The materials can convert temperature difference directly into electricity (thermoelectric effect), and therefore are often referred to as an energy material. The novelty of our material, compared to the commercially available counterpart, which is rare and toxic, is that it is more environmentally friendly.
Meet TEGnology, one of the award winners of Tech Tour Nordic 2021. They also took part in Future22. We are speaking to Hao Yin, CEO, to tell us more about the company.
Q: Introduce yourself and tell us more about your current position and company?
A: Hi, this is Hao from TEGnology, a spin-out company from the university, based on a family of patents on (at that time) state-of-the-art materials and manufacturing methods, which I co-authored.
The materials can convert temperature difference directly into electricity (thermoelectric effect), and therefore are often referred to as energy materials. The novelty of our material, compared to the commercially available counterpart, which is rare and toxic, is that it is more environmentally friendly. However, due to the low conversion efficiency, thermoelectric materials were only used in niche markets, such as space, military, and unique industrial applications. It had not changed much; despite the R&D efforts we have spent for years. Commercialization is still a common challenge for the thermoelectric society, which consists of thousands of researchers from top research institutes globally. This is also a typical challenge for any “emerging” technologies, i.e., how to accelerate commercialization before it becomes irrelevant or outraced by competing technologies.
Many attempts have been made to use thermoelectric materials as an independent power source or as a way of energy recovery, either from industrial waste heat or exhaust gas of heavy vehicles. But the pitiful conversion efficiency makes the ROI too long to be accepted by most users, both industrial and consumers. Our approach to tackling the challenge was to re-exam the value proposition of the technology and identify the use cases where the efficiency of the conversion is not critical. That leads us to the current market, which is the power supply for IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) devices, where sensors are often installed in hard-to-reach places and are supposed to work autonomously for decades. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is not a new concept either. But the exponential growth in the number of IoT (internet of things) devices under the background of digitalization, as well as the continuous decrease in energy consumption in microelectronics, have made energy harvesting for IoT more favourable than ever. The benefits lie not only in battery life extension but also in new possibilities such as big data, machine learning, predictive maintenance, SaaP (Service as a Product) and so on.
To pursue those opportunities, TEGnology has changed its strategy from developing technology to co-creating solutions with customers. Since then, we have launched several products for pharmaceutical plants, machinery manufacturers and utilities with pipeline transportation. All products are self-powered by the heat from local processes.
Q: Can you share a story of a client using your product/service and what influence it had on them?
A: One of our customers, Novo Nordisk claims our self-powered elevated temperature alert is “an extremely effective way of locating dangerous areas” and makes their production site a safer place to work. A utility company sees the potential of our solution in digitalizing “their energy transportation and monitoring, as well as reducing operation cost and increasing reliability”. For them, the most sustainable energy form is to increase the efficiency of existing systems.
Q: How do you see your company making a difference in the future?
A: But does it mean TEGnology only does market analysis and consulting? No, we still consider our core competence to be in the optimization of thermoelectric materials and the design/manufacture of generation components. What differentiates us from other service/product providers, most of whom have a fully integrated IoT solution? TEGnology wants to become an OEM supplier, that mass produces tailor-made thermoelectric generation (TEG) components. That is clearly described in our vision: Use state-of-the-art thermal energy harvesting technology to accelerate digitalization. We have patented a novel design on flexible TEGs, which is light weighted and bendable. They generate twice the amount of energy in the unit area under the same conditions, compared to the commercially available TEGs. The manufacturing method is compatible with industrial standards, which makes up-scaling feasible and preferable.
We are in our first round of fundraising (€ 1.5 mln) with investors primarily from the Nordic countries. On top of that, we have also secured soft funding from the EU (European Union) and a Danish agency for nearly € 1.5 mln for the coming years.
Q: How have you benefitted from the Tech Tour events and activities? What do you consider is the best asset of the Tech Tour’s activities?
A: Tech Tour has provided a stage for TEGnology to expose its profile, share its exciting achievement and build up trust in the startup ecosystem. There are also rich opportunities to learn business principles, follow the megatrends, and polish the pitch and network, which are all important for startups. TEGnology has been on the Tech Tour for a few years and will stay for longer, regardless of the stages. We find it a good place to keep up the momentum and maintain the “startup spirit.”
