ambient surrounding to ease the electrical load of the energy-guzzling compressor.

Some of the key benefits of the innovative hybrid air conditioner include:

1. Increased sustainability and reduction in greenhouse emissions due to the absorption of the sun’s and ambient free energy;
2. Compared to some of the best inverted air conditioning systems in the market, the hybrid system realizes significant reduction in energy consumption spanning 30% to 55% with general return-on-investment of less than 2 years for the premium incurred;
3. No additional moving parts and small footprint incurred for the solar heat collector; and
4. Peak demand reduction – the hotter the sun, the more efficient the system becomes, hence offering more savings for consumers.

This collaborative project between Associate Professor Chua and Ecoline Solar clearly demonstrates how research done in NUS’s laboratories can immediately impact applications and help industries to become more competitive and value adding to their customers.

Asst Prof Shin Sunmi named among Nanoscale 2023 Emerging Investigators

Assistant Professor Shin Sunmi has been named among the Nanoscale 2023 Emerging Investigators by the journal Nanoscale, highlighting rising stars of nanoscience and nanotechnology research. Her paper, Enhanced far-field coherent thermal emission using mid-infrared bilayer metasurfaces, was featured by the journal in a themed collection of research contributions highlighting “the very best work from researchers in the early stages of

[Business Times] Engineering Singapore’s green future

Countries have pledged zero emissions by 2050 but the means to get there are vague. Businesses need specific details on the decarbonisation of economies to align their own strategies, to raise and make investments, and to participate with impact. To read the full article by Professor Seeram Ramakrishna and Dalson Chung: Engineering Singapore’s green future

[Straits Times] Smart recycling boxes that reward residents for sorting waste have cut contamination rate

A trial in Bishan and Sin Ming to collect recyclables using smart boxes has managed to cut the contamination rate of their contents to just 5 per cent – far lower than the national average of 40 per cent. Professor Seeram Ramakrishna (NUS Mechanical Engineering), who chairs the Circular Economy Taskforce at the National University