New to UAE Market

While companies from across the world are at Abu Dhabi’s World Future Energy Summit, many exhibitors are introducing new products to the UAE market. Here is what you can expect in the next few years.

Published: Thu 22 Jan 2009, 1:32 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 9:37 PM

1.Trash Money:

Waste produced by Sharjah residents will be hand sorted into recyclable and non-recyclable at Bee’ah’s new material reclamation facility, or MRF. Bee’ah will sell the recoverable material to companies that manufacture recycled goods.

In places like North America, high employment costs necessitate automated sorting, but Samer Kamel, Bee’ah’s managing director, said manual sorting will help the company recover more recyclable material. Bee’ah hopes to recover the cost of the plant within 4-6 years.

“If we were fully automated, we would reject a lot more material. By actually reverting to an older model you have an element of judgment.”

Kamel said Bee’ah’s biggest challenge is educating businesses and residents about recycling programmes.

2.Inbuilt Solar Panels:

One of the easiest ways for companies to reduce energy demand is to generate their own electricity with photovoltaic cells. Fixing the large, dark rectangular panels to a building’s roof can interfere with its design. Last year, Atkins announced plans for its lighthouse building, an A-frame shaped strucuture that would feature glass panels with integrated photovoltaic cells.

British company Romag, which works through Sharjah-based Gulf International Trading Group, sandwiches square photovoltaic panels between two layers of glass. The glass panels are then used where normal glass would be used, what it calls building integrated photovoltaic cells.

Romag CEO Lyn Miles would not confirm any projects, but said her company has been talking to developers of the Lighthouse building.

Miles said her company will host workshops for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority in the next several weeks to explain the technology’s impact. DEWA officials were originally apprehensive about attaching anything to their existing grid, fearful that it could cause safety problems, something Miles said is normal.

“Every utility we go to, the first answer I always get is ‘no’. Once we talk about buildings, it becomes a non-problem.’Äù

3.Hydrogen Powered Forklifts:

“This is the future,” Gulf International Trading Group CEO Khalid Mohammed Ibrahim Al Midfa said, gesturing to a picture of a blue forklift in a factory. The equipment looked conventional, but Al Midfa’s company recently partnered with German company Hydrogenics to bring hydrogen technologies to the UAE.

The technology converts water into hydrogen and oxygen and uses hydrogen for power.

“We believe the market in general is changing, and acknowledge that renewable energy needs to be seriously considered even though fossile fuel is still there,” said Dr Bernd Pischak, the general manager of Hydrogenics.

Hydrogen fuel cells were a major environmental talking point for car manufacturers years ago, but they have not materialised. Pischak said he sees demand in industrial vehicles, buses and as a resource for backup energy.

emily@khaleejtimes.com