We interviewed Martin Zhu from i2Cool. Martin is CEO at i2Cool. i2Cool aims to promote a novel energy-free and environment-friendly passive radiative cooling paint (patented in Hong Kong) for energy-saving and decarbonization. The self-developed and high-performance paint features the edge in solar reflection and thermal emission, resulting its significant sub-ambient cooling effect, without consuming electricity and ozone-depleting refrigerants.
Your company was selected out of 240+ applications. What has the Emaar Innovation Challenge meant for your company?
We are excited when we know Emaar was seeking to collaborate with startups to jointly address environmental challenges. This is what we are doing. Environmental issues have become a global challenge. Global carbon neutrality is our common goal and i2Cool firmly fights for it. Emaar is one of the world's largest real estate developers, the largest developers in Dubai. The real estate and construction industries have a substantial impact on the environment. Our electricity-free cooling technology provides Emaar with cooling solutions to reduce the temperature of the building. We know the Middle East has a hot climate, and the demand for cooling is huge, so the energy consumption is also staggering. During the summer in the UAE, the use of air conditioners accounts for 70% of the total household electricity bill. Assuming that all the buildings and outdoor facilities in UAE have applied with i2Cool electricity-free cooling technology, there are 12.18 billion kWh can be saved annually, equivalent to planting 203 million trees. We are honored to be selected, which is a great opportunity for us to explore the Middle East market. Emaar's huge global market and influence are definitely a strong boost for us.
How were the overall days for you in Dubai (networking, meeting at Emaar, fun part with Burj Khalifa visit and boat trip)?
It was definitely a wonderful and fruitful trip in Dubai. Together with other excellent participants and our best organizers, we had a pleasant and unforgettable few days. Wouter and the team have orchestrated several events to take us all from acquaintances to friends. Get to know each other deeper in conversation after conversation. We have fun on the boat, we laugh heartily at the bar, we met excellent friends from different countries.
The organizers also help us know more about Emaar and build a bridge between participants and Emaar.
How important was the pitch training given by Corrinke Boon (online and in Dubai)?
We sincerely thank Corrinke for her help. The day before the demo day, we had a pitch training in Dubai. Corrinke pointed out where we should improve, including technical descriptions should be easier for the audience to understand, add more interaction with the audience, etc. We got many useful feedback from Corrinke, which really helped us a lot with our presentation.
And of course, how was the Demo Day?
It's definitely an exciting day! 14 outstanding companies gathered in Dubai for the same goal. We were immersed in the wonderful pitch. We are so honored to have been selected as winners. We would like to thank the judges, Emaar, audience, organizers, and all who were present, we've had such an amazing day together. We got a lot of great advice from the demo day. The judges suggested we provide some suggestions and methods to architects to reduce the cooling load of air conditioners, thereby reducing the number of air conditioners installed. Participating in demo day let us realize that the sustainability of water resources is also an important topic in the Middle East in addition to the cooling needs. From this, we began to think about the combination of our technology and water harvesting from atmosphere. These suggestions and discoveries help us improve our products and services. After the pitch, we join the cocktail evening together. We exchange our ideas and share our feelings, people sent each other their best wishes, I felt like we were a family.
What does your company do?
I2Cool Limited is a start-up technology company, incubated by HK TECH 300 in the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks. Our team has developed the electricity-free cooling technology, it could provide cooling effect for the applied objects by strong solar reflection and radiatively dissipating heat to cold outer space through the mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength range. Electricity-free cooling paint (iPaint) is the first product launched by i2Cool, reducing the energy consumption of buildings by reducing the cooling load of AC systems. Different from traditional paint, iPaint has high solar reflectivity of 95.06% and high thermal emission of 95.2% for effective cooling effect. The surface temperature and the indoor temperature applied with iPaint can be effectively reduced by 40 °C and 10 °C, respectively, equivalent to 42% energy-saving for air cooling.
How can people contact you?
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/i2cool-limited/
Website: http://www.i2cool.com
Instagram: i2coolhk
Email: info@i2cool.com
Tel：(HK) +852 - 5705 8603 / (CN) +86 -180 3309 4332
Address：(HK) Unit 511, 5/F, Building 19W, No. 19, Science Park West Avenue, Hong Kong